ux & design tools that will improve your productivity
DESCRIPTION
UX & Design Tools That Will Improve Your Productivity. Jennifer Aldrich Content Strategist at Schoolwires @jma245. Story Time. What the…. It Went V iral. This sketch was tweeted, RT’d , liked, and posted on social media sites literally thousands and thousands of times. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
UX & Design Tools That Will Improve Your Productivity
Jennifer AldrichContent Strategist at Schoolwires@jma245
Story Time
What the…
It Went Viral• This sketch was tweeted, RT’d, liked, and posted on social
media sites literally thousands and thousands of times. • Major UX and design companies asked to use it in
presentations and articles. • Professors asked to use it in their design curriculums.• People asked me to make t-shirts and mugs and posters of this
sketch (which now exist at http://society6.com/userexperiencerocks) and hundreds of dollars in merchandise has sold).
• The sketch made the “10 of the Best UX Infographics” list put together by the folks at Usabilla.http://blog.usabilla.com/10-best-ux-infographics/
The Morals of This Story
1. You don’t need any artistic skill to tell a story with a sketch.2. Kids: Be very careful about what you put on the internet,
because you never know when something you post could take on a life of its own.
3. Don’t be afraid to try new things. My blog is now full of stick figure sketches and cartoons, and it has turned into a really fun creative outlet for me that folks in our industry have been very supportive of!
4. The UX industry is huge all over the world right now. It’s a great field to be in!
The Plan
Today we’re going to discuss some killer tools that I hope will improve your productivity. We’ll cover some of my favorite tools in the following categories:
• Usability Testing & User Research• Mobile Usability Testing• Accessibility Testing• Interdepartmental Collaboration• Miscellaneous Tools I Adore
Usability Testing & User Research
Silverback App
http://www.silverbackapp.com
Great for: • Moderated usability testing on a Mac
Why it Rocks: • Records screen• Displays and records click tracks• Records tester audio• Records tester facial video
Morae
http://www.techsmith.com/morae.html
Great For: • Moderated usability testing on a PC
Why It Rocks: • Records screen• Records tester audio• Records tester facial video• Creates snazzy graphs automatically
Solidify App
http://www.solidifyapp.com
Great For:• Remote Usability Testing
Why it Rocks: • Mega easy to hotspot a simple prototype• Task setup • Click tracking video • Completion statistics• Cross device compatibility
Survey Monkey
http://www.surveymonkey.com
Great For:• Remote survey user research & tester recruitment
Why It Rocks: • Very intuitive easy to use UI• Easy to export data• Mega cheap ($26 bucks a month)
Mobile Usability Testing
UX Recorder
http://www.uxrecorder.com
Great For: • Mobile website and simple prototype usability testing
Why It Rocks: • Records Tester Screen, Tester Audio, and Tester Facial video• Records Tester Audio• Cheap! $1.99/session or $59 for unlimited sessions, exports
and projects.• You can run your SolidifyApp simple prototype through it and
get tons of fabulous data.
LookBack
http://lookback.io
Great For: • Recording native iOS app feedback (Android version is in the
works)
Why It Rocks:• Free while in beta• You can even add a “Record Feedback Now” link in your live
AppStore App!• Testers have the option to disable audio and video recording.
Paper Prototypinghttp://usabilitygeek.com/paper-prototyping-as-a-usability-testing-technique/
Great For: • Testing design concepts that are tricky to create in a simple
prototype scenario (like drag and drop).
Why it Rocks:• MEGA cheap. All you really need is a pencil, some paper, and a
friend to help you record.• Great for agile environments, you can iterate on the fly. • If you’re artistically challenged, or just love fab stencil kits, you
will adore UI Stencils.
UI Stencils – So Sexy
Accessibility Testing
“We’re all just temporarily abled.” – Cindy Li
“Angry and drunk people will use your website.” – Robin Smail
Wave
http://wave.webaim.org/
Great For: • Checking your site’s accessibility.
Why It Rocks: • It’s incredibly fast and easy to use, just type in your web
address. • It’s free, and gives you a detailed summary of items you
should follow up on.
AChecker
http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php
Great For: • Checking your site’s accessibility.
Why It Rocks: • It’s incredibly fast and easy to use, just type in your web
address. • It’s free, and gives you a detailed report on items you should
follow up on.
Color Oracle
http://www.colororacle.org/
Great For: • Checking your website for color blindness accessibility.
Why It Rocks:• It’s a free color blindness simulator.• It works on PC, Mac and Linux machines.
Interdepartmental Collaboration
We’re Hiring!
<shameless plug>
Can you picture yourself in that mega epic team photo?
We’re hiring a bunch right this very minute!
http://www.schoolwires.com/careers
</shameless plug>
Target Process
http://www.targetprocess.com/
Great For: • Interdepartmental collaboration and user story and task
organization.
Why It Rocks: • At a glance you can see the status of any user story or task.• You can comment on and add files to the tasks as needed.• It automatically calculates your sprint burn down. • All team members can see an up to date status on all aspects
of the project at any given moment.
Balsamiq
http://www.balsamiq.com
Great For: • Rapid collaborative wireframing.
Why It Rocks: • It’s web based, you can access it from anywhere.• It’s really easy to collaborate remotely as a team using this
tool.• You can add and respond to comments on individual screens. • It’s modern and has an incredibly simple UI that makes for
quicker iterations than other bloated wireframing tools.
Asana
https://asana.com/
Great For: • Departmental collaboration, especially if you have remote
employees.
Why It Rocks: • Great tool for both inhouse and remote worker collaboration.• Clean UI.• Team Calendar. • Fab mobile app. • Unicorn celebrations.
InVisionApp
http://www.invisionapp.com/
Great For: • Rapid Collaborative Prototyping
Why It Rocks: • Great tool for both inhouse and remote worker collaboration.• Collaborative commenting.• Syncing in Dropbox. • Mega cool mobile prototypes with gestures.
Google Analytics Premium http://www.google.com/analytics/premium/
KissMetricshttps://www.kissmetrics.com/
MixPanelhttps://mixpanel.com/
App Anniehttp://appannie.com
Analytics
Miscellaneous Tools That Rock
Appcelerator - http://www.appcelerator.com/
MailChimp - http://mailchimp.com
ManageFlitter - http://www.manageflitter.com/ MorgueFile - http://www.morguefile.com/ Pixelmator - http://www.pixelmator.com/
Sketch - http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/
Thank you! Questions?
Jennifer Aldrichhttp://UserExperienceRocks.com @jma245