PSU Web 2014: UX and Design Tools That Will Improve Your Productivity

UX & Design Tools That Will Improve Your Productivity

Jennifer AldrichContent Strategist at Schoolwires@jma245

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 Prototyping

http://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