What’s everyone’s opinion paying for UX kits that someone created? Avoid? Should UX designers always make their own or use free open source kits?
I’m pretty good with Illustrator, and I have a license, so I just use it. I used some examples from online, but ultimately created my own set, since it doesn’t take me long.
Warning: The first one I used online was a download that looked beautiful and hand-drawn, but ultimately used a ton of RAM. I went the line-art route.
Good luck.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with paying for kits if you find something that works for you and you don’t have the time to make them yourself. Open source is ideal, but I think it’s legit to charge for something if it took lots of time and effort to create.
What are your thoughts?
Interesting topic! Haven’t ever used a kit… what would you say are the good ones, whether charged or open source?
I’ve never heard of UX kits before. Googling, they seem to be printable UI elements packs of various sorts. Is that right?
The UI kit I use is Balsamiq(https://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/) because unlike Invision’s that HAWK linked to, it’s clearly cartoony and not the “final design.”
Getting the proper user experience correct starts at the element level, and when I’ve used something so “beautiful” as Invision’s, people tend to argue about little design details like color and font, etc. It’s not that I don’t think font and color are important. But in my opinion, you’ll save a ton of time by first nailing down the user flow before getting into the nitty gritty of the final design.
To do all of those things at once can be a big pain in the butt and you’ll end up getting the “bikeshedding” conversations way too early in the process. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkin…_of_triviality). When the early UX designs are clearly ugly wireframes, people are less attached and have an easier time looking at the big picture.
My process flow:
1.) Design the user flow with Balsamiq low fidelity mockups.
2.) Work with team to make sure everybody is happy with it.
3.) Send finalized low fidelity mockups to designer to create first version of high fidelity mockups.
4.) Work with designer to iron out any UX issues that arose in the high fidelity designs.
Hey Hawk - Thanks for the link! I’ve downloaded them and will check them out.