What’s new for designers, May 2016

7 min readMay 10, 2016

In this month’s edition of what’s new for designers and developers, we’ve included website builders, new CMSs, CSS frameworks, pattern guides, color resources, email marketing collections, productivity tools, and much more. And as always, we’ve also included some awesome new free fonts!

Almost everything on the list this month is free, with a few high-value paid apps and tools also included. They’re sure to be useful to designers and developers, from beginners to experts.

If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to [@cameron_chapman](http://twitter.com/cameron_chapman) to be considered!

StringBean

StringBean is a featherweight CSS framework that comes in at just 4K. It uses a 24-point grid system rather than the more common 12-point.

Gutenberg

Gutenberg is a starter kit that brings meaning and craftsmanship to web typography. It’s flexible and simple to use.

Frend

Frend is a collection of modern front-end components. They’re modest and dependency-free.

RichCSS

RichCSS is a clean and reusable object oriented CSS framework. It allows for reusability of your CSS, versioning, and more.

Microsoft Bot Framework

Microsoft Bot Framework lets you build and connect intelligent bots that can interact with your users wherever they may be.

Min

Min is a “smarter” web broser. It uses DuckDuckGo for search, includes a calculator, and more. You can even jump to any site using fuzzy search and get suggestions before you start typing.

Runner

Runner helps you speed up your Sketch workflow. It gives you an intuitive interface that supercharges your daily workflow.

Flexbox Patterns

Flexbox Patterns are a collection of user interface patterns for Flexbox. It includes examples and source code.

Email Toolbox

Email Toolbox is a collection of hand-picked resources for email marketers and designers. It includes links to people, courses, writings on email design, and more.

Material Color

Material Color is a material design color palette tool. You can view by code, hex value, or RGB.

Microsoft Flow

Microsoft Flow is Microsoft’s version of IFTT. Create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services for notifications, data collection, and more.

Bookmark

Bookmark is a drag and drop website builder that’s easy to use and creates beautiful, responsive websites.

MJML App

The MJML App lets you leverage the power of MJML directly from your desktop. You can import and manage templates, edit email with live rendering, and more.

Simplified JavaScript Jargon

Simplified JavaScript Jargon is a community-sourced JavaScript buzzword glossary.

UTM Builder

If you need to build UTM tags for your links, UTM Builder makes it easy. Just answer the step-by-step questionnaire and it generates your link for you.

Create

Create is a powerful mobile creativity and graphic design app. It lets you use shapes, icons, typography, lines, photos, and more.

Stashes.io

Stashes.io lets you build your own collections of resources to refer back to or share.

Showbox

Showbox makes it super easy to create studio-quality videos right in your browser, in just minutes.

Sympli

Sympli is a collaboration platform that works with Xcode, Android Studio, Sketch, and Photoshop. Just design with Photoshop or Sketch, export to Sympli, and quickly implement your design.

Fontea

Fontea gives you access to all 700 Google fonts in Photoshop (and soon in Sketch). It’s a plugin, so it doesn’t interfere with your usual Photoshop workflow.

Maki

Maki is a set of icons for map designers. It includes 114 icons for things like parks, museums, and places of worship.

FourZeroFour

FourZeroFour is a gallery of the most awesome 404 pages from around the web.

Smartmockups

Smartmockups is a collection of the best free product mockups, ready and waiting for your designs.

Carrd

Carrd makes it easy to create simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for anything you want. Just choose a template to start from.

Logo Foundry

Logo Foundry is a logo maker app that works right on your phone. It includes over 6000 symbols, shapes, and icons to use.

Flexbox Grid

Flexbox Grid is a responsive grid system based on the flex display property.

Fwrdto.me

Frwrdto.me is a little bookmarklet that lets you send web pages to your inbox with just one click.

Pitch Card

Pitch Card lets you pitch your idea in 200 characters or less and get quick feedback. Share with just your friends or with everyone via social media.

Sherbit

Sherbit lets you analyze and understand the data your apps and devices collect about you. You can connect and visualize your data to find meaningful insights about yourself.

Pagekit

Pagekit is a modern open source CMS that’s intuitive, modular, and flexible. It has a simple UI, built-in marketplace, and is built with Symfony components.

Worona

Worona makes it simple to turn your WordPress site into a mobile app for iOS or Android. It lets users read your posts when they’re offline, sends push notifications, and more.