Half the designers I know spent their first month downloading every tool on a "Top 10 UI tools" list and ended up using exactly two of them. That's not wasted time if you learn from it but it's better to know upfront what actually matters.
So here's what the tools are, what they're for, and my honest read on each one.
Figma
Start here. Everyone does eventually, so start here.
Figma runs in the browser. Your client, your developer, and your teammate all open the same link and see the same file. That one feature alone killed half the confusion that used to come with design work. No more "which version is this?" No more exporting 40 screens as PNGs and emailing them.
The real power is in components. You build a button once, use it everywhere, and when you change the original, every instance updates. Sounds simple. Saves hours.
Prototyping in Figma is functional not fancy, but good enough for most user testing and client demos. You won't be building cinema-quality animations in it, but showing how screens connect and how a flow works? Totally fine.
One honest gripe: heavy files with lots of frames and assets slow down noticeably. And if you're on the free plan and working with a team, you'll hit the limits pretty quickly. But for learning purposes, free is plenty.
Adobe Illustrator
Not a UI tool exactly, but you'll use it. Custom icons, logos, illustrations anything that needs to be a vector and needs more precision than Figma's vector tools give you, this is where you go.
You don't need to master it. The Pen tool, basic shape operations, and knowing how to export an SVG cleanly that covers 90% of what a UI designer needs from Illustrator. The rest you learn as you go.
Sketch
Sketch was the industry standard before Figma took over. Some studios and agencies still use it, especially ones that built their entire component libraries in it years ago and haven't migrated.
The catch: Mac only. And you pay per seat. If you're freelancing or job hunting, knowing Sketch is a bonus, not a requirement. Most places that list it as a requirement will also accept someone who knows Figma well.
Maze
This one doesn't get mentioned enough in beginner resources. Maze lets you take a Figma prototype and send it to real users. They click through it, try to complete tasks, and Maze records where they got stuck, how long things took, and where they dropped off.
The difference between this and just showing someone your prototype is that Maze gives you numbers. Not just "they seemed confused on screen 3" but actual misclick rates and task completion percentages. That data is what turns a design decision from a guess into an argument you can back up.
It connects directly to Figma, which makes setup quick.
Miro
Sticky notes. Lots of them.
Miro is a digital whiteboard, and it's where a lot of the early UX work happens before you've opened Figma at all. User journey maps, affinity diagrams after a research session, site maps, and brainstorming flows. Anything that involves organizing messy information visually.
It's also useful when you're working with people who aren't designers. Non-designers get overwhelmed in Figma. Miro feels more like a whiteboard, which makes them comfortable enough to actually contribute.
Hotjar
Once something is actually live and people are using it, Hotjar tells you what's really happening, with heatmaps showing where users click. Scroll maps showing how far people read session recordings, where you literally watch a real user navigate your interface.
This is research you can't replicate in a prototype phase. A prototype test shows you what users do when they know they're being tested. Hotjar shows you what they do when they think nobody's watching.
Zeplin
When you're done designing, and it's time to hand files off to a developer, Zeplin takes your design and turns it into a spec document automatically. Font sizes, colors, spacing, and asset exports were all generated. The developer inspects each element without pinging you every ten minutes.
Figma now has a built-in inspect mode, and for smaller teams, it's fine. Zeplin matters more in larger setups where the dev team wants a separate environment from the design file.
Where to Start if You're New to All This
Figma. That's the answer. Put real time into it, not just watching tutorials, actually building screens, breaking things, and figuring out why your auto-layout is behaving weird.
Once Figma feels natural, pick up enough Illustrator to handle vector assets. Then look at Maze or Hotjar, depending on whether you're more interested in the UX research side of things.
The tools themselves aren't the hard part. Understanding why you're using each one, and what problem it solves in the design process that's what separates someone who knows the software from someone who actually knows design.
Next post will cover how to set up your first Figma project from scratch, file structure, components, and how to avoid the mess most beginners make early on.
And if you're based in Kolkata and wondering where to actually learn all this hands-on, a good UI UX Design Course in Kolkata will cover most of these tools in the curriculum. More on that soon.
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