By: User Experience Edmonton

@UXYEG

Tools can help us collect data

Can help us visualize it in a way that we may not have considered

Opportunity cost – maybe you have better things to do?

Tools that won’t cost you money

Freemium model

Pay for lower level of functionality

Single or minimal use

Subscription model – just make sure you cancel after a month

High or medium utility relative to cost

Will vary depending on what you are trying to accomplish

Be prepared to cancel your monthly subscription when you are done

Management

Information Architecture

Prototyping

Assessment

Anything

YouTrack http://www.jetbrains.com/youtrack/

Free! (for ten users)

Project and task tracking tool

Used for tracking ideas, bugs, enhancements and project tasks

Stormboard https://www.stormboard.com/

Free! (for five users)

Virtual post it notes, images, videos or sketches

Great brainstorming tool

Can be shared with remote users in real time

Locally Grown!

Evernote https://evernote.com/

Free! (for 60 MB / month)

Share notes between team members and devices

Not revolutionary – lots of other apps that do this

OptimalSort http://www.optimalworkshop.com/

Cheap-ish! ($149 / study)

Use this when you can’t be in a room with your users

Good for collecting raw data

Not a replacement for being in the room with users

TreeJack http://www.optimalworkshop.com/

Cheap-ish! ($149 / study)

Use this in every website, intranet site

Can evaluate the navigation and structure of a website

Tests your labels and structure without being distracted by other site elements

Can publish as a survey and collect results

Balsamiq http://balsamiq.com/buy/

Cheap-ish (varies depending on how many licenses you need)

Wireframing tool – either online or a desktop app

Invision http://www.invisionapp.com/

Free!

It’s a cool thing!

Turns your designs into interactive prototypes

Upload your designs to the site

Add hot spots

Bootstrap Tool

Free!

If you’re familiar enough with HTML and CSS you might as well just use Bootstrap

Many different environments that you can use for building Bootstrap prototypes

https://jetstrap.com/

http://www.divshot.com/pricing

Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/

Free!

Use this. Now.

Basic user demographics

Bounce rates

Entry/exit points

Site usage metrics

Device/browser usage

PageSpeed Insights http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Free!

Quick usability assessment on your site

Measures basic usability principles for desktop and mobile

Gives pointers on how to:

Increase speed

Make mobile experience better

Size your text and target areas better

ClickTale http://clicktale.com/

Free!

Heat mapping, mouse tracking, analytics

Record sessions of interactions

Free!

Ethnio http://ethn.io/

Cheap-ish

Recruitment tool

Handle the awful, terrible parts of recruitment like talking to people

Usabilla https://usabilla.com/

Cheap-ish

Visual feedback tool

Quick, dirty surveys

Great for quick analysis of visual designs

Good for testing labeling or feature areas

Paper

Sharpies

Post-its

Pencils

Anything you can do with a website you can do in real life

You can manage tasks with post-its

You can prototype with paper

You can test with any idiot

You can card sort with paper