User experience

How your customers and visitors use your website really matters. If your site is simple, functional, and does the job, they’ll love it. If it’s difficult to navigate or glitchy, they won’t.

UX is a whole genre of design on its own, but that doesn’t mean you need to hire an expert to get it right. These tools will help you create a website that makes it easy for your customers to buy, sign up, and subscribe.

Here you can browse UX design tools, including wireframes, wireflows, and sitemaps. Instead of scribbling things down on paper, you can map them out digitally with clever drag and drop tools.

Who’s it for?

Freelancers and small business owners making a custom website or landing page.

Good bits

• It’s much cheaper than hiring a professional to design your website’s architecture.
• If you’re designing your own website from scratch, these tools are all pretty essential and not badly priced either.

Not so good bits

• If you’re not comfortable with some design tools already, these could be tricky to use.
• Already using Squarespace or Wix? Their templates are designed with UX in mind already, so UX Tools would be an expensive extra you probably don’t need.

Free-o-meter

1/5

Prices: Basic logo – £20. Premium – £59. Enterprise – £168.

The basic package isn’t bad, but you only get a PNG file and you can’t edit your logo later. For £59 you get PNG, SVG, PDF, and EPS files, resizable vectors, readymade social media assets and brand guidelines. The most expensive package gives you a few more options, including retouching from an actual designer.

This simple wireframe tool helps you easily map out your website, app, or landing page. Communicating with developers can be difficult. This helps you explain exactly what you want, and gets your website live faster.

Who’s it for?

Business owners handing their website design over to a developer to build.

Good bits

• You can use most of the features without paying a thing.
• No coding, just all the easy drag and drop tools you’re already familiar with.
• You can do everything with Marvel – create the wireframe, hand it over to your developer, prototype it, test it, and more.

Not so good bits

• Animations and transitions between pages and screens are a bit limited.
• If you’re using a Wix or Squarespace template, you probably won’t need a tool like this.

Free-o-meter

4/5

 Prices: $12-$84 a month. (You have to pay for the whole year at once)

For just one user and one design project, it’s free. If you pay a bit extra, you can download your prototypes offline and add other users. There’s a 7-day free trial on offer to help you get used to it before you pay up.

This heatmap and A/B testing tool helps you find out how your site visitors are really using your website. You’ll see if they’re bothering to watch that introductory video, and how far they’re scrolling down the page.

Who’s it for?

Small business owners that want to test their UX before they start investing in new ways to grow.

Good bits

• As well as getting all this valuable data, you can put it into practice with A/B testing.
• This is one of the most affordable heatmap tools for small businesses.
• Loads of segmenting options. You can see who clicked where depending on device, whether they’re new/returning, how they found your site, and more.

Not so good bits

• Some users have found it time-consuming to manage. Going through all the screen recordings and data is a big job!
• It can be hard to interpret the results if you have a complex website layout.
• Crazy Egg isn’t automated, so you have to manually set it up on specific pages of your site.

Free-o-meter

2/5

Prices: $24-$249 a month

The Basic package is decent and should be plenty if your site gets fewer than 30,000 visits a month. There’s also a 30-day free trial that you can cancel at any time.

If you’re into colour coded mind maps, get ready to have a very good day. Creately gives you template flowcharts, diagrams, wireframes, and much more. They’re perfect for mapping out your website and sharing with your designer.

Who’s it for?

Small business owners working with remote designers and developers.

Good bits

• It’s simple to use – drag and drop, add text, and move stuff wherever you want.
• Pricing based on user number is really good value for small businesses.
• Easy to share ideas and comments with whoever you’re collaborating with.

Not so good bits

• There’s no mobile version yet.
• Some of the templates are a bit restricted, so you have to work with the options they give you.

Free-o-meter

4/5

Prices: Priced based on number of users. Packages range from $5 (1 user) to $750 (500 users) a month

There’s a free package available which gives you 5 diagrams or less. A lot of small businesses wouldn’t need to pay much more than $25 a month for 5 users.