In today's fast-paced digital landscape, having access to modern and capable design tools is crucial for developers aiming to create exceptional UI/UX experiences.
However, finding the right tools on the web can be overwhelming, with countless options that vary in quality and functionality.
In this article, I decided to simplify your search by curating a list of 16 essential resources across a variety of domains including icons, illustrations, colors, gradients, fonts, mockups, utilities, and learning resources.
Each tool is accompanied by a brief description, direct link, image preview, practical use cases, and pricing information, giving you a quick overview on the go.
I hope that this article will introduce some valuable additions to your toolkit, helping you elevate your next design projects to new heights!
1. Vectopus
Vectopus is a versatile design resource platform that offers a massive collection of icons, illustrations, 3D elements, and stickers tailored to the needs of web designers.
The platform is a time-saver for designers, offering customizable resources that blend seamlessly into any project while ensuring consistency and creative flair.
Some of the best features include:
⭐ Diverse Icon Library: A vast collection of high-quality icons available in various styles and formats.
⭐ Unique Illustrations: A comprehensive set of hand-crafted illustrations that suit different aesthetics and design themes.
⭐ 3D Elements: Cutting-edge 3D objects to add depth and dimension to your designs, perfect for modern interfaces.
⭐ Editable Stickers: Fun and customizable stickers to bring your design to life, ideal for apps or playful web pages.
⭐ Customizable Formats: Resources available in multiple formats (SVG, PNG, etc.), ensuring compatibility with any design tool.
Use cases:
Designers can use Vectopus to quickly source icons, illustrations, and 3D elements, ensuring their projects stand out with high-quality visuals.
This tool is especially useful for enhancing UI/UX designs during the development of websites, apps, or digital products.
Pricing: Free plan available, with premium subscriptions offering access to more exclusive assets.
Thanks to the Vectopus team for sponsoring this article!
🎨 Colors
Colors play a crucial role in UI/UX design as they set the tone, evoke emotions, and guide users' attention.
Choosing the right color combinations can enhance the overall user experience and make your design more visually appealing.
2. Realtime Colors
Realtime Colors is an interactive color palette generator.
It allows designers to experiment with color combinations in real-time, providing instant feedback on how different color schemes work together.
Use cases:
Designers can use the tool to quickly test and refine color palettes, ensuring that the colors chosen for a project are harmonious and effective.
This tool is especially useful during the early stages of the design process when establishing a visual identity.
Pricing: Free to use.
3. Happy Hues
Happy Hues is a color palette inspiration tool that provides context-specific color schemes.
It offers curated color palettes along with examples of how each palette can be used in UI design, helping designers visualize the practical application of colors.
Use cases:
This tool is perfect for designers who want to ensure that their color choices are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional.
Happy Hues helps bridge the gap between theoretical color selection and practical UI application.
Pricing: Free to use.
4. Tint Mint
Tint Mint is an advanced color palette generator with a focus on creating harmonious color schemes.
It provides designers with a range of tools to create, tweak, and refine color palettes. The tool helps generate tints, shades, and tones of base colors, making it easy to craft cohesive color systems.
Use cases:
Tint Mint is perfect for designers who want to create well-balanced color schemes.
Its intuitive features make it easy to adjust hues and brightness, ensuring that every color combination feels intentional and polished.
Pricing: Free to use.
🌈 Gradients
Gradients add depth, dimension, and a modern touch to UI designs.
They can transform a flat design into something visually engaging and dynamic, making them an essential element in contemporary web design.
5. MSHR
MSHR is a tool for generating complex, mesh gradients.
It allows designers to create intricate gradient patterns that add a unique texture and depth to web designs. The tool provides a wide range of customization options to create bespoke gradients.
Use cases:
MSHR is ideal for designers looking to add an extra layer of visual interest to backgrounds or UI elements.
The gradients generated can be used to create eye-catching hero sections or to subtly enhance the overall aesthetic of a webpage.
Pricing: Free to use.
6. Mesh Gradients
Mesh Gradients tool is a gradient generator focused on creating smooth, flowing mesh gradients.
It allows for the creation of gradients that blend seamlessly, giving designs a fluid and organic feel. This tool simplifies the process of generating high-quality gradients with minimal effort.
👉 https://magicpattern.design/tools/mesh-gradients
Use cases:
This tool is perfect for designers who want to create soft, aesthetically pleasing backgrounds or overlays that add a subtle yet sophisticated touch to their web designs.
Pricing: Free with premium features available.
7. Gradient Style
Gradient Style is an online tool for creating complex, custom gradients.
It allows designers to build and fine-tune gradient styles, offering multiple customization options such as angle, color stops, and transparency.
Use cases:
This tool is great for designers who need to create unique and eye-catching gradients quickly.
Whether for hero sections, backgrounds, or buttons, Gradient Style helps to craft smooth transitions between colors, adding depth and texture to your designs.
Pricing: Free to use.
🔠 Fonts
Fonts are a key component of UI/UX design, influencing readability, branding, and the overall visual hierarchy.
The right font choice can make a design more engaging and user-friendly.
8. Fontjoy
Fontjoy is a font pairing generator that uses machine learning to suggest font combinations.
It helps designers find harmonious font pairings for headings, body text, and accents by offering dynamic suggestions based on the contrast or similarity of fonts, ensuring a cohesive typography system.
Use cases:
Fontjoy is perfect for designers who want to quickly find complementary font combinations for their projects.
It is especially useful for web designers working on branding, landing pages, or any UI that requires thoughtful typography choices to improve user experience.
Pricing: Free to use.
9. Fontshare
Fontshare is a free font library offering a curated collection of high-quality typefaces.
It provides access to a wide range of fonts that can be used across different web projects, allowing designers to select the perfect typeface for their design needs.
Use cases:
Fontshare is ideal for designers looking to enhance their projects with distinctive typography.
Whether for headers, body text, or call-to-action buttons, the fonts available can be used to improve readability and brand consistency.
Pricing: Free to use.
10. FreeFaces
FreeFaces is a gallery of free, open-source fonts curated for designers.
It offers a selection of unique and versatile fonts that are free to use for both personal and commercial projects, helping designers find the right font without budget constraints.
Use cases:
This tool is perfect for designers who need access to a variety of fonts without compromising on quality.
It’s particularly useful for creating cohesive typography systems across a website or application.
Pricing: Free to use.
📱 Mockups
Mockups are vital in the design process, allowing designers to present their work in a realistic context.
They help clients and stakeholders visualize how a final product will look and function, making it easier to get feedback and make necessary adjustments.
11. Shots.so
Shots is a mockup generator that helps designers showcase their UI designs in a realistic environment.
It provides a variety of device mockups, allowing designers to create high-quality presentations of their work. With Shots, designers can easily place their designs into various device frames, creating professional and polished mockups.
Use cases:
It is perfect for designers who need to present their work in a real-world context.
Whether for client presentations, portfolio pieces, or marketing materials, Shots helps bring UI designs to life by placing them in relatable, everyday scenarios.
Pricing: Free to use.
12. Screenshots.pro
Screenshots is a tool for capturing high-resolution screenshots and generating mockups.
It allows designers to take crisp, clean screenshots of their work and instantly place them into device mockups, creating a polished and professional presentation.
Use cases:
This tool is ideal for designers who need to quickly create mockups without spending a lot of time on setup.
It is especially useful for creating consistent, high-quality visuals for presentations, social media, or online portfolios.
Pricing: Free with premium features available.
🚀 Utilities
Utilities are essential tools that streamline the design process by offering a range of functions that help designers work more efficiently.
From generating assets to simplifying tasks, these tools are indispensable for optimizing your workflow.
13. Omatsuri
Omatsuri is a web-based collection of front-end development and design tools.
It provides a variety of utilities, such as CSS generators, SVG compressors, color pickers, and more, all in one place. This makes it a go-to resource for designers who need quick access to different tools without switching between multiple apps.
Use cases:
Omatsuri is perfect for designers looking to streamline their workflow by having all essential tools in one place.
Whether you need to optimize images, generate gradients, or manage SVG files, Omatsuri offers a quick and easy solution.
Pricing: Free to use.
14. Superdesigner
Superdesigner is a collection of simple yet powerful design generators.
It offers tools for creating unique shapes, patterns, gradients, and more, allowing designers to quickly generate assets that enhance their projects. The interface is user-friendly, making it easy to experiment and create custom designs.
Use cases:
Superdesigner is ideal for designers who need to quickly generate visual assets like patterns, backgrounds, or unique shapes.
It’s particularly useful for creating custom design elements that can add a distinctive touch to any project.
Pricing: Free to use.
📚 Learning
Continuous learning is key to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving field of UI/UX design.
These resources offer valuable insights, tutorials, and best practices that help designers refine their skills and stay updated with the latest trends.
15. Shortcuts.design
Shortcuts is a comprehensive library of keyboard shortcuts for popular design tools.
It provides designers with a curated collection of keyboard shortcuts for tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, and more, helping them to work faster and more efficiently by mastering these shortcuts.
Use cases:
This resource is perfect for designers looking to improve their productivity by learning the most effective shortcuts for their favorite design tools.
It’s an excellent way to speed up repetitive tasks and streamline the design process.
Pricing: Free to use.
16. Good Practices
Good Practices is a platform that curates design guidelines and best practices.
It offers a collection of actionable tips, case studies, and guidelines that help designers create better, more user-friendly interfaces. The focus is on practical advice that can be applied to real-world projects.
👉 https://goodpractices.design
Use cases:
Good Practices is ideal for designers who want to ensure their work aligns with industry standards and best practices.
It’s particularly useful for refining design decisions, improving user experience, and staying informed about what works best in UI/UX design.
Pricing: Free to use.
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Top comments (22)
I have just recently used Realtime Colors for one of my project and it was really dope. Great share as always Madza!
By the way, for those who're looking for more, here's another curation to find many more web design resources: 130+ Best Web Design Tools
My pleasure and happy to hear that!
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Awesome collection
Happy to hear that, hope it was useful!
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bookmarked already.
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