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The Right UX Tools for Your Workflow
Whether you're wireframing a rough sketch into a clickable prototype or testing complex product behavior with real users, there's a tool built for that.
UX Design Tools in 2025:
Figma: Collaborative Design
Figma remains the go-to platform for real-time, collaborative design. It blends UI design, prototyping, and design systems into a seamless workflow, all in the browser.
Ideal for: Teams that prioritize collaboration, speed, and scalability.
Strengths: Live collaboration, cross-platform consistency, extensibility via plugins.
Where it shines in UX: Figma is great for wireframing, UI design, prototyping, and testing early concepts. Researchers use it to run usability tests, test navigation logic, and gather rapid feedback.
Ideal for: Designers in Adobe environments who want simplicity and native performance.
Strengths: Prototyping, transitions, coediting, and design specs.
Where it shines in UX: XD is a solid choice for mid-fidelity usability testing and interface exploration, especially for designers with creative suite workflows.
Ideal for: Mac-based design teams with established Sketch libraries.
Strengths: Pixel-perfect design, design system management, plugin ecosystem.
Where it shines in UX: Sketch is often used for static wireframes and visual UI mockups. Paired with tools like Maze or InVision, it becomes a solid platform for user testing and feedback cycles.
Ideal for: Visual storytelling, client reviews, and early feedback loops.
Strengths: Clickable prototypes, comments, freehand brainstorming.
Where it shines in UX: InVision plays a supporting role, useful in research when sharing flows or collecting insights asynchronously from stakeholders or users.
Ideal for: Teams testing MVPs, animations, or full web experiences.
Strengths: Realistic prototypes, animations, responsiveness, logic states.
Where it shines in UX: Researchers use Framer to test interaction-heavy experiences, run A/B tests on landing pages, or validate dynamic UI behavior with real users.
Ideal for: Early-stage UX work, PMs, and non-designers.
Strengths: Speed, simplicity, and clarity.
Where it shines in UX: Perfect for concept testing, early research interviews, and alignment before you ever touch high-fidelity visuals.
Ideal for: Prototyping applications that need real logic, conditions, and variables.
Strengths: Advanced interactions, conditional logic, dynamic content simulation.
Where it shines in UX: Usability testing for complex workflows, simulations for internal tools, and scenarios where behavior and state matter as much as the UI.
Ideal for: Teams that prioritize collaboration, speed, and scalability.
Strengths: Live collaboration, cross-platform consistency, extensibility via plugins.
Where it shines in UX: Figma is great for wireframing, UI design, prototyping, and testing early concepts. Researchers use it to run usability tests, test navigation logic, and gather rapid feedback.
Adobe XD: Prototyping
Adobe XD remains a clean, user-friendly tool that excels in UI design and quick prototyping. It’s tightly integrated into the Adobe ecosystem, making it a natural choice for creative teams already using tools like Photoshop and Illustrator. It is being phased out by Adobe as of 2024, however it remains as part of the their suite as of now.Ideal for: Designers in Adobe environments who want simplicity and native performance.
Strengths: Prototyping, transitions, coediting, and design specs.
Where it shines in UX: XD is a solid choice for mid-fidelity usability testing and interface exploration, especially for designers with creative suite workflows.
Sketch: Mac-Based UI Design
Sketch might not be the trendiest tool anymore, but it's still widely respected, especially in Apple-based teams and agencies. It’s vector-based, lightweight, and powered by a robust plugin community.Ideal for: Mac-based design teams with established Sketch libraries.
Strengths: Pixel-perfect design, design system management, plugin ecosystem.
Where it shines in UX: Sketch is often used for static wireframes and visual UI mockups. Paired with tools like Maze or InVision, it becomes a solid platform for user testing and feedback cycles.
InVision: Prototyping + Stakeholder Communication
Once the gold standard for linking static screens, InVision is now used more selectively for design presentations, stakeholder buy-in, and feedback collection.Ideal for: Visual storytelling, client reviews, and early feedback loops.
Strengths: Clickable prototypes, comments, freehand brainstorming.
Where it shines in UX: InVision plays a supporting role, useful in research when sharing flows or collecting insights asynchronously from stakeholders or users.
Framer: For High-Fidelity Prototypes
Framer bridges the gap between design and development, offering rich interactivity, animations, and logic, all without code (unless you want to). It even lets you publish live, functional websites.Ideal for: Teams testing MVPs, animations, or full web experiences.
Strengths: Realistic prototypes, animations, responsiveness, logic states.
Where it shines in UX: Researchers use Framer to test interaction-heavy experiences, run A/B tests on landing pages, or validate dynamic UI behavior with real users.
Balsamiq: Fast, Focused on Structure
Balsamiq stays true to its mission of low-fidelity wireframes that spark conversation without design polish getting in the way. It’s beloved for quick ideation and early user interviews.Ideal for: Early-stage UX work, PMs, and non-designers.
Strengths: Speed, simplicity, and clarity.
Where it shines in UX: Perfect for concept testing, early research interviews, and alignment before you ever touch high-fidelity visuals.
Axure: Complex Interactions
Axure is less flashy, but it’s an incredibly powerful platform for prototyping dynamic, logic-heavy user experiences, especially in enterprise, SaaS, and systems UX.Ideal for: Prototyping applications that need real logic, conditions, and variables.
Strengths: Advanced interactions, conditional logic, dynamic content simulation.
Where it shines in UX: Usability testing for complex workflows, simulations for internal tools, and scenarios where behavior and state matter as much as the UI.