Top 15 Tools and Resources for Designers and Agencies That Will Make Your Work Easier

 Designers and design agencies normally take great care when selecting tools and resources. First to support their design efforts and second their businesses in general. The useful life of these tools and resources for designers will vary. Many are kept up to date. But there are always products on the market that deserve a close look. Many of the newer ones and more than a few of the more established ones have features or capabilities that a designer or an agency could really profit from using.

• No code tools are one example.

• Special effects such as advanced interactions and animations is another.

• Workflow streamlining tools are yet another.

Browse this list of 15 top design tools and you could well find one your business or agency could immediately profit from using.

That is why we put this list together. 

1.Trafft

Trafft’s booking and business automation app is certainly worth trying, especially if your staff gets bogged down trying to manage multiple client appointment bookings.

• The free app is for individual businesses based on one employee. If this applies to you it is free forever.

• Each of 3 paid plans offer a 14-day free trial, which should be plenty of time to decide which one would be best suited for your business or agency.

• Trafft is simple to set up and use and does not require a technical knowledge to maintain.

• Trafft can manage an unlimited number of client and customer appointment bookings and can do so at multiple locations from a single platform.

• The booking page can be customized to fit your brand.

• Automated reminders concerning bookings can be sent to clients via email. This would also apply to payments reminders and clients can make payments online, including VAT where applicable.

Trafft integrates smoothly with Google Calendar. Google Meet, Zoom, Mailchimp, and more. Click on the banner to learn more. 

2.Be - The Biggest WordPress and portfolio WordPress theme

BeTheme’s more than 40 core features combine to make it the biggest WordPress and WooCommerce theme of them all. Any one of them could make your website-building tasks easier than ever by eliminating any need for coding, providing special effects to generate interest in your website pages, or cutting workflow time significantly.

Three core features where BeTheme really shines -

• BeBuilder is the most flexible WordPress builder on the market. It is fast and packed with features including autosave and redo/undo revision history management and keyboard shortcuts.

• The 650+ pre-built websites cut workflow time immensely. They are customizable, responsive, and feature basic UX functionalities.

• The WooCommerce builder makes creating an online shop a quick yet pleasant experience with its shop and single product templates, 40+ pre-defined demos for WooCommerce, and custom attribute swatches to name a few.

Click on the banner. There’s much more to see. 

3.Total WordPress Theme

Total has the flexibility you need to create award-winning websites without any page and layout-building limitations that could slow you down. This WordPress theme is a joy to work with for beginners and developers alike.

• 40+ easy to import pre-built demos to help you get started

• the WPBakery frontend page builder, the more than 100 builder modules, and a host of custom styling options will help you finish the job

• Templatera is a WPBakery add-on for creating, re-using, and managing your page layouts

• There’s a selection of pre-designed Card Styles for displaying post entries and a developer-friendly API for creating custom card styles

• Vanilla JavaScript hooks, filters, and snippets give developers complete control.

Total is SEO optimized and WooCommerce compatible.  Click on the banner to see if Total might be the ideal solution for your needs. 

4.Amelia

This easy-to-use plugin can be a game-changing time and money saver when used in conjunction with WordPress to automate a business’s appointment and event booking operations.

• Appointments, including group bookings, can be made and managed online 24/7.

• Amelia can manage bookings and employee schedules at multiple locations from a single platform.

• Amelia integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar and Zoom. 

5.Slider Revolution

You could spend lots of time spicing up a boring website you’re not all that proud of or put the Slider Revolution plugin to use and do so quickly and effectively. You’ll have at your fingertips –

• cool selections of impressive website and slider templates and addons

• the ability to use dynamic content from social media sites

• a Web Graphics Library of interactive graphics and slide animations 

6.wpDataTables

Create attractive, interactive, responsive, maintainable tables and charts from massive amounts of complex data. That’s what the wpDataTables plugin can do for you – and in seconds or minutes.

• wpDataTables can create tables using Google Sheets API and accept data from MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MS SQL

• data in a variety of formats can be processed, sorted, filtered, highlighted, and color coded

• wpDataTables integrates seamlessly with Elementor, Divi, and Avada 

7.Essential Grid

A gallery’s subject matter is obviously its most important feature, but its layout or the way in which it presents itself can often be the determining factor contributing to its eventual success.

The Essential Grid WordPress Gallery plugin will help you create breathtaking galleries by making it fun and easy to –

• Present eye-catching product displays

• Showcase your portfolio

• Share video and audio gems and your thought-provoking blogs. 

8.LayerSlider

LayerSlider is a cost-effective way to add visual effects to a new website or use them to spice up an existing one. It is one of the most established and popular products on the market.

• LayerSlider’s 150+ website, popup, and slider templates are great starting points, plus they are a great way to learn.

• With LayerSlider’s advanced visual editor, you can easily create breathtaking content for your websites without coding experience. 

9.Uncode – Creative & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Uncode has many impressive features, but the most impressive one of all could just be its WooCommerce Custom Builder.

• Uncode’s WooCommerce Custom Builder features include a Single Product Builder, Wishlist and custom Cart, My Account Builder, and more.

• The Wireframes plugin and its 550+ section templates give you the flexibility you need to create virtually any page layout.

 View Uncode’s gallery of user-built websites to see if Uncode is right for you. 

10.WHATFONTIS

Why spend hours trying to identify an elusive font when WHATFONTIS can do it for you in seconds?

• Simply upload a sample of the font in question. Cursive fonts are OK if the letters are separated.

• WHATFONTIS’s AI search engine and 700K+ database of fonts will provide you with 60 examples, and the correct one more than 90% of the time.

• Premium support is there should the AI algorithms yield a strange result. 

11.Litho – Multipurpose Elementor WordPress Theme

Litho is a modern, highly customizable multipurpose Elementor WordPress theme. Developed by a power elite author, Litho is eCommerce ready and features customizable demo content that includes pages, posts, sliders, menus, and much more.

• Litho can be used for any type of business niche as well as for portfolio, blog, and eCommerce sites.

• Litho’s customizable layouts are fast loading, mobile friendly, and guarantee healthy SEO results. 

12.Mobirise Website Builder Software

Mobirise is a free offline website builder that is a perfect choice for creating small to medium size websites. It is also an excellent choice for non-techies as they typically prefer to work visually.

• Create sites fast and easy with help from 5500+ awesome templates

• Mobirise provides full access to HTML if you wish to code

• Google AMP/Bootstrap 4 guarantees your site will be crazy-fast and mobile friendly.

• Mobirise is free to use commercially. 

 13.8bio – Link in Bio Tool

Adding an 8bio link to your social profiles on Instagram and TikTok is easy. Just enter your social username and an 8bio link will be created automatically.

• You can promote yourself, your merchandise, or list items for sale.

• Facebook and Twitter allow you to link to your website’s home page.

• You can use 8bio’s pre-made templates, skins, and catchy animated backgrounds.

• You can schedule your link to be active only at a specific time. 

14.XStore – Best WordPress WooCommerce Theme for eCommerce

XStore has a lot going for it. It’s well established (10 years on Envato), it's popular, it has more than 110 ready-to-customize shops, and it’s extremely affordable.

• $510 worth of premium plugins only add to the value.

• WPBakery, Elementor, and WooCommerce (including a built-in single product page builder) are there for you as well.

• There are also inclusive selections of design elements and an array of page layout options. 

15.Get illustrations Stock Illustrations Bundle

Getillustrations’ library of premium illustrations can change your approach to website UI, app, and presentation design.

• It is the world’s biggest bundle of its type in that it features 10,000+ illustrations with more constantly being added

• Illustrations are available in Vector AI, SVG, PNG, Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD formats

A purchased illustration comes is yours to keep and use as you wish.

***** 

You may feel that web design trends may be passing you by. Also in the event that some of the design tools at your disposal have become somewhat dated. Here is your change to add one or more items to your toolbox that can provide instant gratification.

Any of the above design tools or resources could incrementally improve your designs. They can give you greater flexibility, or streamline and shorten a project’s or business operation’s workflow.

You might even come across a tool or resource that will serve as a genuine game changer for your business.

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