Working as part of a distributed team?
It’s no secret coordinating creative projects can be a hassle when you work remotely. Feedback is late, brainstorming hardly an option and your team buddies are several time-zones apart.
Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of five productivity tools that will help you overcome these obstacles, starting today.
Taskade
Taskade’s mission is simple — provide a minimalist and frictionless project-management tool that helps distributed teams do more with less.
Taskade lets you brainstorm, manage and contribute to projects in one, unified workspace. You can organize work from scratch or cherry-pick from a library of templates that include mind maps, Kanban boards and organizational trees, just to name a few.
And the best part?
No matter what you’re doing, the built-in communicator is always at hand so you can jump in on a conference call or chat with your team without closing the app.
The free plan lets you create up to 3 workspaces and nest unlimited projects inside. At $7 a month (annual contribution), you unlock unlimited workspaces, uncapped file storage and extra features like recurring tasks and team permissions.
Taskade works natively on Windows, Linux, and Mac and comes with iOS and Android apps to match. There are also web-browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome.
Balsamiq Wireframes
If Shaolin monks wanted to design UI in their spare time, they’d probably use Wireframes to do that.
Balsamiq’s UI wireframing tool boasts an impressively clean and simple interface that resembles paper doodles or sketches. By removing all distractions from the creative process, distributed teams can focus on the work that really matters.
Wireframes is perfect for creating quick, “low-fi” sketches for web or mobile, giving feedback, testing prototypes and sharing mockups with the team.
The tool comes in several variants, a desktop app, a cloud subscription service, and a GSuite integration. The web version starts at $9 a month and the desktop app is a one-time investment of $89 per user.
Moqups
In a nutshell, Moqups acts as your digital whiteboard for wireframes, prototypes, mockups and diagrams. Plain and simple, except it also mixes in team collaboration features to make the process more fun.
The app uses intuitive drag-and-drop mechanics, libraries of ready-made elements and stencils (templates) for popular design projects (iOS, Android, Bootstrap). Combined with live edits, on-the-project comments and client invitations, Moqups is a compelling package for creative distributed teams.
Pricing starts at $20/month (annual contribution) for three users but you can customize your plan to match your team’s needs. If you want to take Moqups for a test ride, there’s also a free plan that lets you create 1 project and store up to 200 objects.
Figma
Figma has already made a name for itself in the UI world. An exclusively cloud-based service, it comes with collaboration, prototyping, and UI-design features, all wrapped into one, elegant package.
Branded as a single source of truth for creative teams, Figma combines a wide array of tools, assets, and tweaks that’ll likely fill all your design needs. As expected, you can co-edit and comment on UI designs without leaving your web browser.
Figma offers a free Starter plan for small teams (2 editors, 3 projects, unlimited storage). There’s also a $12/month tier that gives you an unlimited version history, team libraries and more. Distributed teams with more members can jump for a $45/month tier with access to private plugins, security features and analytics.
GoVisually
Last but not least, GoVisually is an online proofing tool that lets you create, edit and comment on designs without the need for hundreds of ping-pong emails (sigh).
What’s interesting about GoVisually is that comments are automatically converted into to-do lists so your teammates can tackle suggestions in an organized manner. You can also invite clients directly into the project space so they can share food for thought or approve designs.
The tool comes in three pricing tiers: Solo for freelancers ($20/month billed annually), Agency ($49/month) and Agency+ for teams up to 30 members ($99/month).
Conclusion
Whether you’re a graphic designer, video editor or a UX pro, communication and cooperation are the two C-words you need to keep the creative juices flowing. And with the right set of productivity tools, you might just make that happen.
Check out Taskade to get your project off the ground quickly and without friction!
