A Web Designer's Toolkit for 2016 and Beyond

Web design is a very dynamic niche. Every year, dozens of new tools get released and updated. Their purpose is to reduce the use of code and make web design more suitable for users. In this article, we reviewed some of the top web design tools for 2016.

Visual Composer

If WordPress is your CMS of choice, you definitely need to try the Visual Composer. This is one of the most popular page builders that allows you to create richer pages that will definitely stand out. Currently, the Visual Composer is powering more than 1 million websites. The reason for its popularity is the use of drag and drop features that completely eliminate coding from web design work.

Visual Composer’s regular package can be bought for $34 (additional $10 for prolonged support), and it contains more than 40 premium content elements, 60+ predefined layouts and more than 150 third party add-ons. All this is complemented with SEO friendly page building environment and standard WordPress text editor. One of Visual Composer’s most important feature is the easy shift between its front- and backend editor.

Contact Form 7

This WordPress plugin helps you to create contact forms and scoop visitors’ orders and data. It comes with many pre-made forms and ability to add contact form input fields with the use of short tags. Contact form customization takes place on admin screen page and when you finish, you can insert it into a page layout by pasting a simple line of code into your page editor. All other customization can be done with the use of HTML and CSS in admin screen or on the spot, which enables admins to completely unleash their creativity, and create outstanding forms.

Avocode

Many web designers have troubles with transferring their designs into code. Avocode is very helpful for frontend developers, since it helps them to transfer their visuals into code snippets. This code generator comes with many helpful features, including:

Conversion into CSS- converts content and design elements into CSS and supports Less, Suss and Stylus.

Finding color codes- converts colors into codes. Web designers just need to pick a color and this Avocade feature tells them it's HEX or RGBA code.

Customization of Code Output- easily changes code variables, including: fonts, distances, aligns, gradients and colors.

Retina Graphics- scales imagery to satisfy retina pixel density. It can work with several different photo formats.

Easy Files Import- imports files into software with the use of ’drag and drop’ feature.

Photoshop Support- Avocode supports PSD files and preserves all of their layers.

Macaw

It is a web design tool that allows you to write HTML and CSS code, by creating, editing and positioning graphic elements. By using this web designing tool you will easily learn how to make a website. It is a perfect for web designers who are more accustomed to graphic elements and photo editor surroundings. These are some of the Macaw main features:

Stream- it is a layout engine that calculates margins, clears and floats and enables designers to add different elements to static document.

Alchemy- tool that converts graphic elements into HTML and CSS code.

Responsiveness- helps designers with optimizing their website for tablets and smartphones.

Typography- comes with wide variety of different fonts.

Styling- changes various elements in front-end surroundings.

Components Storage- stores all graphic elements in a media library and allows designers to use them for different projects.

Antetype

Antetype is a UX design app. It is equipped with all tools UX designers need for creating high-end prototypes. Antetype widget library contains more than 400 pre-designed widgets that can be added or customized to satisfy user’s needs. It also allows designers to create their own widgets and export them as pixel- or vector- based graphics. Like several other apps we mentioned in this article, Antetype can also generate CSS code and make designs responsive and retina-ready.

Web designing process starts from an idea. This is the most important part of website creation, so before you start using great tools we listed above, think about innovative features that can make your future website different and unique.