5 Useful Tools for Visual Productivity

The tools I like most have one thing in common. They're designed to let you make something without poring over complex menus. And as we stare solo into our screens, these tools can help feed our creative appetites.

For a March Social Media Weekend presentation, I looked back at dozens of sites and apps that are handy for organizing information visually — easily, inexpensively and quickly. I chose a bunch of my favorites to highlight. Most are freemium services — start free, then pay if you want extra goodies. They're all dummy proof, so you can just start making stuff. Here are my presentation slides, and some brief thoughts on several of the tools below.

Coda.io

Think Google Docs reinvented for 2020. You can use Coda to create, edit, share and publish word documents, like other word processors. But you can also use Coda to power data tables. Or to create multimedia materials collections embedding videos, slides, maps, forms and just about anything else. You can even put little apps into your documents so people can vote on things, suggest ideas, plan events, collaborate on projects, etc. Like Google Docs, you can publish Coda docs, but Coda's published pages look much slicker than Google Docs on mobile devices. As an example of a published Coda doc, here's a peek at one I created for the cool tools talk. And here's one I assembled for a workshop about the Brahms piano quartets. Here's a template for a doc that tracks team goals using a Spotify approach.

Airtable

Mash together a spreadsheet, a database and a visual design tool. That's Airtable. I never thought a database tool could be sexy, but Airtable has changed my mind. It's actually fun to use, and the results make otherwise drab info more appealing. Below is a snapshot of a table I made to share some of my favorite podcasts in various categories. (For the full gallery made with Airtable and to see/hear the podcasts I've been listening to lately visit bit.ly/podcastfaves).

Organizations and individuals use Airtable for managing all sorts of projects and information. Here are some examples: A fashion brand's social media calendar | an event plan for a conference | an info hub for a remote team | a content calendar | a client project tracker | a personal CRM to manage contacts | a recipe organizer & a wedding planning tool.

Tilda

The tool I like most for building web pages works with a modular approach. Scroll through dozens of Tilda templates to spot something akin to what you're envisioning for your site. Then replace the default images and text and add additional blocks of images, text, videos, or whatever else you want on your site. Pretty quickly, you're ready to publish version one. Tilda's templates are well-designed, so even non-designers can spin up professional-looking sites. Here's a gallery of sites people have made with Tilda.

Whimsical is a blast to use. It's a great resource for mapping out your thoughts either with mind maps or flow charts. You can also use it to mock up an app or site design, or to collaborate on ideas with a sticky note board. As you might expect, you can export your creations, invite in other editors, and print or publish your visuals. Unlike other professional design tools, the menus are minimalist and easy to figure out.

Typeform is my favorite tool for creating surveys. Feedback is a gift. Gathering input and perspectives is crucial. Getting it from people can be hard, though, because filling out a survey often feels burdensome and time-consuming.

Filling out a survey can also feel pointless if you're not sure how— or even if— the information will actually be used. The least you can do as someone sending out a survey is to make it look nice. Typeform does exactly that, allowing you to design surveys that are visually appealing. It also compiles results into slick reports that are easy to digest.

Typeform recently added a terrific feature called Conversations. Convert any survey you create into a bot dialogue embedded into your site, or at a designated link. No coding required. Respondents who navigate to your "conversation" have a chat conversation with a bot that asks the same questions in your survey. Unlike a laundry list of questions, it has the visual feel of an informal chat.

For a full list of the tools I presented, take a spin through my presentation slides. You can annotate individual slides with comments, links, tool suggestions or examples.