Adobe alternatives for UX designers
For the last decade, I’ve been trying to find apps that would replace adobe programs in my workflow. I had two main reasons for this:
- I never liked the user experience in adobe p[rograms, everything was too complicated to figure as those programs had much more features than I needed.
- It was too expensive for my student/freelancer budget to pay monthly for Adobe products throughout the years.
Since I started working on my UX projects, I have to admit that 99% of the time, I’m doing everything in Figma. We all know how unique, easy, and versatile Figma is when it comes to UX Design or even vector graphics.
But sometimes I need to edit Pictures or make illustrations on my iPad; that’s when these other apps come in handy:
- Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is like a fake photoshop with an improved and more intuitive UI that costs $40. Yes, it’s not cheap, and it doesn’t have many features that Photoshop provides. It’s also a one-time payment, and it can do enough for me to edit my pictures professionally. The biggest downside of the Pixelmator Pro is that it only works on macs.
2. Vectornator
Even though I mostly use Figma for my vectors, I love to use Vectornator on my iPad Pro when I’m trying to create some illustrations. It’s a great experience to create those shapes using the apple pencil; it feels more organic to make art this way. Also, my main computer is an M1 mac mini, and the only portable device I have is my iPad Pro (Figma doesn’t work on iPad)
3. Apple Motion
I’m passionate about making animations. After Effects Lottie integrations is fantastic, but what’s not so great about it: is the price tag, especially when you are not a filmmaker. I use apple motion for creating animations, and I paid only $50 once.
These are the three go-to apps that have saved me $ over the years. If you are a UX designer or a content creator who is already using apple products, these apps will make life easier.
