What Tools Do UX Designers Use?

UX Designers use a range of tools, as each step of the UX design process requires a different set of tools, some quite specialized, and others general-purpose.

Early in the ideation phase, nothing beats good old pen and paper—88 percent of UX Designers begin here, according to BrainStation’s Digital Skills Survey, although 72 percent of respondents also incorporate a range of digital tools into their process at this stage.

What Is the Best Wireframing Tool?

Sketch is the clear frontrunner among wireframing tools, as it is used by 66 percent of UX Designers—but plenty of other tools make the list as well; 44 percent of respondents also cited Illustrator, with InVision Studio, Adobe XD, Axure, Figma, and Marvel rounding out the category.

For interface design tools, the list was similar—with Sketch cited by 64 percent of respondents—but with Photoshop taking the place of Illustrator, at 43 percent. Photoshop and Illustrator are excellent companion tools, with the former dedicated to photo editing and the latter designed for creating and editing vector-based images.

What Is the Best Prototyping Tool?

InVision is among the most widely used prototyping tools, as 58 percent of UX Designers claim to use it. Sketch is the second most widely used. For more advanced prototyping with micro-interactions, there are a range of alternatives including Principle, Flinto, Framer, and ProtoPie.