New to UX? Start here ?? (Part 2)
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New to UX? Start here ?? (Part 2)

Hello again ?? and welcome back to the second instalment of the “New to UX” series! Today we are focusing on Tech Stacks, and here’s an overview of what each part will cover:

  1. Foundations:?the basics of UX design, organized by the 7 hard and soft skills that I think are the infrastructure for building a strong career in this field.
  2. Tech Stack:?the different kinds of softwares that you will be using regularly to practice your skills and work in this field, organized by functionality.
  3. Other Resources:?a collection of resources like YouTube channels, job boards, mentorship platforms, and UX pattern libraries that will help you throughout your career.
  4. Deep Dives:?Information on more specialized topics in UX that I’m particularly interested in (maybe you are too!)

Feel free to go through these sections and their contents in order, or jump right to the section that most interests you. You may notice some duplicate resources between sections, this is so that you don’t miss anything relevant in case you are jumping around.

Also!?I'd love to hear from you in the comments:?What's your favourite software you use and why?

???Happy learning!

Tech Stack

?? A tech stack (or technology stack) is a term you’ll definitely be hearing as your start your UX career. It’s all the technologies that an individual or organization uses to do their work. Below I’ve listed some commonly used tools grouped by functionality, it’s a long list but you don’t need to know every single tool! I recommend becoming comfortable with one in each category as a lot of the functions are the same, so your skills will be transferable.

Legend:???= part of my personal stack // ?? = a note about the tool listed above

Wireframing & Prototyping

BONUS! My top 5 Figma Plugins

Advanced Prototyping

?? Origami studio is developed by Meta, so if you’re looking to intern or work there in the future this is a great tool to become familiar with.

Animation & Motion Design

?? Lottie can be used as a plugin within Adobe After Effects, it allows you to take your animations and easily share them with developers as JSON files.

Brainstorming & Collaboration

Project Management

Notion →

?? This tool is very advanced and you’ll commonly see it used in professional organizations, but since different organizations organize their Jira differently I’d recommend learning how to use this software from your organization over teaching yourself how to use it. There’s a lot of Jira-specific jargon, if you’re curious they have a glossary.

Team Communication

UX Research

?? UX research isn’t my specialty, so many of the suggested tools below came from this article by Jordan Bowman.

Recruiting

?? Depending on your project, recruiting can also be done using social media (ie. Facebook groups, Reddit threads, etc.) or by reaching out to your personal connections. Be aware that the more personally connected you are to a research participant, the higher the potential for bias in their answers.

User Testing

Surveys

User Interviews

User Analytics

Documenting and Analysis

Check out part 1: foundations, part 3: other resources, and part 4: deep dives!

All views expressed are my own and do not represent the views of my past or present employers.Notion →

Dana Buruiana

Product Designer | Creating Innovative Solutions for User-Centric Experiences | Bringing creativity and a whole lot of heart to the table

2 年

Thank you so much for this valuable resource! ??

Eugenio Tamburini

Product Designer @ Universe

2 年

This is such an amazing resource. I'm reading over Part 1 now and there are things in there that I didn't consider or did not remember. Thank you so much for putting these together!

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