10 useful apps for designers
I’m assuming most of you use the big apps like Dropbox, Drive, Sketch and Craft I’m not going to get into those. Instead I’m going to focus on the lesser known apps that I constantly use.
Jumpcut
One of the most underrated apps. I hit the hotkey for this roughly 20 times an hour. It keeps a record of everything you’ve copied to your clipboard. I have it set to 40 clippings but you can crank that up it you’re doing some intense code editing or writing.
Divvy
This app works great for organizing your windows quickly and precisely. I use it for putting my Sketch document to be set to 90% of the screen and a list of changes to the other 10%.
Monosnap
About 6 months ago I had to work with developers remotely and it was a constant battle reporting bugs. If you’ve ever had to do this you know it can be painful trying to describe the bug, how to replicate it and what to expect. I used this to record a video, upload it and send them the link. I worked better and we were able to report bugs much faster.
1Password
This is usually the first app I recommend to someone even people that aren’t designers. If you’ve ever forgot your password or have been hacked because your password was too week this is for you. There’s even a mobile app so you can keep your passwords with you at all times.
Unibox
This is the only mail app I can use. Why is it so great? It organizes your email by who sent it, like every other messaging app in the world. So if Burt Reynolds emails me 3 times today I don’t see 3 different messages from 3 Burt Reynolds I see one message thread from 1 Burt Reynolds, make sense?
Wunderlist
I’ve tried a lot of list making apps and this one does the most while not letting all the features make it feel cluttered. It lets me set due dates or reminders when I need them, it lets me set subtasks and edit the list item by clicking on them (simple thing but a lot of apps don’t do this — Basecamp I’m looking at you).
Thrive
The best app for creating invoices and time tracking if you’re a freelance designer or just do a couple side projects. I even hooked it up to my Stripe account so clients can pay with their credit cards.
Sketchrunner
This app is great for navigating large Sketch documents with multiple pages/symbols/artboards. It’s also great for inserting symbols quickly without going through the menu.
Typeface
I searched for an app that could let me preview a folder of fonts that weren’t installed on my computer after Fontcase died. It’s super cheap and does exactly what I need it to.
Codekit
Ok so this is technically an app for developers but if you’re a designer that works in the browser or is just getting started with code this app is huge. It compiles SASS and has browser refreshing built in so you can see your changes live (can’t explain how big this was for me when I first started).
I’m always on the lookout for more ways to make my design process more efficient. I spend a lot of time harassing designers on Twitter, Dribbble and Product Hunt asking them “Hey, how did you make that?” so let me know if you think there’s anything missing from this list.
