Top 15 Tools and Resources for Designers to Use in 2022

Faizan Bhatti
8 min readMay 13, 2022

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Creativity is an essential asset for web designers and agencies. The ability to put together a well-organized workflow is important as well. The ability to do so often depends on the quality and types of design tools and resources on hand. Lost or wasted time can cost money and can also contribute to frustration and less than satisfactory project outcomes.

The tools and resources are there. The challenges are (1) determining what can help achieve a smooth workflow and (2) finding the best ones for the task(s) at hand.

You will find this article worth bookmarking in that it features a carefully chosen selection of design tools and resources. One or more of them could meaningfully improve your project workflows. It could also contribute to the overall quality of your deliverables and give you greater flexibility to solve your day-to-day design problems and issues.

Here are 15 top tools and resources for designers, starting with –

Be — The Biggest WordPress and portfolio WordPress theme

Of the many WordPress and WooCommerce themes on the market, BeTheme is the biggest of all thanks to its 40+ website-building core features that include an extensive collection of customizable pre-built websites, a practically unlimited number of design aids and options, and a 240,000+ strong customer base.

Among BeTheme’s most popular features you’ll find –

  • The fast and flexible BeBuilder offers a wide range of new page-building features including the ability to import from Be’s pre-built website’s 3000+ pages, and import, export, save and retrieve blocks of content and design revisions.
  • more than 650 all-encompassing responsive UX ready, and customizable pre-built websites that cover all the major industry sectors, multiple business niches, and all the popular website types. BeBuilder Woo features a wealth of customer-centric shopping aids, product previews, and more to help you build any shop or single product layout you can think of.
  • BeTheme is Elementor ready and is always up to date with the latest design trends.

Click on the banner to investigate BeTheme in detail.

Total WordPress Theme

Total is aptly named in that it has all the features beginners and advanced designers look for in their quest to create attention-getting high-quality websites. Because of its flexible page builder and many style options Total does not place limits on the page-building layouts you can create.

  • Total’s 500+ customizing settings, built-in font manager, and drag and drop frontend page builder combine to make creating highly customized web designs a smooth and easy task.
  • NEW 90+ section templates, 75+ pre-styled post entry cards, and 45+ quick-import sample demos make project workflows pleasingly smooth and fast.
  • Total is compatible with WooCommerce and other popular WordPress plugins. Its use of Vanilla JavaScript with built-in hooks and filters, and more than 600 snippets have made it exceedingly developer-friendly.

Click on the banner to find out more about this popular theme.

LayerSlider

LayerSlider’s capabilities go far beyond creating beautiful sliders. This popular product belongs in your toolbox if you’ve been looking for a way to spice up an existing website or create an engaging, attention-getting new one. With LayerSlider, you can add visuals and effects to an otherwise boring website and give it a WOW factor that will grab your visitor’s attention and make it stand out from the crowd.

It makes all this possible with –

  • eye-catching graphics, animations, and interactive features
  • a collection of 150+ websites, sliders, and popup templates
  • an intuitive and modern editor like those found in professional desktop applications

LayerSlider is a cost-effective tool that is remarkably easy to install and work with that you can use to create an expensive-looking website at a fraction of the usual cost.

Click on the banner to discover what LayerSlider could do for you.

wpDataTables

The popular wpDataTables table and chart plugin is well known for its many useful features that have made it the most powerful WordPress plugin of its kind.

Its features include –

  • multiple database connectivity — MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MS SQL
  • the ability to accept data from multiple sources and in multiple formats
  • data highlighting and conditional formatting
  • 4 Chart-building engines
  • advanced filtering and sorting capabilities

This popular plugin integrates smoothly with Elementor, Gutenberg, and Visual Composer.

Uncode — Creative & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

This creative, pixel-perfect WooCommerce WordPress theme is especially well suited for creating a portfolio, blog, and magazine-style sites.

Key features include –

  • Uncode’s fast, flexible, and intuitive Frontend Page Builder
  • a wealth of customer-centric WooCommerce design elements and options
  • a Wireframes Plugin with 550+ section templates

Uncode’s more than 80,000 sales to date have made it an Envato best seller.

Trafft

Put Trafft to work to schedule appointments, meetings, and events and manage staff and services and enjoy the time (and money) savings that can be realized.

  • Trafft’s many useful features include multiple location use, custom domains, group bookings, and SMS and email reminders and notifications
  • Trafft integrates with Google Calendar and Google Meet, Zoom, Mailchimp, and Outlook Calendar.

Slider Revolution

The Slider Revolution WordPress plugin enables individual designers and design agencies to present their clients with websites that feature engaging professional-quality visuals.

  • Slider Revolution is packed with features that can turn a lackluster website into a fully-responsive, attention-getting gem.
  • 200+ website and slider templates and 25+ powerful addons come with the package.

Slider Revolution is easy to work with. First-class support is there for you should you ever need it.

WHATFONTIS

WHATFONTIS combines the power of AI with a database of more than 600,000 fonts to allow designers to find and identify an uploaded font in a matter of seconds. This treasure in the world of font searching –

  • identifies free fonts
  • provides the best possible accuracy
  • filters fonts based on foundry and price

Premium support is readily available for those sporadic cases where the AI engine gives problematic results. A PRO subscription is available for $39.99/year.

Mobirise Website Builder Software

Mobirise is a perfect choice for anyone needing to create a small to medium size website. This offline builder is also ideal for non-technical users who are most comfortable building websites visually.

  • Mobirise is fast and intuitive
  • 5,500+ awesome templates are included
  • You own the site you build.
  • Since you have full access to HTML you can code if you wish

Mobirise is free for commercial use.

Get illustrations Stock Illustrations Bundle

If your websites, apps, or presentations are beginning to appear unimaginative or exhibit a sense of sameness you might consider taking advantage of GetIllustration’s library of 10,000+ premium UI illustrations.

  • Illustrations for web, apps, presentations and other purposes are updated weekly
  • They are available in PNG, SVG, AI, Figma, and Sketch formats
  • Download them once and they are yours to use forever
  • A commercial use license is included

Use coupon code EliteDesigners25 for a 25% discount.

Pixpa — Portfolio Websites for Designers

Pixpa is an extremely useful tool to have in your designer’s toolkit if you are engaging in creative design work of almost any kind. You can –

  • build a website any way you want to with no need for coding
  • share or sell your work to clients and customers
  • accept payments online through PayPal or Stripe

Select from several plans or start with a 15-day free trial.

XStore — Best WordPress WooCommerce Theme for eCommerce

Designing and building a quality money-making online store can take a substantial amount of effort. XStore makes doing so as easy as it gets.

30,000+ happy customers agree that this WooCommerce theme has everything you need including –

  • 110+ prebuilt, responsive, and ready-to-customize shops
  • $510 worth of premium plugins worth
  • WPB and Elementor compatibility
  • A single-product builder together with a host of customer-centric design elements.

Amelia

The Amelia plugin replaces time-consuming and error-prone manual appointment and event booking tasks with a fully automated system that your business and your clients will love.

With Amelia –

  • clients can make and manage their appointments online 24/7
  • Amelia can manage bookings at multiple locations as well as track and manage employee assignments and availability schedules

Amelia smoothly integrates with Zoom for consultation and training purposes.

8bio — Link in Bio Tool

With 8bio you can easily create a link that visitors will feel almost compelled to click on because of the beautiful skins and catchy animated backgrounds you can put into play.

With 8bio you can –

  • link to your own domain, or you can use the *8b.io domain if you choose
  • add brief biographical text about yourself or your business
  • monetize your link with a tip jar or a shopping cart.

Essential Grid

If creating a gallery exactly the way you want to appears to be too much of a challenge you should give Essential Grid a try.

With this plugin at your fingertips, you’ll find it easy to –

  • create an attention-getting and engaging portfolio
  • displaying products, awe-inspiring videos, or your personal Instagram stream.

Essential Grid offers a nice selection of layout options and accepts content from a variety of sources.

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Web design isn’t only about creating a good look. Your goal should be to create engaging visuals that combine to offer the viewer an enjoyable overall presentation.

Rather than investing time and money in a lengthy design process, you might find it more than worth your while to take advantage of one or more of these 15 top design tools and resources for 2022 to create a totally awesome product that achieves that goal.

We have assembled this collection to help you create an effective online presence for your business or improve upon an existing one.

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Faizan Bhatti

Art Director, Creative Manager, Brand Designer, Graphic Designer, Content Creator