Productivity Tips and Web Apps for Design Teams

Whether you are looking for a top-quality tool to support your web design activities, one that will address your project management and collaboration needs, or one that serves both purposes, you need look no further.

We have listed in this post seven of the best web apps available on the market. Several of these specifically address project management and collaboration support. All of them feature collaboration capabilities, but several address web page or prototype building activities as well.

To sweeten the pot, we’ve included several productivity tips worth keeping in mind while using these online productivity enhancers.

How to avoid wasting time & improve team productivity?

Here are three ways you can avoid wasting time, and improve team productivity levels at the same time:

1. Start with the most difficult tasks

It is always tempting to initiate a project by doing the easy tasks first. This approach can be a mistake. Putting off the more difficult tasks until later can make progress even more difficult as you go along – especially when other tasks are dependent on them.

2. Use the "touch it once" principle

Whenever you receive a new assignment, action item, or a piece of important information, either act on it immediately or schedule it for action at a specific time. Send unimportant items it to the trash so you won’t waste time reviewing them again. This principle is a time saver in more ways than one.

3. Create a library of files

Start off a project in an organized manner. In fairness to your team, keep the most used design resources in a single place or folder from which they can easily be accessed. Time spent in storing information in logically-named files will pay dividends by avoiding excessive amounts of search time down the road.

Following the first two tips may take some getting used to, but once you get in the habit of doing so, you will find your work will flow more smoothly. When you create your library of files, spend a little extra time on naming conventions. You will find it is time well spent.

Web apps for design teams

Now, let’s turn our attention seven of the best web apps for design teams currently available.

Pidoco

Pidoco is a popular online prototyping tool that addresses a variety of design activities. It is the choice of design teams in more than 50 countries.

This web-based app also serves as an effective collaboration tool that enables multiple designers to work together on a given prototype, versioning included. As a user, you are given a wide range of interactive elements and icons to build your prototype. In addition, you can create custom templates to speed up your workflow.

Pidoco’s collaboration features allow team members to work and communicate with one another in real time. Plus, it fully supports testing on smartphones and tablets – you can test interactive prototypes on real devices at any stage of the design process, and has project management features such as issue tracking.

Picodo has 4 different plans available and you can sign up for a free 31-day trial to test it out.

Proto.io

Proto.io is another popular online prototyping and collaboration tool for prototyping native apps for mobile devices. It features built-in widget libraries for Material Design, Android 4, iOS 7 and 8, and Windows devices

It supports gestures and transitions, especially in the area of interactions and animations. You can either use the built-in native UI elements for the above device prototypes or import your own.

With Proto.ioyou can create prototypes that are very realistic , without using any code. Sharing a prototype is easy with a short URL and you can have an unlimited amount of reviewers to leave you feedback through comments and annotations. Proto.io is used by some of the world’s best startups, agencies and corporations.

Creately

Creately is a project management and collaboration tool, but as the name implies, it features wireframe and mockup design support capabilities as well. Its web-based drag and drop interfaces let you rapidly design web pages, sales pages, and blogs.

The extensive object libraries, combined with a clutter-free drawing area and professional templates, help get your project off to a fast start and enable you to create interactive wireframes in no time at all.

Creately also features a real-time collaboration capability, complete with version control. A free version is available for you to experiment with.

Paymo

Let Paymo be the silent assistant that takes care of your project management needs. This neat web tool is all you need to keep everyone and everything in sync, and keep your project under control.

With Paymo in your toolkit, you and your team can focus on design while this web app takes care of the business of assigning tasks, providing milestone alerts, and displaying project overviews on demand. If wasted time and miscommunication have been causing headaches, this web app is the remedy.

Notism Collaboration

Discussing visual content in a team environment can at times be a time-consuming, frustrating, and thankless task. Notism makes it possible to cut through the clutter with its ability to turn static screens into interactive prototypes.

This time-saving feature is just one of this web app’s strengths. It is above all a presentation app. Its video collaboration capability is not only state-of-the-art, but it is a potential game-changer in the world on online, real-time collaboration. This web app is an ideal tool for conducting design reviews. Sign up for free, and give it a try.

MeisterTask

This task management app offers an ideal solution to small teams in search of a tool that will streamline their communications processes and increase their productivity.

MeisterTask’s dashboard keeps you up to date on notifications from your team, while the project boards let you see the status and progress of individual tasks at a glance.

Integrate MeisterTask with the popular MindMeister mind mapping app, and you can rapidly and easily transform ideas into workable concepts. Although it is intended for team use, this web app is also an excellent choice for individual web designers.

Final thoughts

The web apps presented here cover all the bases in project management and team collaboration. Depending on your specific needs, you will find that some are better choices than others, but all have much to offer.

If you are satisfied with your present design tool, you can focus on the project management and collaboration apps. If you need a design tool as well, there are some excellent candidates here as well. Check out the demos and free trial offers, and don’t neglect the productivity tips.