5 Product Design Software Tools to Ace Mobile Product Design

Figma

Best for collaborative UI design

Figma supports product design teams in creating, testing, and delivering better app designs together faster, in a fun and energizing way.

Relevant features

• Prototyping: Use no-code to develop high-fidelity, interactive prototypes parallel to your designs.

• Online Whiteboard: Collaborate on product solutions with virtual whiteboarding.

• Strategic planning tool: This function is for inclusive, conclusive, and motivated planning and strategizing among teammates.

Pricing

Figma categorizes their pricing under Figma for design and dev and FigJam for whiteboarding. Both include 4 plans, including a Free Forever plan and their Professional plans for students and professionals.

FigJam for Whiteboarding

Pros

• Cutting-edge web template design

• Excellent real-time collaboration features

• Ideal for wireframing, prototyping, and mockups

Cons

• Sharing permissions can be confusing

UXCam

Best for combined user Insight 

UXCam is “the single source of truth for mobile app user behavior.” Our market-leading SDK delivers combined user insights for granular details to back product design. Your teams can validate design hypotheses, track app success, and more.

Relevant features

• Session Replay: Add to your user research through auto-captured session recordings of users naturally interacting with your app. Understand why users drop off for more CRO opportunities.

• User Journeys: See how users navigate your app to identify problems, uncommon behavior, and frustration points.  Learn behavioral patterns by group behavior, such as new or churned users.

• Heatmaps: To further support your hypothesis, gain a 360-degree understanding of why users drop off and other revenue-impacting actions. See the most popular UI elements and the impact of your design refinements.

• Dashboards: Monitor and analyze all your KPIs, app trends, and patterns with customizable team dashboards.

Pricing

We offer flexible pricing for companies of all sizes, and plans start with a 14-day free trial. And you won’t need to hand over your credit card details.Need more more information? You can easily schedule a 1-1 demo

Pros

• Tagless auto-capture collects micro-interactions and frustration gestures

• Supports popular app integrations, including Adobe Analytics, and Firebase

• Market-leading lightweight SDK

Cons

• Limited app integrations

FlowMapp

Best for UX Design Collaboration

FlowMapp is a unified UX platform to help product teams streamline user flow designing, user journey mapping, prototyping, flowcharting, and more.

Relevant Features

• Flow Chart: Use their flow chart diagrams for a quick way to enhance app UX and map out user journeys.

• User Flow: Leverage User Flow diagrams to plan UX and enhance your customer journey paths.

Pricing

FlowMapp offers four pricing tiers: a Free Plan for individuals and digital nomads with 1 project and 100 MB storage; a Pro Plan for professionals at $16/month (or $8.80/month annually) with 5 projects and 10 GB storage; a Team Plan for teams at $50/month (or $27.50/month annually) with unlimited projects and 25 GB storage for up to 5 members; and an Agency Plan for agencies at $180/month (or $99/month annually) with unlimited projects and 50 GB storage. All plans include a free 14-day trial.

Pros

• FlowMapp can connect to several teams, like Marketing, for example.

• Great templates for mapping user journeys

• Option to assign different access levels for teams and clients

Cons

• Unable to create and customize multiple templates for various projects

Mural

Best for templates and whiteboarding 

Mural allows teams to solve complex problems through brainstorming and mind-mapping. Their virtual whiteboards and canvases let teams draw, pin images, add notes, and more while interacting in real-time.

Relevant features

• Mapping and Diagramming: Create straightforward maps, flows, processes, journeys, and more, with visual collaboration.

• Templates: Their pre-built templates can be a starting point for any collaboration session, including project kick-off meetings.

• Integrations and Apps: Enhance collaboration and workflows by integrating Mural with your team’s favorite apps.

Pricing

Mural has 4 plans and charges per member on their premium plans. The Freemium plan has a generous selection of features for unlimited members to get your team started.

Pros

• Powerful whiteboards supporting several file types

• Great for facilitating remote meetings

• Easy to use

Cons

• The export function can be unreliable at times

Sketch

Best for App Design on MacOS

Sketch is a vector graphics editor for macOS. Many product teams use it to design the UI and UX of mobile apps and websites.

Relevant features

• Landmark vector editing: Iterate your work with ease at any stage of the design process. 

• Prototyping tools: Built user journeys quickly with prototyping tools built for speed with reusable UI elements.

• Reliable Libraries: Build a library of your layer styles, text styles, color variables, and more to apply to all your documents and share with colleagues.

Pricing

Sketch offers a 30-day free trial across all three plans.

Pros

• Comprehensive and easy-to-follow user guide

• Option to design on or offline. Internet connection not required

• Accommodates an infinite number of customizable plugins

Cons

• Only available for MacOS

What are product design tools?

Product design tools support designers in creating and developing digital designs as they follow the product design process.

Source

Their functionality includes simulation, analysis, and collaboration capabilities to ensure the result is a high-quality user-centered product.

Why are product design tools important for mobile app teams?

Boosts productivity and supports easy collaboration

Product design platforms help teams increase productivity by streamlining design tasks. Most tools will keep all your project data centralized, so when it comes to development hand-off, all requirements, specs, and key information can be seamlessly integrated to code the desired product.

As all this information is in one place, it provides easier access to all team members and prevents any collaborative bottlenecks.

Maximizes ROI and long-term business impact

McKinsey & Company's global management consultancy firm investigated the correlation between product design efforts and business results. They analyzed design procedures and financial performance across 300 businesses and found companies that stand out in product design also produce higher returns for shareholders compared to other businesses in their industry.

Source

Help understand the current limitations of the app

Product design tools allow teams to observe users' in-app interactions. The best tools can group common behaviors through customer segmentation, like churned users, for example. With details about user habits, frustrations, needs, and wants, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of customer hindrances and the fixes your business needs to implement to keep those users onboard.

Criteria to consider when choosing product design tools

• Customizable: There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to product design tools. It should support integration with 3rd party apps to streamline your workflows and enhance your software stack.

• Easy learning curve and good support: A complex UI with tons of features that won’t be used can hamper productivity. Choose one with a simple and clean design and intuitive UI. Moreover, check their customer support reviews and whether they have help documentation or a community where teams can get their questions answered quickly.

Compatibility: Ensure it offers cross-compatibility so there are no problems working with multiple platforms and popular browsers.

Product design starts with deep user behavior insights

Indeed it does.

To design high-quality apps, the tool you go for should focus on collecting as much natural data on how users interact with your app as possible. Functionality such as session replays, heatmaps, and journey analysis are necessary for granular insights. And an excellent dashboard to make the information clear and actionable.

Consider UXCam to take your product design processes to the next level, with insights into common and unusual behavior, frustration signals, and more based on undisturbed interaction. Start your free trial today, or ask one of our experts to show you how powerful UXCam is with a demo.

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