My 4 essential UX project tools

For me there are four essential things I need in my day-to-day tasks as a professional “UX-er”.

  1. Notebook—These, of course, come in all shapes and sizes. My current large notebook of choice is The Confident from Baron Fig. It has a certain heft to it. Lays flat, comes in a dot grid, and the bleed from pens is acceptable. Space pen resting on a my Baron Fig notebook

    I always carry at least one back up and that has been something from Muji for many years now. They are affordable, take ink well and survive being stuffed into bags or pockets. My currents are the Cahier and the Grid.

    Taking my laptop to meetings (unless I’m presenting) is so distracting. There’s always another think vying for my attention on the screen. I always try and take only a notebook in with me.

  2. Spreadsheet programs—Whether it’s Google Sheets, Excel, or Numbers I find myself spending a quarter of my time in one of these, regardless of the project.

    Regardless of how much I’m told (or I think) a page/function is used I don’t know unless I have the raw data. You’re off to a good start thinking nothing is ever used unless a column of numbers sits in front of you. Decisions based on data can always stand up in a meeting.

  3. Sketch—Since switching to a Mac I’ve fallen in love with Sketch. The spiritual successor to Fireworks which, for me, was the graphics program for the web.

    Sketch is light, easy to pick up, and great for figuring out the modular, CSS driven, design that makes sense in today’s web. Pair it with InVision and I’m good to go, workflow wise.

  4. Evernote—My “outboard brain”, for better or worse. Everything goes in there. Evernote. ‘Nuff said.

    5. Honorable mention to Inkwell.io for the great sketching kit they put together. I don’t take it everywhere, but parts of it are always with me.

    So there’s mine. What are yours?