Check out the 6 Best Productivity Apps for Designers

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Once upon a time, time and motion studies were introduced to boost productivity. The practice was popular with those doing the studies — but not so much with those being studied.

Today's productivity-enhancing approaches are less intrusive, thanks in part to technology. Self-improvement tips and techniques that offer encouragement also help. Besides, a little effort can become habit-forming.

The digital age has been both a curse and a blessing. Tasks can be done more quickly, but there are more of them to do. The bottom line is it has become more difficult to find the right blend of family, fun, recreation, and work.

What we've attempted to do here is to find ways to put productivity-enhancing technology to work. We combined it with tips and techniques you can use to streamline your workflow in the office. You can also tackle other life challenges more efficiently.

1. Mason

Mason is a different type of product or design tool. You might even call it radically different in that it enables you to consolidate steps you always considered to be essential, especially in cases where products have already been deployed.

What are the steps you consolidate? Prototyping, QA inspections, and documentation to name three. Mason also manages the bulk of the effort that normally would be assigned to parties responsible for product development and deployment.

The way this web design/software solution platform works is it lets teams build front-end experiences, together, at lightning speeds. It minimizes and sometimes eliminates completely the need to rely on expensive development resources, giving developers back their time.

Since Mason allows any authorized individual to make product changes or updates from the front-end, deployment cycles can be shortened or bypassed completely.

Mason's visual interface is what makes everything so quick and easy. The interface not only allows all team members to design and build visually, but it allows other project stakeholders including clients to participate and even make post deployment changes as well.

2. Proto.io

Proto.io enables designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and product managers to create low to high-fidelity mobile and app prototypes that have the look and feel of the real thing. Coding or special technical skills are not required to use this prototyping tool.

Proto.io is a platform that consists of a web-based Editor, a Player, and a Dashboard for managing your users and projects. A native mobile Player is also available for iOS and Android.

Proto.io can be used in the early stages of product design for wireframing and creating mockups to solicit feedback. In the latter stages of design, it can be used to create interactive, animated, high-fidelity prototypes suitable for user testing and design signoff.

The latest version of this prototyping tool features a redesigned UI that makes it much more intuitive to use.

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