FREE UX Design Resources We Love

Everybody loves free design resources especially when it comes to great quality. We've compiled a list of a few of our favorite free UX resources on the web from photography, icons, templates to research resources and more. We hope this can help inspire your next web design or UX project.

Free Fonts & Icons

• Google Fonts - Google fonts is an open-source and completely free resource for web-friendly fonts. It is great for both UX designers and print designers alike. Because of it's ease-of-use and great variety here at E-dreamz, we solely use Google Fonts unless requested otherwise for branding or display fonts.
• FontAwesome - FontAwesome has a library of font icons that are free to use on projects and also has extra options you can purchase. We use FontAwesome for smaller icons on our sites like arrows, social media icons and buttons. For more custom icons, we can create those from scratch or purchase more detailed ones to use from a illustration website.
• LinearIcons - LinearIcons is another icon font, similar to FontAwesome, which provides free options and an option to pay more for the entire library. The main difference here is the illustration style is a thinner stroke and less bold. We like using LinearIcons for both small graphics and for the occasion where we need something detailed but not quite custom.
• The Noun Project - The Noun Project is a group of designers who promote their designs, illustrations and icons free to use non-commercially. It is great for testing out different options before actually purchasing to use editorially. It is also great for inspiration if you are planning to design your own icons or illustrations and are looking for a place to get started.

Free Stock Photography/Video

While custom photography and video is always preferable when launching a new website, sometimes we must rely on a few free stock pictures to fill in the gaps. Luckily stock photography has come along way in recent years with the rise of commercial photographers and artists wanting to get their names out there. Some of our favorite resources are below.

• Pexels
• Pixabay
  
• Unsplash
• Stocksnap
• Vecteezy
• Videvo

Photo Editing Tools

Adobe Express- Adobe came out with a savvy, browser based condensed version of their Photoshop tool for both designers and non-designers. If you are in a pinch and need to just crop a photo or change it to black and white, Adobe Express is perfect for it. You don't need to have Photoshop or any other Adobe tool to use it and it works well on all computer types. It also provides a nice collection of free stock photos, templates and icons.

Mockup World - Mockup World is fantastic for showing off designs and UX projects in real, photo-realistic situations. For example if you are wanting to display a UX design within different devices or physical spaces. It's also great for portfolio building or social graphics that require a lifelike scene and as an added bonus they have a ton of options for print/traditional branding designers also looking to promote.

Gimp - Gimp is known as the best free alternative to Photoshop out there that works for all machine types (Windows, Mac, Linux). Although it isn't as powerful when it comes to getting the exact pixel-perfect images, it is a great open source option for beginners.

Social Media Resources

Social Sizes - If you are familiar at all with designing for social media, you should be aware that sizes are constantly changing and being updated. Social sizes is a site that is useful for downloading templates with the exact sizing and specifications you need to create the perfect social graphics.

Canva - Canva is a graphic design browser-based platform with pre-made templates that are really useful if you are in a pinch and need something designed quick. It is especially useful non-graphic designers who need something that looks good.

Design Inspiration

The below list is a resource guide for some of our favorite design inspiration sites for trends, news and resources.

• Site Inspire
• Dribbble
• Awwwards
• UX Planet
• Collect UI
• Material Design

Resources & News

• Interaction Design Foundation
• Adobe XD Ideas
• UX Collective on Medium
• Nielsen Norman Group

Development Resources

• Laravel
• Snazzy Maps
  
• CSS Tricks
• GitHub
• W3 Resources
• accessiBe

Article Author: Jane Londeree