UX Design — My workflow, tools and resources

My hunt to find the perfect UX workflow

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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.

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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.

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

• Strategy & Ideation
• Discovery & User Testing
• Content & IA
• Wireframe & Visual Design
• Prototype & Develop
• Communication, documentation & productivity
• Learning & Best Practice
• Full Reading List

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Strategy & ideation

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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/

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Books

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

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

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Discovery & user testing

Apps

https://lookback.io/

https://www.optimalworkshop.com/

https://www.loop11.com/

https://dscout.com/

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Resources

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

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

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Books

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

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Content & IA

Apps

http://www.xmind.net/

https://www.grammarly.com/

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

http://www.claritygrader.com/

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Wireframe & visual design

Apps

https://www.sketchapp.com/

https://www.invisionapp.com/craft

https://sketchpacks.com/

https://thenounproject.com/

http://dustinsenos.com/littleIpsum

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Resources

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Printable sketching templates:

Printable sketch sheets for UI &UX designers

Skeakpeekit Sketch Sheets

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Grids & responsive design:‍

The Best Sketch Bootstrap 3 Grid Template: Free Download

Designing grids

Intro to the 8-point Grid System

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Style guides & CSS:

Pattern Lab

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Stock photography

Mockup World

Pexels

The Stocks

Pixaby

Reshot

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Sketch App Templates and Plugins:

Sketch App Sources

Sketchpacks

Sketch Repo

Symbols & Styleguides

UX Flow

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UX Interface Patterns:

UI - Patterns.com

Design Pttrns

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UI Inspiration:

UX Archive

httpster

uigarage

Little Big Details

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User Flow (Examples):

User Onboarding

UI Movement

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Fonts:

Google Fonts

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‍Colour Pallets:

Color Hunt

Coolors

Web Gradients

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Accessibility:

"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better

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Resources

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Jquery libraries

hoverIntent jQuery Plug-in

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Apache2

SSH Tricks

Start/ Stop and Restart Apache 2

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Books

Inclusive Front-End Design Patterns

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Communication, documentation & productivity

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Apps

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Trello

Slack

Evernote

Office Lens

Lighthead - Caffeine

HyperDock

Numi

Sumhold

The Unarchiver

Free Disk Space App

Google Drive

Microsoft Outlook

G-Suite

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Resources

• Scrum Checklist
• 20 ways to split a user story

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Books

Lean UX

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Learning & best practice

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Sites to get emails from

Product Hunt

Sidebar

Nielsen Norman Group

Medium

Web Field Manual

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Online courses

Udemy

Lynda

Tutsplus

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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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