Tooling our design process
A list of the tools that we use in our design process.
I decided to share what we’re using for design at Threefold Systems. This came from reading a great article about the tools that the Mesosphere design team use — I recommend reading it.
Threefold Systems is unlike anywhere I’ve ever worked — in the best possible way. We have a small team but we work clients all over the world in a wide range of industries so productivity is essential to our success. We work on a wide range of projects. From creating apps to internal systems and right up to e-commerce websites so every day provides the opportunity to learn something new.
Although we try to follow processes and use particular tools, we like to keep it flexible so that the tools are best for the people who use them. Here are the tools we use throughout our design process.
To help us understand
Google Analytics provides us with understanding what people are doing on a site, where they’re coming from, how long they’re spending on a site, and so on...
Hotjar is one of our favourite tools for understanding user behaviour. It’s one of the few tools we use to its full extent, from heatmaps right up to feedback polls.
To help us envision
We use Sketch for all our UI design. It has an interface that is intuitive, and the plugins help to power our workflow.
Photoshop is used for any photo editing or graphics that we need since photo editing in Sketch is primitive. Use the right tool for the job.
To help us prototype (and handoff)
InVision is our one-stop shop for both prototyping and developer handoff. I’ve been using InVision for years and it is one of my favourite design tools. It works super smooth with Sketch through the Craft plugin.
To help us validate
Usability Hub provides us with the ability to run remote user testing so that we can test our assumptions. It helps us to ask questions about our designs and get answers from real users.
Optimal Workshop is like the previous, as in it helps us make design decisions. We use it for testing IA with tree testing and card sorting.
We use Maze with our InVision prototypes to discover how users interact with prototypes. What I like the most about it is it provides us with analytical results for our prototypes.
To help us communicate
Slack is for most organisations the tool of choice for communicating. We have got a public design channel for everything design related.
To help us store our work
Plantapp provides us with version control for our designs. It integrates with Sketch so we can stay in our normal workflow and still have the safety of version control.
We use Dropbox to share design resources and files. In particular, we love using Dropbox Paper for our project design docs and found that it has simplified our workflow.
Confluence provides us with a Wiki. We have got a space designated for Design. We’ve documented our tools, design process, workflows, among others.
That is about it!
There are plenty of tools out there but they are the ones that work best for us. My only recommendation is to pick tools that work for you and not because they’re the hottest new thing! What tools are you using and why?
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