Every designer and developer has a few essential tools they can’t live without. For me, it’s a mix of docked apps, keyboard shortcuts, and trusty online tools. These are the ones that keep my workflow smooth and my creativity flowing, day in and day out.
The Key Players
Raycast — Take back control of your computer
A Spotlight (or Alfred) replacement on steroids. From the calculator that lets me type in natural language, the super useful clipboard history that holds up to 256 entries, AI chats in any window, third-party extension support, keyboard shortcuts and the mahoosive online community, Raycast does it all. They just completed a Series B of funding in order to bring all that productivity to Windows and iOS.
Arc — My internet, my way
The browser seeking to reinvent the internet. Arc, a beautiful web browser birthed by The Browser Company, New York, has lived on my dock since the first day I tried it. I find my workflow super neat when using Arc and I open way less tabs. The spaces and AI features are godsends. I love how I can find anything on a webpage by simply asking a question. It’s build atop the Chromium platform so it supports the all my favourite Chrome extensions.
Notion — My second brain
I have used Notion for years for all my note-taking activities. It’s quite literally, my second brain. I use the databases a lot, and the ability to deep link and nest pages is such an underrated feature. I don’t use Notion AI a lot, though, as I have always preferred ChatGPT and Claude for more conversational tasks and I organise my files well so I don’t AI search a lot either.
Figma — Where my ideas take shape
Because, obviously. I use Figma for everything design related. From quick ideating to short inspiration dumps to illustration design to web design to app design to quick photo editing. And when you go deep into the rabbit hole that is the rich plugin ecosystem, you unlock endless possibilities. I like the new features they’ve been dropping lately, and ever since they acquired Magician, I know they’re absolutely gonna cook with Figma AI. One thing I see in the foreseeable future is them introducing Figma Sites. I’m calling it now.
Framer — As the final boss of prototyping or as a static web builder
The web builder that took the internet by storm. Framer, which actually started as a prototyping tool, is a tool I’ve found myself using quite a lot recently, and it has lived up to my expectations. It has a big community behind it too and amazing customer support. The team is always ready to help and they’d sometimes even jump into your files (with permission of course) and fix the issues for you. Super cool. Plugins are also amazing.
Todoist — Tasks and lists, the right way
This is my go-to task app. I’ve tried a lot of task management apps in the past, even tried making my own, but I always find myself coming back to Todoist. The interface is so intuitive and I love how I can just type in natural language and the app would pick up what I mean.
Shottr — Beautiful screenshots
The screenshot app that I’ve loved. This is what I use for everyday screenshots. It’s free and does everything you’d expect from a screenshot app. It has a beautiful UI that lets you annotate, crop, scribble on and reimagine screenshots, customisable keyboard shortcuts and a built in OCR feature. The only thing I’d like them to add is screen recording.
Cosmos — For moments of inspiration
Cosmos is an inspiration and discovery platform that lets you save links, curate items into ‘clusters’ and share them with anyone. It has a sleek minimal interface that prioritises user experience. The recommendations algo works flawlessly, too. It has replaced Pinterest in my workflow.
Visual Electric —For AI images you can control
A collaborative AI image generator for designers. It runs on VE2, their in-house image generation pipeline that gives you a ton of customisation options of the images you generate. You can choose a style, or explore and find inspiration from the discover feed. It gives you an option to edit the image after it has been generated, and you can remix styles too.
Same Energy — Visual search made easy
A visual search engine based on machine learning. Search for an image, and it gives you similar images that have the ‘same energy’ as the one you searched for/clicked on. Perfect for seeking inspiration or for one of those moments when you feel you need to feast your eyes on some vintage graphic posters. I know it’s not just me who does this.
Some more apps I’d like to try
Rive — The design tool that creates functional graphics
An advanced, interactive animation tool for designers and developers to create and integrate vector animations directly into apps and websites. With Rive, you can create real-time animations that respond to user inputs, making it a powerful tool for adding dynamic, interactive content. It’s primarily aimed at creating interactive animations, like animated icons, loading animations, or complex UI interactions, which can all be customised to react to various triggers or inputs.
Spline — 3D design without the hassle
A 3D design tool that enables designers to create, edit, and interact with 3D models and animations directly in the browser. Unlike traditional 3D software, Spline is designed for web-based projects, with a user-friendly interface that makes it accessible for designers without extensive 3D experience. It’s popular for creating immersive web experiences, where users can interact with 3D objects in real time.
Play — Prototype iOS apps like a boss
A mobile app design and prototyping tool built with the power of iOS and Swift. Play lets you design and prototype apps with ease using native iOS materials, like date pickers, maps and input fields, and brings over their in-built functionality right out of the box. Play also lets you share your prototypes as AppClips, a super fast and lightweight way to preview an iOS apps without the need to install it.
Having a set of go-to tools, whether docked or just a few clicks away, keeps me productive, inspired, and organised. Whatever I’m doing, this setup works for me because every tool has its purpose. If you haven’t tried some of these, check them out — they might just find a permanent place in your workflow too.