1: Figma - it's probably very obvious but not very long ago we were all using Photoshop to design websites followed by Sketch which was great but little did we know anything better could come along, but it did (sorry PSD) but Figma is an incredible application to use for wire-framing and designing for anything digital. It has a multitude of plugins that can make your working easier and don't even get me started on the component variant which saves serious time when creating multiple styles for objects such as buttons with alternative states. If you've never used it then we recommend giving it a go. We use it across the team here and it's great for prototyping and showing work off to clients.

2: Stark - this is a Figma plugin that helps you design accessible, ethical, and inclusive work. It’s simple to use and as designers we really should be using this or something like it to better our designs. Not got Figma? There are lots of other sites you can use, one of my favourites is colourcontrast

3: Adobe Illustrator - As much as I love Figma, my heart still belongs to adobe in many ways, particularly Illustrator. Whilst Figma can do a lot there are still moments I need to create my own assets and there truly is no better tool (for me right now) than Illustrator and it seems to be getting better and better, the new 3D tool is such an improvement. You can create some seriously impressive artwork in there and I'll be hard stretched to use anything else for branding projects. If you're new to Illustrator then there are loads of great tutorials out there, do a search on tik tok there's lots of fun ones!

4: Behance - Feeling uninspired then go have a scroll on Behance, it's great for seeing what new trends and styles are being used. Sometimes we just need to see some other incredible work to give us that little nudge to better our own work, we are always progressing no matter how long we've been doing this! There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from our fellow designers.

5: Codepen - I love this site for helping me show how I want my designs to animate. When showing work to developers or clients it's easy to say 'I want it to swish in' but how is that actually going to look? This site is a great place to find inspiration and to help guide your thoughts through to development. You don't have to be able to code but it's good to have an understanding of how your design is going to work once it is built.

Happy designing! 🤙