Designing on a Budget
Designing on a budget π°
Courtesy of @uxsteven
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Here are a number of tools that I use as a freelancer/co-founder when Iβm looking to keep my budget pretty tight π€·ββοΈ
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π’ Communication
Slack β Free
Keybase β Free (Blockchain + Crypto friendly)
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π’ Project Management
Trello β Free
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π’ Backend
BaaS β Firebase β Free
Hosting (simple) β Site Ground
Hosting (advanced) β Digital Ocean
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π’ File Sharing
Google Drive β Free
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π’ Analytics
Hotjar β Free
Google Analytics β Free
Facebook β Free
Firebase β Free
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π’ Design Tools
Adobe XD β Free
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π’ Note taking
Notes (iOS)
COMMUNICATION
Slack
Communication is key. I rely on slack because widely adopted (especially overseas), easy to use, and their mobile app is top notch.
Bonus:
Try Keybase, really good blockchain-based encrypted communication tool that also doubles
PROJECT MGMT
Trello is an amazingly simple card-based project management tool. This tool keeps all of my projects with my developers organized. Itβs easy to see what weβre working on and what is slipping behind.
Tip:
This is a great tool for remote teams.
BACKEND
Firebase gives you file hosting, authentication, database, analytics, push notification, ads, and in-app messaging all in one sleek platform.
Additionally, I use SiteGround for all basic hosting, email, etc. and DigitalOcean or AWS for anything more advanced.
FILE SHARING
Google Drive is a solid choice when you need to share files and control access. By default, just for having a Gmail address, you get 15GBβs worth of storage.
Google Drive is close to on-par with Dropbox that you can get and it also has a solid API for all you coders.
ANALYTICS
Google Analytics is a staple in the industry which makes it a must to have.
Facebook analytics (though the data is not as robust as pre 2018).
HotJar is a behavior analytics and user feedback service that includes heat maps, session recordings, and surveys.
DESIGN TOOLS
Adobe XD is a phenomenal prototyping, designing, and layout tool when you consider that itβs free and integrates seamlessly into your other Adobe products.
Another tool caught my eye recently called, Figma, this is a great tool as well and has a similar feature set as Adobe XD or Sketch.
Bonus β useful designer tools for everyday usage:
Leadpages β lets you build beautiful, high-converting websites, unlimited landing pages, pop-up forms you can add to your other websites.
FlyWheel β is managed WordPress hosting built for designers and creative agencies.
Crello β a free graphic design editor that helps create images for social media, print, and other web-based graphics.
FlowKit β allows designers to create frighteningly fast user flows within Sketch and Figma.
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