UX and UI Tools I Use Every Single Day

Hey friends,

I just published a detail on the tools I use every day for UX and UI design. Check it out here: http://narek.co/post/100736957963/ux…ts-i-use-daily

Since you are all super knowledgeable and must have your own war chests, I’d love to hear what you think. And I am bouncing the ball your way – what are the tools that you use every single day?

@narekk

Nice article Narekk.

In terms of tools, I’m only starting to build them up at my new job, but my list includes (or in the past has included):

  • Post-it notes, paper, and the really awesome copic markers
  • Balsamic for quick wireframing
  • Omnigraffle for IA
  • Used to use Axure for interactions, but haven’t had to do interaction design yet here
  • Illustrator and Photoshop (used to use Sketch3)
  • Evernote, skitch
  • Trello
  • OptimalSort for card sorting

And have also been playing around with Pixate :).

Awesome :slight_smile:

My toolbox contains:

Post it notes- lots of different colours and sizes
Copic Markers
Sharpies- black and coloured and a wide variety of nibs
Bleedproof paper
A3 paper that I tend to take from the printer/photocopier as needed’
Optimal Workshop- full suite. Treejack, OptimalSort and Chalkmark
An A2 size whiteboard that I carry to meeting rooms (on my floor)
Illustrator
Photoshop
Indesign
PowerPoint (it’s widely used by all staff in my office and they can all open and edit it)
LEGO- I’m a huge fan of creative tool kits
Playdoh
A4 lined notepads
Coloured pencils (drawing)
pastels (for drawing)
posca marker (for drawing)

Most of mine are 3D objects rather than software- I’m an industrial designer so I like putting pen to paper and having something solid to play with.

Ashlea

So I work in the back-end of a CMS designing new functionality so the end result does not need to have high-quality images (therefore no Photoshop or similar software needed) but it does need to be functional and easy to navigate.

I use
-Axure for the wireframes
-Paint/Gimp to edit pictures
-JIRA to monitor user stories and write functional specs
-Trello for retrospectives and to monitor tasks
-join.me and skype for calls and screen shares!

I have also written a visual note on the above here http://graphicotoast.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/life-as-a-cms-designer-101/

I will look into some of the tools other people proposed as I am always on the look out for new tools and apps :slight_smile: thanks for the tips!

Nice thread.

Omnifocus - To organise my day.
Leaf - To keep up to date with what is going on.

Axure
Photoshop
Sketch (I wish I could ditch Photoshop, but Sketch isn’t there yet)
iA Writer

Github for Mac / Sublime Text / Codekit / MAMP / Cyberduck - For any front end stuff that I prefer to avoid!

Sites:
Assembla
Basecamp
InVision

Then depending on what I’m actually doing on that day there are a number of sites/tools for more specific things… such as…

xSort
Silverback
Quicktime

I noticed a lot of UX folks use Axure. I was never a fan but to be totally honest, I never gave it a full fledged shot. My combo of Balsamiq + InVision works great for rapid prototyping though.

Anybody have experience with both?

Being proficient in HTML and CSS, do I really need Axure? I can most likely (using bootstrap) create a quick fully functioning mock up from a Balsamiq in fairly quick order. I am thinking about trying out ux pin for 30 days just to see if it makes it any quicker for me.