Simple apps to win big in the Canva Apps Marketplace

Creating a delightfully easy design experience is a key value for Canva. Empowering everyone to design is what drives our decisions day in and day out, making sure our users have access to the latest and greatest tools. One of the reasons behind creating the Apps SDK was to make sure all the apps that bring users joy across platforms and industries are able to share their excitement with our users.

We’ve seen some amazing apps join the Apps Marketplace so far. Some of the most popular apps currently available in our Apps Marketplace are apps that delight the design experience, such as Typecraft⁠(opens in a new tab or window), QR Codes⁠(opens in a new tab or window), and Brandfetch⁠(opens in a new tab or window). These apps enable users to get excited about the design process and simplify their workflows and give Canva users access to free-to-use tools that help them get inspired ideas, build engaging designs, or streamline their processes. And we want more!

We looked around the apps currently available and found some gaps we think can be filled by aspiring app developers. While we can’t guarantee app success, we hope you can take a look at these ideas and see if you get any sparks of inspiration.

Sometimes the hardest part with starting a design is getting started. From picking colors that compliment each other, to laying out designs that draw attention to the right point, there are plenty of design tips and tricks many new designs could benefit from.

• Recommend color palettes based on mood, aesthetics, or vibes.
• Layouts for an industry or platform that perform best.
• Font pairing to create eye catching designs.

Maybe we’re not quite ready to build an app, website, design, or more, but we want to start playing around with the look and feel of it. Wireframing tools and elements can help users explore different layouts and user flows before committing to building.

• Drag-and-drop repository of common UI elements in websites.
• User flow diagram creator for native app builders.

The comments and sticky notes tools built in to Canva are great for asynchronous collaboration. But sometimes users just need all their thoughts gathered in one place. And maybe a user prefers checking a box over resolving a comment. Every user has a different process, and supporting those by enabling more task tooling is a great way to create a more delightful experience.

• Design to-do lists, with sections by due date.
• Notes apps that allow you to keep a running history of notes about the design.

Canva has many preset calendar templates, but customizing them can become tedious. Adding elements such as events or critical due dates to existing designs requires a lot of customization. Being able to simplify the design experience would make the workflow faster for many users.

• Custom calendars that fit any design size and you can easily add custom important dates to.
• Date stickers with colors based on the proximity to the due date or criticality of the event.

We love choice! There are many libraries of icons, graphics, imagery, and more. Empowering users anywhere in the world to have access to more options is an easy win in a joyful user experience.

• Bringing in icon sets from more diverse sources.

For more app ideas (and coming very soon, information about how to get rewarded for your app) make sure to visit the Canva Developers Community⁠(opens in a new tab or window)!