Mastering UX Design: Discover My 7 Favorite UX Tools
Choosing the right UX tools is critical to success. After all, they can help you move through all stages of UX design — from user research to prototyping to optimisation — more efficiently and productively.
How do you choose the right UX tool?
Here are seven key aspects to consider when choosing a UX user interaction tool:
- Project Goals. Define your project goals and the tasks you plan to solve using UX tools. For example, prototyping, UI testing, collecting and processing feedback, etc.
- Project type. How well does the tool fit your project? Some tools are more suited for web design, others for mobile apps.
- Teamwork. Does the instrument support a feature for collaboration? How easy is it to share your work with other team members?
- Level of complexity. Some tools are better suited for complex projects, while for others, you can choose a simple, intuitive tool.
- Integration. Is there integration with other tools? Does it make it easier to transition between project phases?
- Cost. Choose a tool where functionality and cost are best combined.
- Testimonials. Study the experience of other users who have solved similar problems. Determine whether the tool is suitable for your daily tasks.
Considering these aspects, you can choose the UX tool that best suits your project and team’s needs.
4 Must-Have UX tools for user research
The following six tools will help you test critical ideas for your project, which you can then use to solve problems.
Lyssna
Lyssna is a handy platform for remote user research. You can use it to test projects and gather user feedback to make quick, informed decisions.
How can you use Lyssna?
- For market research and competitor strategies.
- To conduct surveys and interviews by selecting candidates from 530000 participants.
- To create different usability tests.
User Testing
UserTesting is a solution for finding suitable candidates to test your projects. This tool is excellent for projects where it is critical to get direct feedback from users and understand their needs and preferences.
How can User Testing be used?
- To attract users from different demographics to interact with your product, app or service.
- To get real-time feedback, which is very valuable.
- When you need to gather feedback from a specific target audience, taking into account age, location, occupation, etc.
- For simulated and unmoderated testing.
UXCam
UXCam is a mobile app solution that provides a complete view of user behaviour.
How can UXCam be used?
- For user behaviour analytics in mobile apps. You will gain insights into how users interact with the interface, how to improve UX design, enhance functionality and generally improve user experience.
- Replay sessions, that is, record and analyse the flow of actions on the user’s screen to find weaknesses in the design.
- Obtain and analyse heat maps to understand which interface elements attract attention and which users ignore.
Hotjar
Hotjar is a popular tool with many UX designers because of its versatility. It is more customised for websites but can collect analytics and feedback on websites adapted for mobile devices.
How can Hotjar be used?
- To get real-time visual analytics of user behaviour.
- To create surveys for website visitors and get quick feedback.
- To track the pages from which users leave.
Top 3 tools for creating wireframes and prototypes
Balsamiq
Balsamiq is an excellent tool for creating layouts. Its style of displaying elements allows you to focus on their placement and create practical, complete layouts.
Benefits of Balsamiq:
- The focus is on functionality rather than aesthetics.
- Template libraries can be created so you don’t have to make and customise reusable components.
- Allows you to create interactive prototypes for testing and demonstrations to the team.
- It will enable you to drag and drop elements, saving time for creating a mockup.
Figma
Figma is a collaborative prototyping tool that needs no introduction.
Benefits of Prototype Figma package:
- Automated prototyping allows you to create animations in fewer iterations.
- Advanced Prototyping. You can use several unique features like conditional logic to get better results.
- Multi-level interactions to create multiple layers of interactive content.
- Efficient teamwork for increased productivity.
Axure RP
Axure RP is a tool known for its advanced prototyping capabilities, support for complex interactions and conditional logic.
Benefits of using Axure RP:
- Interactive capabilities. You can create UX prototypes with unlimited combinations of event triggers, conditions, and actions. This helps to explore the user experience truly.
- Interaction events. You can use touch, mouse, and keyboard events to trigger interactions.
- Conditional logic. By adding conditions and variables, you can improve prototypes.
- Dynamic content for realistic prototypes.
- Adaptive views. You can design for different gadgets on one page, where the appropriate view for each gadget will be automatically displayed.
What tools do you use in your work? Share your favourites in the comments.
