I blogged about my best design tool over on Eye of the Chicago Web Designer blog this morning and it got me thinking in general about the tools I value most when it comes to creating web sites.

1. My Eyes
   An obvious and basic choice but without my eye sight no other design tools would matter
2. A Pencil and Paper
   When it comes to planning a web site I like the good old fashioned approach of a pencil and paper.  From drafting out an architecture, to a rough sketch of the look and feel. The paper and pencil stage is also great for a first pass at usability issues. Some web sites really call out for hand drawn elements see these hand drawn cartoons for example, where pencil and paper are the tools to make this happen.
3. A well oiled computer and rock solid internet connection
   Speaks for itself
4. A cordless mouse
   Being physically uncomfortable while working is a sure way to cramp creativity.  Using a corded mouse is not only irritating but very uncomfortable too.
5. Adobe Photoshop
   The Queen of the Pixel. From designing look and feel to slicing graphical elements of a web site and optimizing for fastest download. There is an industry trend to always have the latest and greatest version of any software but this approach does not make you a better designer. A good designer can produce great work with outdated software.
6. Abobe Illustrator
7. The King of the Vector, while Photoshop does offer vector capabilities I always turn to Illustrator when design elements need to be created as vectors. It is also sometime much easier and faster to use illustrator to produce certain web elements..then import them into photoshop.
8. Dreamweaver
   The Emperor of Coding,  while I can code by hand this is a great application to speed up the whole process.
9. Google
   A script for a site, the perfect stock photograph?inIf I need to find anything Google is my initial go to tool. I particularly like the iGoogle application where everything I need on a day to day basis is right there on one page.

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