HOME / UX Tools & MethodsUX Tools & Methods
The following are the tools & methods I incorporate into my design process in order to ensure the UX Design I do is as beneficial and accurate to the user needs as possible. However, in many settings you don’t always have the ability to perform or follow a set group of standards, fires come up, and priorities shift - in these realistic situations you also have to work on the fly and follow intuition and your knowledge of your users and design system..
Wireframing for one User Flow for the FAD Admin Tool, worked on in conjunction with Orium
User Journey, showing pain points and insights along the users journey
Example of a Persona done for the Analog Social Media Project
Research analysis from a Competitive Analysis of how different groups interact and spread content on different social media platforms.
Figma prototyping to test a specific user flow.
Overview of Tools and MethodsUnmoderated Testing | Assistance and experience in setting up unmoderated testing in PlaybookUX - developing questions and tasks that can help identify user issues and needs. Ability to analyze user testing videos and gather insights and feedback to create solutions that are best for our users.
Example in use: Health Library A-Z Experience - used to identify key features on competitor sites that users liked when using search and glossary functionalities. These insights helped us set up our initial designs.
Moderated Testing | Assistance and participation in setting up Moderated Testing, accompanying UX Researchers on testing sessions, helping develop research questions and task guidance. Again analyzing studies to gather insights that guide solutions for products and components.
Example in use: FAD Admin Internal Tool - extensive moderated testing with doctors to identify pain points with the existing Admin tool as well as verify initial prototypes built.
Personas & Journey Maps | Not too often used in my current role, but good for identifying new user types and finding their pain points. Although I don’t use these too often, I do find them helpful in illustrating and explaining Research Insights to key Stakeholders and Products Owners.
Example in use: Analog Social Media Project - used to visualize and magnify pain points that may seem minor, but do impact the user’s experience.
Wireframing | Developing, using, and working from wireframes to aid in initial design sketches and understanding user flows for different products.
Competitive Analysis | Used for identifying inspiration points for new components as well as identifying new ways of structuring user experiences within our products. I think competitive analysis is a great way to get started on tasks and identify inspiration and potential pain points before user research.
A/B Testing | Used often by me, designing several iterations of a product or component and then testing to see which users prefer. My Design Process often involves exploring every possible interaction that a user might find impactful to their User Experience with a product, A/B testing helps me identify which of these designs I have done is the proper one to pursue.
Figma/Figjam | Used 24/7 by me, I have years of experience designing responsive components, prototypes, and interfaces within Figma. Also organizing and using Figma for Design System management. As well as using Figjam for planning & research organization.
Zeroheight | Used to build design systems for Content Architects & Developers. I built the Internal & External Email Design System within Zeroheight.
Storybook | Developers’ storage of design system components, familiarity with organization and QA of components published here. A great way to keep code consistent and not have to waste effort on Design QA for consistent styles like we had to do before having Storybook.
Accessibility Tools | Use of SiteImprove to identify Accessibility issues, as well as color contrast tools, accessibility research, etc. to ensure our site adheres to AA Accessibility standards.
Continuing educationAccessibility | Leading multiple initiatives to ensure better testing with disabled users and continuing my knowledge on how to do so. One such initiative involved attending CreativePro’s Design & Accessibility week-long summit and brining back key standards we could start to engage in.
Furthering User Research Skill Set | Engaging in more direct User Experience Research through more involved testing with components and unmoderated and moderated test studies done in PlaybookUX.
Design System Organization | Education on continuous improvement on how we can organize our documentation and components within Figma - especially as the Design System continues to grow past it’s current infancy stage.