Presented at the Web Conference at Penn State 2014

1. UX & Design
Tools That Will
Improve Your
Productivity
Jennifer Aldrich
Content Strategist at
Schoolwires
@jma245

2. 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

3. Usability Testing & User Research

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. Mobile Usability Testing

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. UI Stencils – So Sexy

13. Accessibility Testing

14. “We’re all just temporarily abled.”
– Cindy Li

15. “Angry and drunk people will use
your website.”
– Robin Smail

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Interdepartmental Collaboration

20. 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>

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. Google Analytics Premium
http://www.google.com/analytics/premium/
KissMetrics
https://www.kissmetrics.com/
MixPanel
https://mixpanel.com/
App Annie
http://appannie.com
Analytics

26. 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/

27. Thank you! Questions?
Jennifer Aldrich
http://UserExperienceRocks.co
m
@jma245