From Pre-Columbean pottery to Black Hole Singularity, Pimp makes the world perform better with good UX. Follow Pimp's common sense and pragmatic approach to UX, and become a UX master yourself!
I’ve been working as a UX designer for more than 15 years now, so by now, I earned myself the fancy title of UX architect and can fully pretend to know what users need so clients listen when I speak, a privilege I take abusive advantage of 🤟. But hey, I give back and spread my knowledge wherever I can 🤓. Apart from spotting me in front of a class of eager students looking to learn the ropes of UX and Figma and doing the same for organizations looking to adapt their team’s way of working , I also write a lot about the stuff and do some occasional illustrations but since you’re a fan, you knew that.
Today I want to share the tools I use in my kitchen, to make my work stand out like a pro (I know, I really should stop bragging). Here are 15 tips & tools that I lean on to help me in my job.
1. Empathy.
First and probably foremost I rely on my knack for empathy, borne out of my background experience as UX designer. Years of doing UX has made me much more empathetic than I was before. Going from job to job and from challenge to challenge has especially learned me to work with and for people. And believe me, we’re all the same people who want the same shit.
A man crying because he understands the user’s pain so well.
2. Simplicity.
Besides empathy I learned to look through the maze of complexity and uncover what anyone really needs, which most of the time is a simple interface that gets the job done. It’s amazing how many times we engage in needless complexity, when really everything can be made much simpler. It does require a good understanding of the business and its customers and a fair bit of go-and-back designing. My general rule is: when you’re happy with the result after 1 or 2 rounds, you’re not there yet.
A man who realizes that simple just works.
3. Collaboration.
No product gets released without proper collaboration between people. It sounds cliche, but it actually requires a mindset out of our comfort zone, at least mine. I admit, I enjoy working ‘in the zone’, so much it can feel like an adverse task to actually get up and talk to people. Whenever I do though, it’s almost always invigorating. Except when I’m talking to that one dev nerd who always answers in code slang I can’t understand. You know who you are! 🫵
A man who has found his self-assurance thanks to a great team behind him.
4. Figma.
So far for soft skills. Let’s get into the software. When I receive the oscars from my clients, I first and foremost must thank Figma. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my trusted friend and advisor who helped me out through the years, especially after my break-up with Sketch. No really, Figma genuinely rules! It has almost everything I need to get my work going. It’s fly, it’s smart, it has a rich community and it just does the job. And it keeps coming with handy new features every month or so. I enjoy Figjam as well.
A retired designer who just realized there was a design tool that could have saved him years of frustration.
5. Platform guidelines.
If you know that about 100% of the applications are designed for iOS or Android (actual figures may vary and some may be attributed to small organizations like Microsoft, Oracle or SAP), then you’ll agree that what they have to say about UI is pretty telling. So read these guidelines as if it’s the very first thing you do when you enter the building. Then come back a few years later to see if they still apply. It’s kind of a no-brainer which often gets forgotten. I plead guilty!
A man who smirks at watching his followers and then sees them pull out their wallets.
6. UI pattern libraries.
Often you’ll find yourself designing stuff where you can’t find inspiration for, like when you’re designing complex patterns for business applications. That stuff is almost unfindable on the web because it’s behind locked doors, unlike business-to-consumer apps of which you’ll find more UX info online than your grandmother finds lost hairs in her bed every morning. So where to go for competitor benchmarking? Well, there are ample webites out there that assemble these patterns and hand them over for you to look to in one place.
UIgarage is one of those which I turn to as my favourite.
Pttrns.com is in addition likewise as well also good too.
And then following tip nr. 4, Figma has a rich community of those as well.
If you’re designing for SaaS platforms, I suggest trying saasframe.io. It’s a paying platform, it might have a bit more patterns to my liking but it has helped me a lot over the years. For example, the whole login/registration flow with cookie and consent policy… how did that work again?
A man who spots a usable pattern.
7. UX Stack Exchange.
Not every UI challenge is engrained in stone when it comes to these platforms, especially not when designing in specific contexts. Where any developer relies on Stack Overflow as if his life depended on it, a great designer has at least posted a few hundred questions on UX Stack Exchange, the designer’s counterpart. I love how you can describe your issue, add screenshots and receive relevant feedback pretty quickly. Agreed, design is not an exact science and it heavily relies on best practices and context-based preferences. But that’s just the beauty of the platform, you can frame your question within a context and get valuable feedback. It has helped me out quite a bit. My only sin — apart from being an obnoxious brag — is that I don’t send feedback back to others that often, which is what a platform like that is all about. I promise I will in the future!
A man who has finally found the exact answer to his nitty detail question.
8. NN Group.
So, when I design for iOS, I sometimes take a peak at what the iOS guidelines tell me about some pattern. I’ll do the same for Android or Microsoft for that matter (the latter has some outdated business rules). But when I design cross-platform, on several occasions they don’t really help me out when I’m stuck with a specific issue. For example, what is the best button location in complex forms? There’s much debate and every platform contradicts the other or just ignores its own rules (sorry, Microsoft). When that happens, I turn to the Bible. The NN Group is a research and consulting group formed around the design gurus Donald Norman and Jakob Nielsen, 2 of the biggest names in the industry of which the former invented the word UX and the latter is like the grandfather of user research. The site posts articles on about any UX pattern you’ll come across, based on scientific research. If they don’t know it, nobody will. On some topics, like button location however, I find them to be somewhat inconclusive as well. But don’t let that hold you back from worshiping their knowledge.
A man who uses his wits to make you think you have found the answer.
9. Books.
Books, books, books! You should read books. I have, and it has made me incomparably intelligent. I’ll just give you a few I read and which helped me out.
Don’t Make Me Think (Steve Krug): It’s the classic. It was released in 2000 and has had several revisions, the last one in 2013. It still remains the go-to book that wittingly explains all general UX principles and well, the title says what we designers are all set out to help users (not) to do
About Face (Alan Cooper): This one’s a huge chunk to digest and deals with all principles of interaction design. The good thing is that Alan Cooper himself is a software developer so the link to development makes it much more valuable to capture.
https://www.designbetter.co/ (Invision): The people at Invision are nice people. They want to make our jobs easier and transform us into great designers, all of us. I’ve used their prototyping tool for years until my good friend Figma told me it wasn’t necessary anymore. Sorry InVision, I do still love you! On their site, Invision hosts a series of free books on several design topics more related to project-based teamwork, like design engineering and design thinking.
The Design of Everyday Things (Donald Norman): Norman handles the design challenges when designing for everyday products like oven burners. It’s kind of a dated book, but design rarely gets dated that fast.
Designing Interfaces (O’Reilly): Again, a great book on digital design patterns. I have always liked the boos in the O’Reilly series because they dive deep into matters without assuming you’re an expert or without leaving even the beginners left behind.
There’s a whole range of other interesting books I won’t get into here, but if you’re interested, give me a shout. ☝️
A man who reads a book.
10. Design inspiration sites.
Great designers love stealing the work of others with their eyes. So what better platforms to do so than Dribbble or Pinterest, my 2 favourite design inspiration channels. Yet, that’s mainly what it is, inspiration. A lot of work hosted on these platforms is far from usable though.
A man who is pretty confident he has just shown you the light.
11. Checklist.design.
In a similar trend as the above, but a little bit different is this nice helpful site that helps you think about all the small patterns you need when designing a specific element. For example, when you’re designing a blog page, it tells you to not forget a ‘title’, a ‘sub heading’, a ‘thumbnail’,… and so on. Worth checking out.
A man who never does anything without checking his checklist.
12. User Onboard.
I absolutely love this site. It’s a no-nonsense site that dissects the onboarding of sites or apps by simply showing all the steps involved in their onboarding and providing them with a post-it-wise feedback. It’s hugely helpful to see how others go about it (often wrong by the way) and how you can learn from it. The only downside is that they primarily tackle the famous platforms like Dropbox or Kickstarter, but it doesn’t hold me back from regularly checking their site.
A man who never really understood which way to get onboard.
13. Free stock photo sites.
When we design we sometimes need telling pictures. I confess, I don’t like paying for them on sites like Shutterstock or Getty Images. I have a hunch they’re a corporate business out for our money (while of course no corporate is ever out for our money). But maybe it’s just me. After all, they protect the people who they represent. On the other hand, why pay when you have ample sites who boast with nice pictures, for free. These are my recommendations:
Pexels: Its kind of a go-to tool for me. Nice and elegant site.
Unsplash: Its kind of a go-to tool for me. Nice and elegant site.
Noun Project: Its kind of a go-to tool for me. Nice and elegant site. Has icons too
Freepik: Its kind of a go-to tool for me. It’s a site.
Most of them all share pretty much the same pictures and you’ll know where they come from when you see them. But you’ll need to enter a more creative search term to find the more original ones. Nothing beats taking your own pictures or using the client’s stockphotos, but let’s be honest, both of these options aren’t really options. At least not for me.
A man who just saw his greatest annual expenditure fall away.
14. Podcasts.
I travel a lot. Clients from all over the world beg for my expertise. Amsterdam, New York, Sydney, Shanghai… it never stops. And while I’m traveling, I read books and I listen to podcasts. Here are some of my favorite:
Design details: a weekly podcast about design and technology. It’s good.
UX Podcast: This podcast deals with variable topics in design, business and technology. It’s also good.
NN/g UX podcast: From the same group as mentioned above. Oh, and it’s good.
I know quite a few others but honestly, among many other fields of interest, I keep with about 3 on UX. And by the way, I lied in this paragraph. I don’t travel a lot, I do dream a lot! 🙈
A man who tries to hide the fact that he has just heard something very new.
15. News & social sites.
Of course you’ll want to stay up to date with the latest in design. That means reading or having caring friends who tell you what’s up in the world of design every day. Here are some of the channels where I get my latest:
Smashing Magazine: Mainly based around the web, the site is teeming with valuable pattern discussions.
pimpmyux.org: the best site to find good insights.
A woman who subtly points out all the gifs in this article were men.
That’s about it. This list of course is not conclusive. If you found it helpful or you have comments, do shout out. Love to hear from you.
If you would like my physical advice in the form of a UX and Figma training, I do that stuff as well. Just hear what a former student had to say about it: ‘Wow, I mean like, W-O-W!’
How is it possible that for an interaction billions of people engage in daily, there are only a few modes of communicating? Why can’t the honk be designed to communicate different messages? Read the story of Angry Adam.
Designing a website isn’t as simple as you always thought. There’s a lot to cover. Fortunately, Pimp has written the most extensive guide ever written, with 25 fundamental laws he invented. A must read for anyone with the intention to ever design a website, or look at one.
HR is all about human interactions. This process can be made much more effective with the right kind of intelligence applied. How did I go about it and what can you learn from me?