Online design thinking tools can come in handy—they help you organize your thoughts and plan your trajectory towards completion.
That’s because design thinking can be a bit…complex. Ideas with team members are all over the place, revisions are never-ending, brainstorm results get lost, scope-creep is nearly inevitable.
Here are answers to a few basic design thinking questions to get you started, with more on the best tools below.
What Do Design Thinking Tools Do?
Design thinking tools help overcome complex problems; for example, you may need to facilitate a design sprint and you’ll want some way to make sure the design thinking process, mind maps, and user research all come together nicely in a finished product.
Design thinking tools will also help organize the iterative process: that is, building and improving upon what you already have.
This article will help you quickly compare and evaluate the best design thinking tools available right now.
List Of The 10 Best Design Thinking Tools
Here’s a shortlist of the best online design thinking tools:
Find overviews and screenshots of these tools below.
Design Thinking Tools Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best design thinking tools? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria for design thinking remote tools:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Are ideas easy to post and group together by theme?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Is the user experience satisfying and engaging?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other online tools? Any pre-built integrations? Can it connect to storage software like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, or OneDrive? Can they connect to graphics or icon databases, like The Noun Project or Adobe?
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent, and flexible? Design thinking tools tend to range from $29 to $$$ per month, on average—does the tool fall far outside of that range? How many collaborators are included in the monthly or yearly cost? How many user persona are included in the cost?
Key Features
- Experience/Empathy map canvas.
- Journey map (or use a specialized journey mapping tool).
- Storyboard solutions.
- Persona profiles.
- Brainstorming tools.
- Wireframe tools.
- Rapid prototyping (or explore more prototyping tools).
- User feedback mechanisms.
- Human insights platform.
- CX/UX design.
- User testing.
- Mobile app testing.
- Collaboration tools.
- IDEO templates.
- Meeting notes/note-taking tools/sticky notes.
- Prioritization solutions.
- Built-in business processes.
- Iderative princess tools.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Design Thinking Tools
Here’s a brief description of each of the design thinking remote tools on my list showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.
1. Userforge – Best empathizing design thinking tool
2. Smaply – Best tool for journey mapping
3. Invision – Best design thinking tool for rich, interactive prototypes
4. Creatlr – Best design thinking tool for collaboration with large groups
5. Sprintbase – Best software for remote design thinking
6. Marvel – Best design thinking tool for rapid prototyping & testing
7. Stormboard – Best tool for building a shared workspace
8. Mural – Best for design thinking tool for enterprise collaboration
9. Shape – Best design thinking tool for customization
10. UserTesting – Best design thinking tool for real-time feedback from users
Other Online Design Thinking Tools
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Conceptboard – Best for built-in screen share and video chat
- Ideaflip – Best free online design thinking tool
- Boords – Best web-based storyboarding software
- Miro – Best agile design thinking tool (includes huddle boards)
- Mockingbird – Best drag and drop UI elements
- Digisite – Best for design thinking tool for marketing, CX/UX, and innovation teams
- Batterii – Best tool for turning video reviews into insight reports
Free Design Thinking Tools & Toolkits
Though they may have some limitations compared to their paid-subscription counterparts, using a free design tool is a great option for smaller teams or those looking to simply test the waters of the software first.
Free possible solutions include:
What Do You Think?
Design thinking tools can help you plan a successful product from start to finish. It’s a way to organize your design process so that no note is forgotten. They can help you visualize where you are and where you are going.
Have you tried any of the design thinking tools listed above? What online design thinking tool would you add to this list?
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