UX Design — My workflow, tools and resources

Ben Ralph
January 16, 2017
Blog

My hunt to find the perfect UX workflow

Spoiler alert, there is no perfect combination of apps and techniques that form the ideal UX workflow. Let’s not let that stop us trying though.

In this post, I intend to list all the tools, resources and articles that I rely on as a UX Designer and UX Instructor. As I discover and try new tools, I’ll keep this post updated to reflect my current workflow.

Disclaimers:

1. This post is not an extensive list of all possible tools, just the ones I use regularly.

2. This post is also not intended to suggest that any differing lists are inferior or in some way wrong. There are 1000s of possible tools and workflow combinations, and this post is equally about me trying to find where I can update and improve as it is for others to do the same.

If you’re interested in some context on me as a UX designer, check out my LinkedIn account. Also feel free to get in contact through the regular channels (Twitter/Email) with any questions or suggestions.

For this article, I have split the UX process into 7 parts:

Strategy & ideation

Resources

Two great templates for kicking off your project and gaining consensus around the problem that needs to be solved:

https://medium.com/@jboogie/the-lean-ux-canvas-d4da53263c40

https://ucdc.therectangles.com/

Books

http://www.gv.com/sprint/

http://www.nointerface.com/book/

Discovery & user testing

Apps

https://lookback.io/

https://www.optimalworkshop.com/

https://www.loop11.com/

https://dscout.com/

Resources

http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/usability_test_plan_dashboard.html

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/desirability-reaction-words/

Books

https://abookapart.com/products/just-enough-research

Content & IA

Apps

http://www.xmind.net/

https://www.grammarly.com/

http://www.apple.com/au/imovie/

http://www.claritygrader.com/

Wireframe & visual design

Apps

https://www.sketchapp.com/

https://www.invisionapp.com/craft

https://sketchpacks.com/

https://thenounproject.com/

http://dustinsenos.com/littleIpsum

Resources

Printable sketching templates:

Printable sketch sheets for UI &UX designers

Skeakpeekit Sketch Sheets

Grids & responsive design:

The Best Sketch Bootstrap 3 Grid Template: Free Download

Designing grids

Intro to the 8-point Grid System


Style guides & CSS:

Pattern Lab

Stock photography

Mockup World

Pexels

The Stocks

Pixaby

Reshot

Sketch App Templates and Plugins:

Sketch App Sources

Sketchpacks

Sketch Repo

Symbols & Styleguides

UX Flow

UX Interface Patterns:

UI - Patterns.com

Design Pttrns

UI Inspiration:

UX Archive

httpster

uigarage

Little Big Details

User Flow (Examples):

User Onboarding

UI Movement

Fonts:

Google Fonts

Colour Pallets:

Color Hunt

Coolors

Web Gradients

Accessibility:

"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better

Resources

Jquery libraries

hoverIntent jQuery Plug-in

Apache2

SSH Tricks

Start/ Stop and Restart Apache 2

Books

Inclusive Front-End Design Patterns

Communication, documentation & productivity

Apps

Trello

Slack

Evernote

Office Lens

Lighthead - Caffeine

HyperDock

Numi

Sumhold

The Unarchiver

Free Disk Space App

Google Drive

Microsoft Outlook

G-Suite

Resources

Books

Lean UX

Learning & best practice

Sites to get emails from

Product Hunt

Sidebar

Nielsen Norman Group

Medium

Web Field Manual


Online courses

Udemy

Lynda

Tutsplus

Hi, I’m Ben. By day, I’m the Founder & Head of Product Innovation at Beaker & Flint, where I help organisations design and deliver amazing customer experiences. By night you can find me running a trail or tinkering with code.
If this post sparked a question or idea you want to run by me, I’d love to chat it over with you. Reach out via the comments below or start a conversation via email here.

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