The 24 Best Mobile App Design Tools for UI/UX Designers

Mobile app designers are always looking for the right tool that will make their designs worthwhile for the end user experience. Developing a valuable mobile app requires top notch skill, creativity, and of course the right tools.

Could this be the reason why companies are investing more money into user-friendly mobile design and UX designers? I’m sure.

What would these companies expect to get from this bold step? Well, according to DMI, “In 10 years, a $10,000 investment in design-centric companies would have yielded returns 228% greater than the same investment in the S&P.”

Key Takeaways

• UI vs. UX: Successful apps balance User Interface (aesthetic) with User Experience (functionality).
• Platform Strategy: Design must account for the sleek, modern expectations of iOS users and the flexible, global requirements of Android.
• Prototyping Workflow: Start with low-fidelity wireframes to map journeys before moving to high-fidelity mockups.
• Top Tools: Industry leaders include Sketch for Mac users, Adobe XD for PC users, and Buildfire for non-technical end-to-end development.
• UX Essentials: Prioritize responsiveness, clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs), and multi-screen orientation compatibility.

What is App Design?

App design is the look and feel of a mobile application. This includes all of the visual elements and interactive elements that impact how the app functions.

Mobile app design combines two concepts—UI and UX.

The user interface (UI) encompasses the app’s look and feel. It includes color, font, app style, and similar design choices. The user experience (UX) design prioritizes the app’s functions and use. 

So many people have great app ideas. But without a high-quality UI and UX design, it will be tough to keep users coming back. Whether you’re building an ecommerce app, internal employee app, fitness app, or app in any category, the design always needs to be a top priority. 

That’s why it’s so important to invest in app design from the beginning. An investment now will actually save you money and ensure a higher ROI for your app down the road.

Additional Reading: What’s the Difference Between UX vs. UI Design?

What Platform Should I Design For?

Most app developers need to design for multiple platforms. You’ll likely want the app to be available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

With that said, there are different nuances to consider when you’re designing an app for multiple platforms and operating systems. There are also different platform guidelines and differences in the development process for iOS and Android.

It’s also worth noting that the market share for iOS and Android are different. Apple controls the US market share, but Android dominates globally. So your target audience will ultimately help dictate what platform you’re designing for. 

iOS App Design

There are several things you need to keep in mind when you’re designing an iOS app. For starters, the platform is extremely reliable. It’s fast and easy to use.

Apple also makes it much easier to debug flaws in the app design. So if you have usability problems, you should be able to quickly fix them and deploy an update. 

Apple users want a sleek design. It should be modern and intuitive. You’ll also want to ensure the app is compatible across the entire Apple ecosystem. This includes apps for iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, and more.

Android App Design

Android isn’t a closed ecosystem like Apple. So you’ll have a lot more flexibility with your app-building and design environment compared to iOS apps. 

There’s also an extensive knowledge base from Google that you can reference if you’re an app design beginner. Compared to Apple, it’s generally less expensive to design and publish an Android app.

Similar to iOS, Android apps need to think about a design that extends beyond smartphones. It should integrate with wearables, VR tools, Android auto, and more. There’s an app store for so many different device types and platforms that need to be taken into consideration when you’re designing for Android.

Creating Wireframes and App Mockups

Wireframes can best be described as a broad design of the app layout. You don’t have to worry too much about functionality just yet. You’re just mapped out the user journey to establish the basic structure of your pages.

This is one of the earliest steps in the design process, and there are lots of great design tools that you can use for wireframes (we’ll cover those shortly).

Mockups take the wireframes one step further. These are high-fidelity simulations of what the app will look like once it’s built. It has the structure and logic of a wireframe but combines the UI elements and high-fidelity UX/UI elements of design as well.

To get started with wireframes and mockups, follow these steps:

• Screen Count: Determine the total number of screens required.
• Homepage Sketch: Start with the main landing screen and branch out.
• Information Architecture: Decide how information is ordered and the hierarchy of importance.
• Layout Consistency: Ensure design concepts fit all screen sizes without cutting off CTAs or menus.

These first steps don’t need to be super technical. Eventually, the designers and developers will work together to put your initial sketches into code. They’ll connect all of the pages in your product design to ensure everything is smooth for the end-users. 

They’ll also need to check and make sure the design concepts actually fit on the screen. You don’t want certain elements of the design, like a menu bar or CTA, to get cut off on certain devices. 

Before you launch your app or go live with any new designs, you’ll need to run some tests first. The app design testing ensures that all of your ideas work functionally within the app and the UX/UI design hasn’t been compromised.

The 24 Best App Design Tools

While it’s still essential to sketch your wireframes and products prototype on paper, app designing software are making it easier less tedious and easy to share finished or unfinished jobs with clients, developers, and designers.

But with so many design tools everywhere nowadays, it can be challenging to choose the best tool for your particular type of app. Whether you’re an app design pro or a complete beginner in the world of mobile app design, this is a great article that will have a huge impact on your skills.

Good news is, I’ve distilled the 24 tools mobile app developers prefer to use. I’m confident that you’ll find the right tool with the functionality you need from this list of practical recommendations.

1. Sketch

Sketch is a lightweight MacBook based UI/UX design tool for modern app designers. Sketch is more like Adobe Photoshop but it’s built mainly for app prototyping and has one of the highest share in the wireframing and prototyping space.

The download size is about 20 megabyte, it doesn’t use too much system resources, it exports assets very fast. Ultimately, you just have to buy it once and then renew license yearly. You can’t animate with it. However, it’s a great choice for most app designers.

So if you want to edit photos, you’ll have to combine this app with other tools like Photoshop or Adobe illustrator. Are you a PC fan? It’s so unfortunate the guys at Bohemian Coding may not be supporting PCs.

Here’s what they said in their FAQ: “Due t

o the technologies and frameworks exclusive to OS X that Sketch has been built upon, regrettably we will not be considering supporting Sketch on either of these platforms.”

2. Buildfire

Buildfire is an end-to-end app development platform that can be a great tool for mobile app designers, allowing you to create a working prototype of the app you are designing. Buildfire has fully customizable functionality, allowing you to upload any of your designs, customize fonts, colors and more. You may even find that the built-in functionality on the Buildfire platform has everything you need to create a fully functioning app that you can publish to the IOS and Google Play store right from the platform. 

You can build your prototype and create apps for Apple and Android users alike, and test it on your phone completely free and only pay when you are ready to publish. Buildfire’s app design templates allow you to prioritize UI design on mobile devices. You can even use it to collect user feedback and user input via push notifications. This information from real users will ultimately help you build the perfect app.

Buildfire simplifies app design, and makes it easy for anyone to create mobile apps. You can customize everything about your mobile app to build exactly what you want. It’s an app creation solution for non-technicial users who don’t have app design experience. 

The cool part about Buildfire is that you can preview your mobile app design directly on your own mobile screen, even before the mobile app gets published. This helps you figure out what real mobile users will see when they download your app, predict their navigation patterns, test screen sizes, mobile forms, and see if the app design is “finger friendly.” Users abandon mobile apps if these aspects of the app design are wrong. 

You don’t need to hire a development team for mobile app design. As one of the best app building sites on the market, Buildfire is compatible with every major operating system, so you can follow OS design guidelines for both Apple and Android.

3. Adobe Experience Design (XD)

Adobe XD is the direct competitor of Sketch. If you’re a PC fan and have been looking to use Sketch but have been limited because it exclusively supports Mac, then, this is good news for you.

XD provides you with basically all the features you get from Sketch—wireframing, prototyping, and more.

XD is ridiculously fast and easy to use. Although it’s still in preview state and lacks some features like every other new product and in this state, it supports only Windows 10 Anniversary Update, many app designers have used it and are in love with it. XD is really promising.

Don’t get me wrong, XD isn’t as good as Sketch yet but it’s promising and might beat its counterpart in the foreseeable future.

4. Axure RP

Axure RP is a complete app design tool for professional designers. It tries to give you all the functionalities you need to design your app from start to finish, while prioritizing user experience. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Aside from the prototyping, it allows you to also design wireframes, mockups, flowcharts, personas, idea boards, user journeys, UI design, diagramming and graphical documentations and even more.

The interesting thing is, if you are a code freak and will like to do some coding, it allows you to code, and also allows you to add ready to use components and libraries to help you create even better design seamlessly.

So you’re not limited, I guess you’re only limited by your imagination. However, all this sums up to why it has a steep learning curve.

Thinking if it supports your OS? Axure RP currently has support for OS X and Windows OS.

5. Marvel

Looking at designing, prototyping and also collaborating with your design team? Marvel makes it possible for you to do all of that.

Plus it makes it possible for you to synchronize your designs from other tools like Sketch or Photoshop, and illustrator, easily, and even those on cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Consequently, you can add your designs from different tools and use Marvel to make it come alive with all the animation features.

Needless to say, you won’t border about hiring an after effect expert to do animations for your static prototype, it allows you add animations easily.

Unlike other tools, Marvel is supper specific—design, prototype and collaborate. If this sounds like what you’re looking for, then Marvel could be the design tool for you.

6. Proto.io

With a lot of design and prototype templates, you can make your work easier with Proto.io. It’s easy to use, as no coding is required. More importantly, you can seamlessly import your UI components from Sketch or Photoshop.

You can use the timeline feature to create cool animations to show the flow of your app across different screens. It’s made to be simple and elegant. Proto.io has a lot of features.

Have assets in Dropbox or Google Drive? Proto.io allows you to synchronize them easily to help you simplify your workflow. These interesting features of Proto.io (Material Design UI Library and Offline mode) can’t be left out—though it’s a web design app you can actually work with it when you’re not online.

Thankfully, it’s a browser-based prototyping tool, you don’t need to download any heavy software, you can start using it right away after signing up for their 15 days free trial.

7. Origami Studio

Origami is a standalone user interface design tool developed by Facebook engineers and has been used by Facebook to design Facebook apps like Facebook Messenger and Instagram and now it’s available for you for free. It’s a complex tool with great functionalities.

You can preview your app prototype with Origami (Android or iOS), copy and paste layers from Sketch and get them working in Origami.

Want to show your clients or anyone your designs? You can record your prototype and quickly send it to anyone from the Origami app.

Another cool functionality Origami has is that you can connect it to your Apple or Android mobile devices to preview it and see live changes as you work on it.

8. OmniGraffle

OmniGraffle is a diagram design tool that provides the features and freedom to prototype screen flows, strategy maps, wireframes, and a variety of diagrams.

With OmniGraffle, you can quickly visualize the flow of your app. So, it helps you in planning your app development without much hassle.

9. Balsamiq

Unlike other tools, Fluid UI is a versatile tool that supports the entire design process from ideation to execution.