Physical & Digital Product Mockup Tools

Physical & Digital Product Mockup Tools

by | Jan 16, 2021 | Blog, Roundup

Updated April 29, 2021. See this twitter thread for details.

Not long ago, it was somewhat challenging to create simulated renderings of product mockups.

For example, visualizing what a cool new app would look like on an iPhone 3G or what your branding campaign might look like across mugs, boxes, apparel and more. Eventually, things got easier thanks to Adobe Photoshop (PSD) templates for static images and other video solutions.

Well, such design tasks have gotten even simpler thanks to a growing batch of apps that streamline workflows and offer powerful new layout features. This roundup of relatively new tools now makes the task of creating mockups for software and physical merchandise ridiculously easy.

Here are some notable characteristics of these modern solutions

  • Many are web apps
  • They include a library of different product mockups
  • There’s a variety of digital devices alongside packaging or clothing imagery
  • Some are for still images, while others offer motion
  • Some offer easy sharing or even team collaboration features

Let me know if I missed any apps that belong on this list.

Illustrations: Smile by AomAm, t-shirt by Kmg Design, application by Three Six Five, Package by Eucalyp, and Laptop by Visual Glow from the Noun Project

Web Browsers for Responsive Front-End Development & Testing

Web Browsers for Responsive Front-End Development & Testing

by | Sep 1, 2020 | Blog, Roundup

Updated January 14, 2021. See this twitter thread for details.

Several Web Browser apps want to make it easier for people & teams to test and develop Responsive Websites and Web applications iteratively.

These apps are different from services that offer static screen captures of web pages across various popular browser versions and operating systems. Such browser snapshot services have been around for a while and are certainly a helpful tool – especially when trying to do QA for legacy browsers that you plan to support.

In contrast, these specialized Web Browser DevTools focus on allowing Front-end devs to see a realtime synchronized view of responsive web content scrolling within multiple viewport ‘panes’ simultaneously.

This approach enables a website builder to review and compare the same design across various screen dimensions. Scanning multiple renderings all at once can help a developer iteratively fine-tune their layout to perform well on different device sizes.

While this multi-view in a single app approach may never truly replicate testing on the native target devices, such a browser can help you improve your coded results much quicker than a device lab alone.

Here’s a roundup of these unique web content viewing solutions.

Blisk

“Blisk is the first developer-oriented browser. It provides businesses with a development workspace for the teams and freelancers to develop and test modern web applications twice faster.”

Emmet Re:view

Emmet Re:view “A browser extension for displaying responsive web-pages in a side-by-side views to quickly test how it looks at different resolutions and devices.”

LT Browser by LambdaTest

LT Browser “Perform free automated and live interactive cross browser testing on 2000+ real browsers and real devices online.”

Polypane

Polypane “Improve your web dev workflow. All the tools you need to build responsive, accessible and performant sites five times faster.”

Responsively App

Responsively App “A dev-tool that helps with faster responsive web apps development. A must-have tool for all web developers. Free and Open Source!”

Sizzy

Sizzy “The browser for developers. Stop wasting time and speed up your development workflow.”

Here’s a copy of this list in an Airtable database that you can bookmark, follow or copy. If I missed any, please let me know or reply to this Twitter thread.

On-Demand Design Companies Offering Agency-like Services with SaaS-like Pricing

On-Demand Design Companies Offering Agency-like Services with SaaS-like Pricing

by | Feb 29, 2020 | Blog, Roundup

Updated January 18, 2021. See this twitter thread for details.

The design services landscape has undoubtedly evolved in the last decade.

Regardless of size or model, there’s been a rich history of graphic design services being a “relationships businesses.” Firms typically became known and trusted for their leadership, teams, and results. Reputation is still a factor today, but the variety of means for engaging with design practitioners continue to expand.

Outside agencies still exist and are now competing with the impulse within some companies to either build or acquire their own internal design teams. Individual freelancers and small boutique shops are looking for ways to specialize in countering these pressures. Freelancer marketplaces have been around for a while and focus on a race to the bottom in affordability.

An even more recent trend is the rise of design service companies that commoditize typical graphic and digital design production services and outputs and wrap them up in a SaaS (software as a service) styled capabilities model that offers predictability of pricing and flexibility of commitment.

The business world loves its acronyms. Perhaps this is model could be known as “On-Demand Design Services (ODDS)” or “Unlimited Design as a Service (UDaaS)” 🤓

What do these companies have in common?

  • Emphasis on a tiered fixed-price model, quite similar to SaaS companies
  • A contract-less monthly commitment that can be canceled any time
  • Ability to increase or decrease the scale of services needed month to month
  • They are usually remote-only, nobody shows up on-site to help you
  • Anonymity and variety, no guarantees that you can choose or know the designer(s) working on any given project
  • Proprietary online portals track all workflow processes, job requests, feedback, iterations, and sign off – asynchronously online.
  • They are headquartered around the globe
  • Many offer unlimited revisions
  • A promise of end-product ownership (IP, files, assets)
  • Some offer a “risk-free” trial period
  • Some target a mix of end-customers, from companies seeking design help to other agencies and freelance designers that need immediate assistance
  • Most emphasize graphic design production, NOT strategic thinking or brand creation

Here’s a copy of this list in an Airtable database that you can bookmark, follow or copy.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the above services, nor have a had the opportunity to work directly with any of them. This article is meant for information purposes only and is not a recommendation to purchase or use these services.

If I’ve missed any related companies, or if you are a business that has hired any of these companies in the past and wish to share your experiences – please get in touch.

Illustration: productive by Becris from the Noun Project

Experimental Network of Creative Resources Websites

by | Sep 27, 2015 | Blog

Twitter profile examples

Sketch Hunt inspires 3 other sibling sites

Affinity Hunt, Principle Hunt and Prototyper Hunt

After the spike in interest for Sketch Hunt, I decided to continue the experimenting. I’ve launched three additional sibling sites. Each one offers niche content for designers and developers:

These sites let me share information about new products that I’m personally interested in. They also also served the purpose of being a side-project and exercise in branding. (more…)