Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Tiago Machado

These are the best Mac apps out there for the job

This is a personal list featuring the essential tools and apps for my daily workflow, which is mainly focused on management, design and front-end development. Most of them are productivity apps so you’re going to see some pretty obvious options here, but I think it’s important to see the big picture, not only the pro apps.

I use an Apple ecosystem and the apps listed below are mainly for macOS and iOS. But since I prefer cross-platform apps, some of them may also be available for other systems or as web apps. Do you know better options than the ones below? Please let me know.

Google Drive

If I could only have one app or tool my choice would definitely be Google Drive. For three reasons: data synchronisation between all my devices, backup redundancy and collaboration (Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms, etc.).

Nowadays I only save data inside the Google Drive folders on my devices, which enables me to have an always up-to-date backup of my work, on all my machines (but with the selective sync turned on) and accessible online and everywhere. The biggest caveat of the Google Drive is that the macOS client doesn’t have automatic updates, from time to time you should update it manually.

Yes, I tried Dropbox, but it can’t compete with the value proposition of the G Suite (disclaimer: I also have a monthly iCloud plan to sync my photos across all my Apple devices—moving the Photos App library inside the Google Drive folder isn’t a good idea).

Get it on drive.google.com.
Cost: free and paid plans. I pay €9.99/month for 1 TB.

Mail & Calendar

When things work why should you complicate? The Mail and Calendar app (along with Slack and Todoist), are my main communication and management tools (ok, Asana also, but only to manage the team projects at Técnico Lisboa). At first I struggled to incorporate the use of the calendar in my daily routine, but now I am much more productive and never fail an appointment (plus now I’m always on time). Time management matters, even more when you have to lead a team of 10+ people.

Default apps on macOS and iOS.
Cost: free.

Slack

First I didn’t care, then I started loving it, and now its just inevitable. It’s a great tool to communicate with your team(s), but can also quickly become a burden if it’s overused. Still, it’s a great tool and if properly used can make your team more productive with asynchronous communication. Pro tip: turn off all the alerts on your mobile phone and all the alerts from the channels that aren’t critical (on all your devices) or else you’ll go insane (and not only in da membrane). You have been warned.

Get it on slack.com.
Cost: free and paid plans. I use the free plan.

Asana

Let me be clear: I don’t love Asana (it isn’t even a Mac app). But I have to admit: for large companies or big teams with tons of projects that want a powerful management tool it’s probably the best choice. For smaller teams and less complex setups you’ll be better with Todoist (my personal favourite).

Get it on asana.com.
Cost: free and paid plans. I use the free plan.

Todoist

IMHO the best project management tool out there for small teams and less complex projects. The free plan lacks essential features, so you kinda need to use the premium plan. The good news is that if you google it right, you can get several promo codes to test Todoist premium for free during months. When I started using management apps I struggled to incorporate them into my daily routines, but now, I simply couldn’t live without them. Productivity FTW.

Get it on todoist.com.
Cost: free and paid plans. I pay €28.99/year (Todoist Premium plan).

1Password

The best password manager out there. It took me a while to get used to it, but now it’s an integral part of my setup on any device. You should stop being lazy and start taking your online security seriously. I only did it when I got my Airbnb account “hacked” due to a password leak on another website. Not sure if any of your accounts have ever been compromised? Check it out on haveibeenpwned.com.

Get it on 1password.com.
Cost: individual and family plans. I pay €4.99/month (Family plan).

Little Snitch

This is probably the first app I install on any new Mac. Every single app you install tries to phone home from time to time. Sometimes those attempts are legit and aim to improve your experience with the app. Sometimes they’re not. There’s when Little Snitch comes in: it blocks any outgoing connection until you aprove it. And if you’re really into privacy, you can also check their Micro Snitch app, which monitors your camera and microfone activity (i.e. warns you when there are apps spying on you).

Get it on http://ift.tt/2p3p4aE.
Cost: €29.95

Flux

When I first heard of it I wasn’t particularly excited, but now I do miss it when its not running. Flux basically optimizes the display color according to the place you’re in, all the time: warm at night and like sunlight during the day. If you’re worried about colour accuracy you can disable it for certain apps, but overall you’ll want to have it turned on. Pinky swear.

Get it on justgetflux.com.
Cost: free.

BetterSnapTool

This is one of those tools that at first doesn’t seem necessary, and now I simply can’t live without it. BetterSnapTool creates “hot areas” on your screen to which you can drag your windows in order to be automatically resized.

Get it on the Mac App Store.
Cost: €2.99.

TextEdit

Yep, TextEdit. It’s probably the most underrated app ever, but for me it’s a productivity enhancer. By not having too much control over text appearance I can focus on what really matters: content. I always—and I mean always—do a meeting minutes. I can’t state how important this is if you’re managing a team or multiple projects.

You see, your brain is a little faulty thing—as everyone’s else—and sometimes people will say you committed to do something that probably wasn’t even discussed in the meeting. Your meeting minutes are there for when those issues arise, and TextEdit (or Google Docs) is the perfect app for the job. Pro tip: mail it at the end of the meeting to everyone.

Default app on macOS.
Cost: free.

Apple Keynote

There’s no point in doing great work if you can’t present it right. I used to prepare presentations on InDesign just because I wanted to have advanced control over text appearance, undervaluing the impact of motion in a presentation. It was pure stupidity: in a presentation you don’t want to show pages of a book, you want to tell an engaging story in a dynamic way. Apple’s Keynote is the app for that.

Get it on the Mac App Store.
Cost: free.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Can’t fake it: although there are already good alternatives like Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, in what relates to features, they still struggle to compete with household names like Photoshop and Illustrator. But those aren’t even the apps that would be a deal breaker for me, that title would have to go to InDesign. If you’re a typography lover, you know that there’s no better app to release the full potential of fonts as InDesign.

Get it on creative.adobe.com.
Cost: €61.49/month.

Sketch

The best app for digital design, period. It doesn’t matter if you’re designing interfaces for web, desktop, mobile, tv or wearables: Sketch is your tool. And the design tools survey confirms it.

You should also consider using:

Sketch Mirror (iOS app)
User Flows (plugin)
Craft (plugin)

Get it on sketchapp.com.
Cost: $99.

InVision

Again, not really a Mac app, but an essential design tool nonetheless. InVision lets you prototype, collaborate and gather feedback on your projects and it’s an utmost important tool to any iterative design process. Marvel is also a great alternative for this job.

Get it on invision.com.
Cost: free and paid plans. Since I’m a lecturer, InVision offered me the Professional plan, free of charge.

ImageOptim

If you care about user experience you care about performance. And in today’s web, where mobile devices are becoming the primary channel to go online, every byte counts, even more when you’re on a 4G connection. So please, do your users a favor: optimize those huge retina images before you upload them, everyone will thank you.

Get it on imageoptim.com.
Cost: free.

Sublime Text

Let me be honest: I don’t do a lot of front-end nowadays but my team does, every single day, and Sublime Text is also part of their setup. Sublime Text is a powerful and sophisticated text editor with awesome advanced features. I used to use Panic’s Coda, which is also a cool app (with a buit-in FTP client, version control and even a terminal), but moved to Sublime Text since.

Get it on sublimetext.com.
Cost: $70 (you can test it for free without time limits—aka you can use it for free—, but please be a nice guy and support the team behind it).

CodeKit

Having a great text editor is just the start. CodeKit does the rest: it helps you compile, preview, optimize and build your projects. I can’t state how awesome this little thing is. If you’re serious about web development but don’t want to die using Apple’s Terminal for repetitive tasks, go get this.

Get it on codekitapp.com.
Cost: $34.

SourceTree

Version control for the masses: keep track of your projects by visualizing and managing your Git repositories on your mac. Bitbucket.org is a great place to host your repositories (free for small teams up to 5 users).

Get it on sourcetreeapp.com.
Cost: free.

Transmit

The best macOS FTP client. If you work for the web you need one of these.

Get it on panic.com/transmit.
Cost: $34.

Spotify

Music is essential to my well-being and to focus while working. I have the app open all day, mostly on my iMac or MacBook Pro. At the office I usually have my wireless phones connected (Bowers & Wilkins P5), but at home I use a wireless speaker (Bose SoundLink Mini). When commuting or doing sports I rarely listen to music, but when I do, I use my iPhone with the standard Apple EarPods. I already tried Apple Music: it sucks.

Get it on spotify.com.
Cost: free and paid plans. I pay €10.99/month (Premium for Family).

You may be wondering why I haven’t put Microsoft Office on this list, but the reason is simple: I prefer the Google versions of those apps (at least for simple tasks). As I stated before, this is a personal list with several productivity and pro apps, and my intention is to give you a big picture of my setup. I hope you will do the same with yours, I’m truly interested to see which software do you use for the same tasks.

Questions or comments? Leave them below.
Thanks for reading!

My list of essential tools and apps for design & front-end development was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My list of essential tools and apps for design & front-end development

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