Last year, I decided to share what tools we’re using throughout our design process. Today I want to share with you the tools we plan on using in 2020 that will help us create the next generation of empowering products.
At Threefold, we work with clients all over the world in a wide range of industries, so productivity is essential to our success. We provide several UX & UI design services that will help our clients create better digital products.
And for everything we do, we follow a design thinking philosophy throughout all of our work. So we want our tools to help us support the process as much as we can.
Although these are tools we use throughout our design process, we try to keep things flexible so that the tools are right for the people who use them.
Tools to help us understand
These tools help us to understand the problem, the business goals, the user, their needs and their goals.
Google Analytics
It helps us understand what people are doing, where they’re coming from, how long they’re spending, and so on.
HotJar
It is one of our favourite tools for understanding user behaviour. It’s one of the few tools we use to its full extent, from heatmaps right up to feedback polls.
Zoom
We use it for chatting with clients, performing team stand-ups and for user interviews.
Confluence Cloud
We recently moved to Confluence Cloud, and we love it. We use it for documenting everything from our playbook right up to user research. Previously we used Dropbox Paper for all of this, but we won’t be going back any time soon.
Tools to help us explore
These tools help us explore ideas that will solve problems.
Pen & Paper
Nothing beats it for getting an idea, so it deserves a mention.
Sketch
Over the last two years, we use it for all our UI design. But it has started to become a bit too buggy, so we’re going to be exploring Figma and Adobe XD. Sketch may not be on this list in the future.
Photoshop
We use it for any photo editing or graphics that we need since it is by far the best for this job. Remember, use the right tool for the job.
Principle
We use it when we want to animate interactions. It is super easy to use, and they’re plenty of tutorials so you can master it quickly.
InVision
We use it as our one-stop-shop for prototyping our ideas and for creating mood boards for inspiration. It works perfectly with Sketch through the Craft plugin.
Tools to materialise
These tools help us test whether the idea solves the problem and if they do turn the concept into reality.
Maze
We use it with our InVision prototypes to discover how users interact with prototypes. In particular, the report feature is great to share with the team.
UsabilityHub
It gives us the ability to run remote user testing so we can test our assumptions. It helps us to ask questions about our ideas and get answers from real users.
InVision Inspect
For developer handoff, we use InVision’s Inspect feature. It just works great, and all our team is very familiar with it.
Plant
It provides us with version control for our designs. It integrates with Sketch so we can stay in our standard workflow and still have the safety of version control.
Thats it!
There are plenty of tools out there, but these are the ones that work best for us. My recommendation is to pick tools that work for you and not because they’re the hottest new thing! What tools are you using
Last year, I decided to share what tools we’re using throughout our design process. Today I want to share with you the tools we plan on using in 2020 that will help us create the next generation of empowering products.
At Threefold, we work with clients all over the world in a wide range of industries, so productivity is essential to our success. We provide several UX & UI design services that will help our clients create better digital products.
And for everything we do, we follow a design thinking philosophy throughout all of our work. So we want our tools to help us support the process as much as we can.
Although these are tools we use throughout our design process, we try to keep things flexible so that the tools are right for the people who use them.
Tools to help us understand
These tools help us to understand the problem, the business goals, the user, their needs and their goals.
Google Analytics
It helps us understand what people are doing, where they’re coming from, how long they’re spending, and so on.
HotJar
It is one of our favourite tools for understanding user behaviour. It’s one of the few tools we use to its full extent, from heatmaps right up to feedback polls.
Zoom
We use it for chatting with clients, performing team stand-ups and for user interviews.
Confluence Cloud
We recently moved to Confluence Cloud, and we love it. We use it for documenting everything from our playbook right up to user research. Previously we used Dropbox Paper for all of this, but we won’t be going back any time soon.
Tools to help us explore
These tools help us explore ideas that will solve problems.
Pen & Paper
Nothing beats it for getting an idea, so it deserves a mention.
Sketch
Over the last two years, we use it for all our UI design. But it has started to become a bit too buggy, so we’re going to be exploring Figma and Adobe XD. Sketch may not be on this list in the future.
Photoshop
We use it for any photo editing or graphics that we need since it is by far the best for this job. Remember, use the right tool for the job.
Principle
We use it when we want to animate interactions. It is super easy to use, and they’re plenty of tutorials so you can master it quickly.
InVision
We use it as our one-stop-shop for prototyping our ideas and for creating mood boards for inspiration. It works perfectly with Sketch through the Craft plugin.
Tools to materialise
These tools help us test whether the idea solves the problem and if they do turn the concept into reality.
Maze
We use it with our InVision prototypes to discover how users interact with prototypes. In particular, the report feature is great to share with the team.
UsabilityHub
It gives us the ability to run remote user testing so we can test our assumptions. It helps us to ask questions about our ideas and get answers from real users.
InVision Inspect
For developer handoff, we use InVision’s Inspect feature. It just works great, and all our team is very familiar with it.
Plant
It provides us with version control for our designs. It integrates with Sketch so we can stay in our standard workflow and still have the safety of version control.
Thats it!
There are plenty of tools out there, but these are the ones that work best for us. My recommendation is to pick tools that work for you and not because they’re the hottest new thing! What tools are you using