Google Chrome is one of the best browsers in this world, with an estimated 2.65 billion users using it regularly. Having a great popularity across the world makes it also a prime focus for the designer and developer community. There are many designers and developers that use Google chrome and there are several optional extensions, add-ons, plugins available online that can bring out more productivity and improve the development process.
Why use the Chrome extensions for designing?
There are many tools and software that are used by designers. But no tool is limitless. There would be times when you start to get annoyed by these limitations you would either switch to another tool or try to find a tool that is specifically built to resolve that issue. There are tools that have missing features, or have cumbersome workflow, and these reasons alone are a reason to look for alternative options.
Chrome plugins and extensions that are mentioned in this blog would provide you with most of the features and functionalities that are utmost required in the designing process. As a professional working with a UI UX development company, there is a chance that some of the plugins mentioned are already in your use. But it is an exciting list, check out all the tools and see which is the next add-on you need.
We have collected together a selection of hand-picked plugins that are widely used in the development company. These can be used in various design areas, and also ensure smoother workflow and sheer boost of creativity. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
Best Google Chrome Extensions that you must try out
1. Muzli
Inspiration is very necessary for any designer, and there is no better way to fasten that process than to see some of the best designs built by people in the community. Muzli offers you the same. It is a new browser plugin and a mobile application that is used by over 500K designers, developers and project managers. It offers you expertly curated design inspiration, UI & UX designs, news and shots from around the world.
You will find a variety of graphic designs, art, illustrations, typography, photography, architecture, fashion and technology related stuff on the platform. Also, they believe in continuous improvements and hence you can always expect something amazing from this tool. The content on the platform is also customizable and thus offers a great flexibility in the work operations.
2. Loom
Not always the words are enough to convey the issues to the team. Especially when you are collaborating from far off. Working from home or in office, it is important for a company to ensure the communication between a team is at par. Collaboration becomes easy with Loom as it helps you screen record and send out messages to the team. Using the tool makes it easy for you to show the bugs, user-flow and animation on which you need discussion with the team. Rather than just merely confusing the team with words. The best thing about this tool is that it is FREE!
3. Toybox
Toybox may be a common name if you are already a working professional at a front-end web development company. It is an inspect tool for CSS and helps immensely in the development of a website. It allows you to add feedback, take screenshots, and record the browser data. The tool also provides OS information, view port size and other things that allows you to optimize the design of the product.
4. WhatFont
Another tool which is not at all uncommon to use by a web designer. Fonts make websites look so much different, they change the entire feel of the website and impact the visitor psychology to a great extent. And when you come across a website that has the perfect font that fits your website needs, how do you know the name? Here is the answer, use WhatFont and know the name of the font you like in seconds, and simply search it. It also gives you information about the weight and size of the font.
5. Dark Reader
If you are designing a website that requires a dark theme you gotta have this tool. Dark Reader is one of those amazing tools that allows you to put a dark mode on any website. Since dark modes are so popular nowadays, a lot of clients would be requesting a dark mode. Hence you can use this tool to see the themes in dark mode that are similar to your structure and present it to your clients for brainstorming. This easy tool takes off a lot of burden from your hands when convincing a client from a design perspective.
6. ColorPick Eyedropper
Remember the times when you were a kid and played with the Paint eyedropper tool. ColorPick Eyedropper is going to be equally fun. The tool allows you to pick out a color from the website easily, along with the color code information. It even comes with a magnification tool that allows you to pick the exact color you want.
7. CSS Peeper
Want to take a peek inside a website? What better tool than CSS peeper that allows you to inspect the CSS from the website. This is a tool which is a visual version of the chrome developer too. It is an amazing aid for designers which is quick and easy to use.
8. UX Check
UX Check is a designer tool which has helped thousands of its users to identify the usability issues on a website using heuristic evaluation. This tool gives you a shortcut to identify problems in the UX. Heuristics refers to the mental shortcuts that allow people to access any product. Inshort, it is about cognitive biases and thus helps you identify if the UI of the website is easily understood by the user. This tool helps you also create a custom heuristic list and run evaluations.
9. Site Palette
Colors are so much fun and for a designer it is the world. This handy browser extension helps you create color palettes. As a designer, who is better than you to understand the importance of the color palettes in the designing of a site. Using Site Palette you can use the tool frontend development. Most of all it comes with a free color scheme extraction which fastens the process of brainstorming.
10. SVG Export
For a website to function fast, and provide an amazing experience it is essential that you use the correct version of images. There are a variety of image versions, however if you are not wanting to use an SVG file then you can use this tool. SVG Export scans the website for SVG files and exports them to JPEG and PNG.
Wrapping Up
Hope you enjoyed the blog. These were some tried and tested tools that have been used for making the frontend development process fast and simple. Don’t forget to try them out and tell us how you like them.
Author Bio
Prashant Pujara is CEO and founder of MultiQoS Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an ever-emerging leading golang web development company whose aim is to make customers business succeed. He believes customer success to be firm success and ensures that MultiQoS always assists clients in reaching their full potential with the support of its top personnel in the standard development method they have created for the organisation.