The market segment of PM and collaboration tools is immensely saturated and it can be tough and time devouring to figure out what program suits your needs best. Today let’s try to make designers’ life less messy and more organized. To save time, we won’t innumerate the usual gentleman’s set of almost every PM app like task management, file sharing, discussion boards etc. Instead the focus will be on the useful features that can be of real help for designers and serve as product competitive advantages.
Conceptboard
Main idea: Enhancing the creation and further development of your ideas, drafts and all sorts of documents
Benefits for designers
- Conceptboard users can create sketches, brainstorm or work together on them and benefit from an embedded video chat. For instance, project members can discuss a magazine or website layout without leaving their work stations which is especially vital for a distributed team.
- In its turn the type of a work station doesn’t matter as the app supports PCs, laptops, the iPad and even digital whiteboards
- The app developers also offer designers to play with creativity using a scribble tool that allows for drawing any form by using the mouse or your finger or a pen
Pricing: Free Personal plan, Freelancer plan for $9 per month, Business plan for $25 per month, Enterprise – price available on request
ActionMethod
Main idea: Online platform to showcase & discover creative work
Benefits for designers
- Three types of presets for creating a portfolio: for advanced use, for creating image galleries and for publishing video
- Galleries as the way not only to showcase creative work, but also to discover the inspiration for new projects
- ActionMethod users are also given a possibility to sell their masterpieces – 1) link to online stores 2) sell as prints
Pricing: Free introductory plan available; $12 per month, $99 per year for premium
Mavelink
Main idea: Everything to keep your team on the same page
Benefits for designers:
- Being equipped with all the standard PM features, Mavelink is at the same time financially oriented due to the integration with QuickBooks and PayPal and options on invoicing, tracking time and expenses.
- Users are free to customize the look and feel of the site for the invited colleagues, clients, and service providers. Brand the experience with your logo, header, colors, and buttons to match your site or preferred layout.
Pricing: Collaboration and PM features are free; Expense tracking, invoicing and custom branding – from $39 per month for small teams to $249 per month for large teams.
TeamLab
Main idea: Multifunctional online service for business
Benefits for designers
- TeamLab is really multifunctional as in contrast to lots of counterparts it contains all the tools in one and the same workspace. No additional downloads, registrations or upgrades to obtain access to another tool needed.
- The easy to handle CRM module can help designers fully control the database of all their customers, track all the deals customizing opportunity stages and contact types to the corporate needs.
- Flexibility in deployment. Those users, who don’t want to rely on the vendor, can install the program on their own server.
Pricing: All the TeamLab functionality and 1 GB of storage are provided for free. $49 per month costs extra storage space.
Arcilook
Main idea: Cloud-based project management for architects, designers, managers, engineers.
Benfits for designers
- Options on creating a portfolio and online CV with the help of attractive visualizations.
- Arcilook offers section for posting small ads and auctions.
- The Co-Sketch graphical chat to draw your ideas on the background project
Pricing: 30 days free trial. From Basic plan for $8 per month to Gold for $30.
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Best Project Management Tools for Designers’ Collaborative Work