The design world has evolved rapidly, moving from traditional tools like paper and pencil to powerful workstations, and finally to mobile devices and cloud-based services. A modern designer is no longer just an artist, they are a multitasker whose workflow extends beyond the confines of an office. The effectiveness of their work directly depends on the quality of their digital toolkit.
Properly selected applications have become an extension of the designer’s mind, allowing them to instantly capture ideas, find inspiration, collaborate with colleagues, and bring projects to completion from anywhere in the world. This article will explore the key applications that will form the foundation of a productive workflow for designers in 2025.
Nicegram
Although Nicegram is an alternative client for Telegram, its importance in the designer’s toolkit cannot be underestimated. This tool is a powerful platform for professional development and visual reference.
One of the key features of Nicegram is its ability to subscribe to multiple channels and join large groups without restrictions. This is crucial for designers, as it allows them to access a wide range of design communities.
The advanced search function in chats and channels makes it easy to find discussions on specific topics, such as “neon typography” or “accessibility in interfaces”. The ability to save messages and files to a Favorites folder with a convenient tagging system helps designers create a personal library of knowledge and inspiration. For a designer working in a team, having multiple accounts can be beneficial. This allows you to keep your personal and work communications separate, while still being aware of all the discussions related to the project.
Procreate
Procreate is an app that has turned the iPad into a fully-fledged creative studio. It is rightfully considered the best in its category for digital painting, sketching, and illustration. Its strength lies in its perfect balance between intuitive interface and professional features. With a wide range of customizable brushes, support for high-resolution canvases, and powerful tools for working with layers and blending modes, Procreate is indispensable for both quick sketches and intricate finished pieces. For interface designers, it’s especially useful during the early stages of visual exploration, when it’s important to capture ideas without getting bogged down by the complexity of professional desktop software. The animation feature allows users to create simple GIFs or even prototypes for micro animations.
Spline
While the world is competing for users’ attention, 3D graphics have ceased to be a privilege of game design and film, confidently entering web, branding, and mobile interfaces.
Spline is a revolutionary tool that makes 3D accessible to designers without the need to dive into complex software like Blender or Cinema 4D. Its genius lies in its intuitive interface, similar to that of Figma and Sketch. You can create and edit 3D objects, customize materials, lights, and textures using layer logic and simple selection tools right in your browser.
But the real magic of Spline starts with interactivity. You can assign actions to objects based on user interactions—clicks, hovers, and mouse movements—and export the results as live, interactive elements that can be embedded in web pages using code or directly connected to Figma projects.. Imagine a futuristic website or mobile app where the background isn’t a video but a fully immersive 3D scene that users can interact with.
Raycast
Designers spend a significant amount of time not in the actual drawing process, but in organizing chaos: searching for files, switching between applications, taking screenshots, converting colors, and managing tasks.
Raycast is not just an app launcher like Spotlight on macOS, it’s a powerful ecosystem for automation that turns your operating system into a tool that obeys you. The philosophy behind it is to work with the keyboard without taking your hands off, which dramatically speeds up any task.
You press keyboard shortcuts, open the Raycast window, and start typing a command: not just “Open Photoshop,” but “Create a new canvas at 1920×1080 pixels,” “Convert HEX #FF5436 to RGB and copy to clipboard,” “Find the file ‘Final_market_v12.fig’ by content,” “Take a screenshot of this area and upload it to cloud with automatic link,” “Launch a local server for development,” or “Add a task to Trello tagged ‘Design.’” All this power is revealed through the extensions that the community creates. A designer can set up a personal command center, which not only saves hours of working time, but also helps to maintain a very creative focus that can easily be destroyed by minor distractions.
Kakuri
Getting high-quality, fast, and constructive feedback for your work is one of the biggest challenges for designers, especially when working alone or in small teams. Kakuri aims to solve this problem by using artificial intelligence trained on the principles of design and usability.
Kakuri is not just another AI assistant. It’s a virtual design review tool that helps you get detailed and structured feedback on your work. You simply upload a screenshot of your interface, illustration, or layout and Kakuri will provide you with an analysis of your design. It evaluates aspects such as composition, alignment, contrast, hierarchy, typography readability, accessibility (WCAG compliance), and even emotional perception of color palettes.
Instead of just pointing out mistakes, Kakuri suggests specific ways to improve your design, explaining why certain elements can be enhanced. It’s like having a skilled art director on your team who never gets tired and always provides helpful feedback. The tool is invaluable during the stage of self-checking before submitting the work to the client or before handing over the project to developers, as it allows you to catch those small details that your eyes may miss after many hours of work.
Conclusion
The evolution of a modern designer is measured not only by their speed in completing standard projects, but also by their ability to master new tools. These tools add a third dimension to a designer’s toolkit, providing intelligent automation, in-depth research, instant expertise, and cinematic interactivity.
By investing time in mastering these tools, designers can gain a unique competitive advantage—the ability to create innovative designs that others can only imagine. This efficiency frees up valuable time for pure, unrestricted creativity.