The annual Design Tools Survey is a free resource for creators, companies, and classrooms to educate themselves on the best tools for their individual needs. This year, over 3,000 designers shared their toolkits. While previous years have shown very clear winners in each category, I think you'll find this year to be different.

Thanks for another great Design Tools Survey! As always, the raw data is freely available to download and analyze.

Taylor Palmer Taylor, December 2019

Introduction

These questions deal with a designer's background and employment situation. Each one paints a vivid landscape of the modern design industry. Understanding a designer's experience, team size, and role can help us understand why they use their specific tools. As you analyze and compare these various segments, consider how they might impact the results of the survey and create patterns in the data.

Key Insights

  • 1

    The titles "UX Designer" and "Product Designer" remain equally matched.

  • 2

    Over 130 unique job titles submitted, including: Design Ops, Management, Research, and Information Architecture.

  • 3

    Since 2017, the percentage of non-US respondents increased from 67% to 75%.

  • 4

    The majority of design teams continue to have 2–10 designers (same as previous years).

3149

Survey Responses
  • 648 USA

  • 133 UK

  • 143 Canada

  • 123 India

  • 118 Germany

  • 80 France

  • 77 Israel

  • 1206 Other

Titles & Roles

"Which best describes your role?"

Experience Design

"What types of experiences are you designing?"

Years of Experience

"How many years of experience do you have in your field?"

Company Size

"How many employees work at your company?"

Design Team Size

"How many designers are on your design team?"

Operating System

"Which platform(s) do you primarily use for design?"


Introduction

How do designers capture their thoughts? Once given a problem, what tools do they use to help them generate their best ideas? This could range from anywhere from long-form text to wireframes and UI. These tools begin to give us a glimpse into how designers do that—either for themselves, or to show others.

Key Insights

  • 1

    86% of respondents reported using pencil, paper, or a whiteboard for brainstorming.

  • 2

    Many respondents seem comfortable brainstormning within their chosen UI design tools (44% in Sketch).

  • 3

    A surprisingly strong showing from digital whiteboarding apps like Miro and Milanote, which weren't even listed as default responses to this question.

Brainstorming & Ideation

"Which tools do you use for brainstorming and ideation?"

Introduction

User flows are an important but often forgotten part of digital design. Let's face it: modern UI tools were not built to easily draw arrows to express paths and relationships, but respondents seem determined to stick with them. While most respondents use Sketch, they're likely making use of plugins to accomplish this task (which is probably something I'll ask about next year).

Key Insights

  • 1

    Most respondents seem to prefer to remain in their primary tools while creating user flows.

  • 2

    5 of the top 10 tools in this category are web-based.

  • 3

    There's a range of mid-tier tools here with similar usage such as Whimsical, Draw.io, Overflow.io, and Lucidchart.

  • 4

    The surprisingly large "Other" category in this graph contains tools like Flowmapp, Mindmeister, and Milanote.

User Flows & Site Maps

"Which tools do you use for user flows, site maps, and flow charts?"

Introduction

Wireframing refers to the preliminary designs created before worrying about higher-fidelity details such as fonts and colors. The rise of design systems has caused a decrease in wireframing in general (though one could argue quick, disposable exploration using design system patterns is still wireframing). Nevertheless, only one of the tools listed in the top 10 is still considered a true wireframing tool (Balsamiq).

Key Insights

  • 1

    The top three tools almost exactly mimic the "UI Design" category.

  • 2

    Interestingly, Axure received more votes in the wireframing category than in UI Design. It remains relatively popular in prototyping, however.

  • 3

    This year's wireframing newcomer is Whimsical. It grew almost 2x since last year to crack the wireframing top 10.

Wireframing Tools

"Which tools do you use for wireframing?"

Introduction

This is where most UI designers spend their time—in their design tool of choice. These tools are used to create high-fidelity mock-ups and interface designs. They're valued for their pixel-perfect design, responsive nature, and integration with other tools. As you can see by the small "Other" category here, there are very clear and distinct winners in this category.

Compare these tools

Key Insights

  • 1

    Figma nearly doubled from 12% of all responses to 23% since last year.

  • 2

    This year Adobe XD surpassed it's older sibling, Adobe Photoshop.

  • 3

    Figma and Adobe XD are battling to win the fight over Windows designers.

  • 4

    Perhaps because it's much easier to switch tools, respondents who work alone are much more likely to use tools other than Sketch.

UI Design Tools

"Which tools do you use for interface design?"

Top UI Design Tools for Mac

Based on the top 4 design tool companies.

Top UI Design Tools for Windows

Still unsure how designers use Sketch on Windows.

UI Design Tools based on Team Size

Consistent trends, despite low responses from various groups.

Introduction

Prototyping helps designers create interactive experiences from their designs in order to test and showcase them. Prototyping has been the battleground of the design tools ecosystem for several years now. As you can tell by the graph below, usage is much more spread out in this category than any other. Seems there is still no clear winner.

Compare these tools

Key Insights

  • 1

    Though Sketch came out on top, it actually stagnated at usage by 35% of respondents while InVision dropped from 43% to 35%.

  • 2

    Figma grew 2.2x from being used by 14% of respondents to 32%, while Adobe XD also grew from 18% to 22%.

  • 3

    Sketch, InVision, and Figma are almost equally used by respondents.

Prototyping Tools

"Which tools do you use for prototyping?"

Prototyping Through the Years

Based on past surveys from 2017 and 2018.

Introduction

Handoff tools convert designs into specs, measurements, and assets to make them easier to code and develop. Designers typically look for a handoff tool that is highly integrated with their UI design tool of choice. We've recently seen a trend of handoff functionality being builty directly into UI design tools (like Figma, Framer, and Adobe XD) but the top tool in this category is actually an independent tool that works with all the major players.

Compare these tools

Key Insights

  • 1

    Last year, 18% of respondents didn't use handoff tools. This year, only 12% don't.

  • 2

    As predicted by other categories, Figma usage grew from 13% of respondents to 27% since 2018.

  • 3

    Abstract, the versioning tool for designers, doubled from 5% to 10% usage since 2018.

Handoff Tools

"Which tools do you use for handoff?"

Introduction

User testing tools allow designers to host moderated or unmoderated usability tests of prototypes or real products. This is the first year I have asked respondents about user testing tools (after many requests). Unfortunately, I didn't provide the right responeses to make this data actionable. Most respondents said they "don't use any tools for this"—but looking at the other responses, they clearly meant to indicate that they do it in-person or otherwise. Look for better data next year!

Key Insights

  • 1

    Most respondents don't use testing tools (though many custom answers indicate that they do testing in-person, without tools).

  • 2

    UserTesting is the leading user testing tool by a long shot.

  • 3

    Many respondents use a cocktail of UI design tools and video conferencing tools (Such as InVision and Zoom, or Figma and Skype).

User Testing Tools

"Which tools do you use for user testing?"

Introduction

Design Systems are a hot topic in 2019. A Design System helps design and development teams collaborate with highly-defined components and specifications. Some of these tools help to create documentation libraries (like Storybook and zeroheight) while others create reusable design symbols to be placed in such a library. A surprising number of respondents still don't have a design system (perhaps because they're at an agency or working alone), or aren't managing it with any tools.

Compare these tools

Key Insights

  • 1

    Sketch usage dropped from 42% of respondents to 31% since 2018, while Figma grew from 12% to 26%.

  • 2

    Abstract grew more than 5x from usage by 3% of respondents to 15%.

  • 3

    1/3 of respondents reported that they either don't have a design system or they don't have tools to manage it.

Design System Tools

"Which tools do you use to manage your design system?"

Design System Tools by Company Size

See how companies similar in size to your own are stacking up their Design System tools.

Introduction

As teams grow, they have an increasingly difficult time sharing files and collaborating together. Some teams side step this issue entirely with cloud-hosted tools such as Figma. Other teams invest in deliberate versioning tools like Abstract or Github. Either way, these tools help teams manage their designs together.

Compare these tools

Key Insights

  • 1

    Abstract unexpectedly passed Dropbox as the second-most popular file management tool of choice.

  • 2

    Most respondents continue to use generic document management tools such as Google Drive and Dropbox.

  • 3

    Respondents on teams of 10 or fewer designers were 27% less likely to use a file management tool.

File Management Tools

"Which tools (if any) do you use for version control and file management?"

Brainstorming

  • 1.

    Pencil & Paper

  • 2.

    Sketch

  • 3.

    Figma

User Flows

  • 1.

    Sketch

  • 2.

    Whimsical

  • 3.

    Draw.io

Wireframing

  • 1.

    Sketch

  • 2.

    Figma

  • 3.

    Adobe XD

UI Design

  • 1.

    Sketch

  • 2.

    Figma

  • 3.

    Adobe XD

Prototyping

  • 1.

    Sketch

  • 2.

    InVision

  • 3.

    Figma

Handoff

  • 1.

    Zeplin

  • 2.

    Figma

  • 3.

    InVision

User Testing

  • 1.

    UserTesting

  • 2.

    Lookback

  • 3.

    Usability Hub

Design Systems

  • 1.

    Sketch

  • 2.

    Figma

  • 3.

    Abstract

File Management

  • 1.

    Google Drive

  • 2.

    Abstract

  • 3.

    Dropbox

Introduction

Each year I like to ask respondents which tools they're most excited to try within the next year. It doesn't always predict the future, but occasionally we'll get a glimpse of something on the horizon (for example, Figma was the #1 most exciting tool last year). Take a look at what other respondents are looking to try.

Key Insights

  • 1

    While everyone seems to be excited about Figma, there's a massive "Other" category here full of different tools.

  • 2

    Each of the top five tools here combined UI design with prototyping. We may even see these two categories merge in future years.

  • 3

    Interestingly, the tools that grew the most this year are also the ones respondents are still most excited to try. Look for more growth next year.

Most Exciting Tools of 2020

"Which tools are you most excited to try in 2020?"

Thanks for reading!

People like you make this survey great! Thanks for participating in the third annual UXtools.co Design Tools Survey. Hopefully you learned something interesting—or maybe found a new tool to try! If you have any questions, reach out to taylor@uxtools.co.

Sign up for next year