To do a good job, he must sharpen his tools. Thinking and methodology are super important, but mastering and crafting a workflow that works for you can increase productivity exponentially. Good software coupled with skilled use can help solve any problems encountered, not only reducing the burden on the brain and body, but also allowing product designers to do their jobs more efficiently.
There are many tools for different people, and as a designer, my daily routine is to accept and discuss requirements, dismantle tasks, design processes and interfaces, make prototypes and animations, etc. Today, I would like to introduce to you six sets of tools that I use every day in my work. They satisfy almost all of my work needs and are effective.
Interface and flow design: Sketch + Axure + Xmind
In daily work, the core design output depends on these three apps.
In the demand sorting stage, Xmind will be used to draw brain maps and flow charts to define all design nodes and present them. The Xmind free edition is powerful enough to support all kinds of charts and has a low barrier to entry, so you can jump right into the real world with a little learning.
The interface and prototyping phase is mainly based on Sketch, which is better at page rendering, and Axure, which is more logical. In the company, because the components are so complete, designers can quickly produce high-fidelity designs using any of them and have no problem dealing with complex business logic.
The advantage of Sketch is that if the output contains visual content, the information it provides is more accurate. In addition, the learning cost is very low, and the development students in the team are also required to master Sketch. In this way, the designer does not need to mark and cut diagrams, which greatly improves the work efficiency and focuses on the design itself.
Older designers or product managers might prefer Axure because it’s powerful enough to produce interactive prototypes. Because of the lack of access to external storage platforms, Axure’s Team feature was the most irreplaceable for our Team: the ability to quickly upload designs to the server for all Team members to share and view. So even if designers are working with Sketch, they need to place the output on an Axure server for easy collaboration.
Task Management: Wunerlist
I tried using magic lists to manage daily tasks in my own projects a long time ago, but found that the demand wasn’t that great. However, after I came to the company as an intern, I found that the number of concurrent daily work has far exceeded my limit (my maximum number of threads is 3, which means that it is the limit to allocate energy to three things at the same time in a period of time). I often need both design and communication, and there are multiple demands at the same time, and each cycle is very long. This is where the value of task management software comes in.
Every time there is a new work demand, I will first place it in the “Tmall Intern” folder, and set up several sub-tasks in the main task, and write down the address and matters needing attention of relevant documents, so the task in this folder is the most important. More mundane tasks, such as when to hold review meetings, remembering to remind product managers to provide data, or preparing materials for internal training, can be placed directly in the inbox. At the beginning and end of each small piece of work, take a quick look at your to-do list, add any necessary updates, and clear away any small tasks that have already been done.
They’re also great for taking notes, whether it’s regular communication or minutes of meetings. Last week, WHEN I was negotiating with the product manager, I forgot some key points because I didn’t write them down in time, resulting in a lot of problems later. Gradually learning to record all information in software frees up your brain from trying to remember complex things and focuses more on the task at hand.
The Wonder list also supports collaboration and the ability to assign tasks and comment on each other. Setting reminders and due times is also very useful, and can basically deal with any current work situation. Finally, across all platforms, no matter where I am, I can look at my phone or my computer and know what I need to do right now.
The Mac efficiency is improved using Paste, Alfred2, and Dropshelf
Quantitative change causes qualitative change, and the efficiency of every simple operation will greatly improve the efficiency of daily work.
Paste is a copy and Paste board management software that allows you to record all the pasted content (pictures, text, files, etc.) and call it with one click. In short, you can easily manage every copy (I set it to record 50 times). For designers, there is often a need to copy and paste components or copy, so it can really reduce a lot of duplication and increase efficiency. (I recommend it to a business friend who loves it……)
Alfred2 is the most legendary efficiency device on Mac platform. Just quick retrieval and opening of documents saves me a lot of time and operations every day. No matter what I am doing, I can open any file and App through Option + space. And the Spotlight search was really slow. With the purchase of Powerpack, you can also use the more powerful Workflow to increase productivity exponentially.
Dropshelf, which I bought just last week, offers a small box on the side of the desktop to temporarily store copies of files and quickly open or drag designs into when needed. If Paste is used to copy and Paste content, Dropshelf is used to transfer files. For example, when I was in an internal study group, I would drag and drop a demo file to a small box on the edge of the screen, and then open or drag it to the app at a certain point. You don’t have to go back and forth in the Finder, which is very convenient.
Motion and interactive prototype: Pixate + Origami
There are so many apps for motion and prototype design that I have tried and touched on more than ten of them before finally choosing Pixate and Origami as the only remaining design tools.
Pixate just announced its move to Google a few days ago. With Studio free, it’s done with the hassle and lag of editing on the Web, but also supports Windows and Android devices. Pixate operation is very simple, learning cost is very low, basically through half a day of trying to master the core operation method, and then you can focus on the realization of the effect. Most of the effects can be achieved with it without any problems, as shown in several official demos, even complex dynamic effects can be easily dealt with it, so as a lightweight prototyping tool is really suitable. Under my influence, many designers on the team have started using Pixate to produce simple demos to view and test.
Origami is known for its steep learning curve compared to Pixate, and frankly I’d rather write code than touch Origami. But its powerful code export function, detailed to every design details of the dynamic effect of the ability to let people give up. Recently, I started an Origami study group with my team, two or three after-work sessions a week, hoping to learn more about the software together. At the same time, the development students will also participate in the study, I also try to find a balance in the design-development process, so as to maximize the overall efficiency.
In summary, simple effects are implemented using Pixate, while complex motion effects that require fine-tuning and code reuse are implemented using Origami.
Video recording and demo: Quicktime + PicGIF
After the demo, in addition to taking the real machine to the development of students or product managers to demonstrate, often also need to record the effect, made into GIF after either email or put on the task management platform is convenient enough. Try a lot of screen recording tools, the result is Apple’s own Quicktime is the clearest and most practical, recorded into mp4 or MOV files, import PicGIF software, you can easily extract video frames into GIF, and you can freely adjust the playback rate, frame number and other content.
A tip is that demo animations may also need to have touch markers to show what the finger is doing. Pixate’s screen recording feature, while not sharp, provides a touch display, and Quicktime recording during this process is perfect.
File transfer and sharing: Pushbullet + Airdrop
I’ve lost count of how many screenshots I have on my phone this month, and tiling pages is a great way to view and compare. I work with a Macbook, an iMac, two phones and an iPad, so how do I easily transfer pictures from one device to the other?
Apple’s Airdrop is a great option. It’s fast and the one I use the most. But Airdrop is often limited by distance (bluetooth), and I don’t know if it’s a system problem or not, and sometimes I can’t find the device, so I also used Pushbullet.
Pushbullet is also cross-platform, so Android devices can share files with it, sending messages to specific devices quickly and accurately, and checking past messages as if they were a chat.
Everyone can build a workflow that suits them best, and you are welcome to share your toolbox in the comments and make your productivity soar.