Designing on a Budget

Designing on a budget 💰

Courtesy of @uxsteven
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Here are a number of tools that I use as a freelancer/co-founder when I’m looking to keep my budget pretty tight 🤷‍♂️
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🟢 Communication
Slack — Free
Keybase — Free (Blockchain + Crypto friendly)
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🟢 Project Management
Trello — Free
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🟢 Backend
BaaS — Firebase — Free
Hosting (simple) — Site Ground
Hosting (advanced) — Digital Ocean
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🟢 File Sharing
Google Drive — Free
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🟢 Analytics
Hotjar — Free
Google Analytics — Free
Facebook — Free
Firebase — Free
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🟢 Design Tools
Adobe XD — Free
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🟢 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. It’s easy to see what we’re 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 15GB’s 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 it’s 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 — useful designer tools for everyday usage:

Leadpages — lets you build beautiful, high-converting websites, unlimited landing pages, pop-up forms you can add to your other websites.
FlyWheel — is managed WordPress hosting built for designers and creative agencies.
Crello — a free graphic design editor that helps create images for social media, print, and other web-based graphics.
FlowKit — allows designers to create frighteningly fast user flows within Sketch and Figma.

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