Exploring the design tools of a remote UX designer.

Whaaaaaaaat?

What's a UX designer?

A designer with a focus in User eXperience. UX designers concern themselves with solving problems revolving around the entire experience of any thing. UX designers transcend verticals—whether it be digital products or industrial design.

• Multi-disciplinary (graphic, UI)
• Interaction focused
• Research + data informed
• Information Architecture
• Wireframes
• Prototypes
• User-centric

Designers solve problems. They don't make shit look pretty.

Remote work is where its at.

Let's talk communication tools

Remote design work is asynchronous since folks are located around the world.  

We're a team of 50 designers working on everything from events to apps. Our head of design is John Maeda former president of RISD. 

• Slack (text)
• Zoom (video)
• Email (lol... nah)
• P2s (internal blogs)

Multi-disciplinary design tools

Depending on which part of the design process we're in, tools vary quite a bit.

The initial design phase is called the "Hypothesis stage." We're coming up with ideas based on intuition or data. 

• Pen, grid notebook (classic), and the trusty moleskine
• Sketch (UI and flow design)
• Illustrator (branding & print)
• Invision (prototyping)

Development tools

At Automattic, most designers are also front-end developers. The second design phase is "Deliver."

• Sublime (code editor)
• Github
• Terminal (command line)
• Languages
  • scss/sass
  • react.js
  • php
  • blah blah blah

Fun fact! A lot of what automattic creates is open source and anyone can view all the code and contribute.

WordPress.com - github.com/automattic/wp-calypso/

Jetpack - github.com/automattic/jetpack

Measurement tools

Our work means nothing if we don't learn from what we're putting out in the world. We need to be data-informed. This part of our design process is "listening."

• Tracks (trends)
• Hotjar (heatmaps and funnels)
• Google Analytics

We target different demographics for different things, so paying attention to how each group utilizes our products helps us design better products. 

Most importantly...

As a designer, you have a responsibility to use the products you design. Become the user. 

If you...

• Design for Etsy you need to create, sell, and buy art
• Design Uber or Airbnb you need to travel
• Design Spotify listen to shit ton of music
• Design for WordPress you need to blog, sell things, etc.

Find me on the internet!

DesignTactician.com

DesignTactician.blog

MidnightShiftPhotography.com

@JeffGolenski on every social media channel ever

Byeeeeeeee!