What tools do UX designers use?

UX designers use different tools depending on where they are in the design process. Figma is the industry standard for design and prototyping. Miro or FigJam are used for workshops and collaborative sessions. For user research, tools like Maze, Lyssna, and Dovetail are common. Analytics tools like Hotjar and Google Analytics help designers understand where users struggle before any design work begins.

Is Figma the industry standard for UX design?

Yes. Figma is used by the vast majority of product design teams in the UK and globally. It is web-based, collaborative, and covers wireframing, high-fidelity design, and prototyping in one place. If you are learning UX design, learning Figma is not optional — it is the single most important tool to know.

Do I need to pay for UX design tools?

Not to get started. Figma has a generous free tier that is more than enough for portfolio projects and learning. Miro, Maze, Lyssna, and Hotjar all have free plans. Most tools career-changers need during training cost nothing upfront. Paid plans become relevant once you are working in a team or running larger research studies.

What tools do UX designers use for research?

For unmoderated usability testing, Maze and Lyssna are the most widely used. For qualitative research analysis, Dovetail is the leading repository tool. Lookback is popular for moderated sessions with screen recording. For quick surveys, Google Forms and Typeform are reliable and free. Many designers also use Hotjar for heatmaps and session recordings to diagnose usability problems on live products.

UX Design Tools: The Full Stack Explained (2026)

A question that comes up constantly from people moving into UX design: "What tools do I need to learn?"

It is a fair question. UX design involves a range of different activities — sketching ideas, building wireframes, creating prototypes, running research sessions, analysing data — and different tools support each stage. Unlike a developer who might live in one IDE, a UX designer moves between several tools depending on the task.

But the toolkit is smaller than people expect. And if you are just starting out, the answer to "where do I begin?" is straightforward: start with Figma.

Start here: the honest advice for beginners

Before going through the full toolkit, one thing is worth saying directly.

Many people researching UX tools get overwhelmed by the number of options and try to learn several at once. That is the wrong approach. The tools that matter most early on are:

Figma — non-negotiable; learn this first
Miro or FigJam — for collaborative exercises
One research tool (Maze or Lyssna) — when you get to that stage of your training

Everything else can wait until you are in a role and a specific job requires it. The tool is never the barrier to getting hired. Your ability to do the thinking behind the tool is what matters.

Design and prototyping

This is where UX designers spend most of their screen time, and Figma dominates.

Figma

Figma is the industry standard for UX and product design. It is used by the vast majority of product teams, from early-stage startups to large organisations. If you are going to learn one tool, this is it.

What makes Figma the right choice:

Web-based and collaborative. You design in the browser. Your team can open the same file simultaneously and leave comments in real time — no emailing files back and forth.
Covers the full workflow. You can go from rough wireframe to polished high-fidelity screen to clickable prototype without leaving Figma.
Free tier is genuinely useful. The free plan lets you work on multiple files and share them publicly. For learning and building a portfolio, it is more than enough.
Industry adoption. Most job listings for UX roles expect Figma. In London especially, it is close to universal in product teams.

If you want to go deeper on Figma specifically, see our guides on what Figma is and how to get started with Figma as a beginner.

Adobe XD

Adobe XD was Adobe's answer to Figma. It is still used in some agencies that have deep Adobe Creative Suite workflows, but it has lost significant ground. Adobe itself announced in 2023 that it was deprioritising XD development. You do not need to prioritise learning it — if you know Figma, XD is easy enough to pick up if a specific role requires it.

Sketch

Sketch is a Mac-only design tool that was the industry standard before Figma. It is still present in some mature London design teams, particularly those that built their design systems before the shift to Figma. It is worth knowing it exists, but there is no good reason to prioritise it when you are starting out.

Verdict: learn Figma. The others are easy to pick up if a specific job requires them.

Wireframing and lo-fi sketching

Wireframing is the process of sketching out the structure of an interface before you commit to visual design. The tools here are intentionally rough — the point is to explore ideas quickly.

Paper and pen

Do not underestimate this. Experienced designers frequently start with paper sketches before opening any software. It is faster for early ideation, has no learning curve, and keeps you from getting attached to visual details too early. A whiteboard works equally well for team sessions.

Figma (wireframing kits)

Figma has built-in wireframing capabilities and a large library of free wireframe kits available in the Figma Community. Most designers do their wireframing directly in Figma so everything stays in one file. There is rarely a reason to use a separate tool.

Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a deliberately lo-fi wireframing tool. Its sketchy, hand-drawn aesthetic is intentional — it signals to stakeholders that they are looking at a rough concept, not a finished design. Some designers like it for early stakeholder presentations for exactly this reason. It is not essential, but it has a straightforward interface and a free trial.

Verdict: use Figma for most wireframing; paper for early ideation; Balsamiq if you want something that reads as explicitly rough.

Collaboration and workshop facilitation

UX design involves a lot of facilitation — workshops, design sprints, affinity mapping sessions, journey mapping exercises. These typically happen on a virtual whiteboard, especially in remote or hybrid teams.

Miro

Miro is the dominant virtual whiteboard tool for design teams. It is particularly good for:

Affinity mapping (organising research findings into themes)
Journey mapping
Design sprint facilitation
Remote workshops with multiple participants

The free tier allows three boards, which is enough to get started and to use it in a course or bootcamp context. Miro is widely used enough that knowing how to run a session in it is a practical skill.

FigJam

FigJam is Figma's built-in collaborative whiteboard. It is tightly integrated with the Figma ecosystem, so if you are already working in Figma, switching to FigJam for a quick workshop session is seamless. It is less fully featured than Miro for complex facilitation work, but more than capable for most purposes.

Verdict: Miro for complex collaborative sessions and formal workshops; FigJam for quick exercises when you are already in the Figma ecosystem.

User research and testing

UX research has its own toolset, and you will encounter these once you move into the research and testing phases of a project. The good news is that most have free plans that are suitable for portfolio projects.

For a broader look at research methods and when to use them, see our UX research methods guide.

Maze

Maze lets you run unmoderated usability tests on Figma prototypes. Participants complete tasks on their own device, and Maze records where they clicked, how long they took, and where they gave up. It is quick to set up and generates quantitative usability data — useful when you need to test with larger numbers of participants. Free plan available.

Lyssna (formerly UsabilityHub)

Lyssna offers a range of research formats: preference tests, five-second tests, click tests, and unmoderated task-based tests. It is particularly useful for quick, lightweight tests early in the design process — for example, testing which of two homepage layouts feels clearer, or whether users understand an icon without a label. Free tier available.

Dovetail

Dovetail is a research repository and analysis tool. If you are doing qualitative research — user interviews, diary studies, usability sessions — Dovetail helps you tag, organise, and synthesise your notes and transcripts. It is especially useful on teams where multiple researchers are working on the same project. Less relevant for early learners, but worth knowing about.

Lookback

Lookback supports both moderated and unmoderated research sessions, with screen and camera recording. It is widely used for remote user interviews where you want to see the participant's face and screen simultaneously. Has a free trial.

Google Forms and Typeform

Do not overlook surveys. For quantitative research — gathering data at scale, testing assumptions, running screener surveys before interviews — Google Forms is free and more capable than its plain interface suggests. Typeform has a more polished participant experience and a free tier. Many professional UX researchers use surveys regularly alongside qualitative methods.

Analytics and behaviour tracking

These are not "design tools" in the traditional sense, but UX designers use them regularly to identify where users are struggling before any design work begins. Understanding analytics data is increasingly expected of UX designers, particularly in product roles.

Hotjar

Hotjar provides heatmaps, session recordings, and on-site surveys. Heatmaps show where users click and scroll on a page. Session recordings let you watch real users navigate your product. It is one of the most widely used tools for this kind of diagnostic work, and the free tier is useful for smaller sites.

Google Analytics / GA4

GA4 is the standard for web traffic and conversion data. Every UX designer working in digital products should be able to read a GA dashboard — understanding bounce rates, funnel drop-off, and traffic sources is part of diagnosing usability problems at a product level. It is free and, despite its reputation for complexity, the basics are learnable quickly.

PostHog

PostHog is an open-source alternative to tools like Mixpanel and Amplitude, popular with early-stage startups and technical teams. It combines product analytics, session recording, and feature flagging. Worth knowing about if you are heading into startup or scale-up environments.

Handoff and developer collaboration

Once a design is ready to build, it needs to be handed off to engineers in a way they can work from. This is an often-underestimated skill.

Figma's developer mode

Figma has a built-in developer mode that generates specs, measurements, spacing values, and code snippets directly from your design files. This is now the standard handoff workflow in most teams. Engineers can inspect your Figma file themselves rather than waiting for you to document everything manually.

Good handoff is a skill in its own right. A well-organised Figma file with consistent naming, a clear layer structure, and properly defined components makes a significant difference to how smoothly a build goes.

Zeplin

Zeplin was a dedicated design handoff tool that was widely used before Figma's developer mode matured. Some teams still use it, particularly where the design-to-development workflow is more formalised. It is not something to prioritise learning, but it is easy to pick up if you encounter it.

AI tools for UX designers

AI is changing parts of the UX workflow, particularly in areas like writing UX copy, generating user personas, and synthesising research. This is a fast-moving area and worth a dedicated look. For a full breakdown, see our guide on AI tools for UX designers.

Where to start

The toolkit described above covers the full range of what UX designers use day-to-day. If you are just starting out, do not try to learn all of it at once. The realistic starting point is:

Figma — learn it properly, including prototyping and basic component organisation
Miro or FigJam — use it in a workshop context
One research tool — Maze or Lyssna, once you reach that stage

The rest becomes relevant once you are working on real projects with real teams.

On the Beginner UX Design course at UX Academy, you learn Figma hands-on from day one. By the end of the course you will have used it across a full design project — wireframes, high-fidelity screens, and a clickable prototype — with live feedback from an instructor who works in the industry. No prior design experience required.