Ask The Experts is a series in which we ask design leaders from our community common questions from UX professionals or those seeking a career in UX. This month we're covering tools and techniques. 

What tools and techniques beyond Figma for prototypes, usability testing and portfolios are most effective today?

For portfolios, I’m a big fan of Framer, its interface is very similar to Figma’s, which makes it easy to onboard and use.

For usabilty testing, Dovetail is great for being a good data repository for analyzing usability testing data and gathering insights. One of my coworkers also just recently tested out an AI tool called Marvin in some usability testing sessions, which created a private live stream of their sessions so observers can watch the testing without accidentally interfering. 

I love that a lot of those tools like Mural, Miro, and even Figjam have wireframing templates you can just drag and drop and be messy with.

Another tool we use with our developers is Linear. They're able to create and keep track of tickets, and I as the designer can use it's Figma plugin to attach specific prototypes & designs to an active project. It helps me keep connected to the technical progress and stay in the loop with any coding issues. 

Megan Brown -UX Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group

I use MUIQ for user testing, it is a powerful service. They offer a number of test options and their moderated testing services options are growing. 

Jamal Cromity – Director of Mentoring and Students -TriUXPA

Our new TriUXPA Sponsor, Lucid, provides Lucid Chart for process mapping and lo-fi wireframing, which I used a lot. Also Lucid Spark for facilitation sessions. You can get a free account and make about 5 documents.

Carl Turner – Director for Events - TriUXPA

 For AI tools:

• I believe we're seeing a shift in early-stage design. Instead of traditional wireframing, AI-powered "vibe coding" with tools like Loveable/Gemini can more rapidly align stakeholders on strategy. By quickly visualizing interactions and architecture, UXr's  can focus more on high-level product strategy from the very beginning.
• Enjoy using notebookLM for research synthesis
• Gemini/Chat GPT for research script and plan writing
• Gemini/Chat GPT for heuristic review & aria label writing

Jane Enser – UX Designer, Lucid Software

 I hate to say AI, but...AI. Not that it can do everything, but it can be quite powerful when used within appropriate contexts and frameworks.

For low fidelity wireframes we ended up using Mural and even *Microsoft PowerPoint* to generate wireframes.

I use spreadsheets or AirTable to keep track of inspiration.

Anonymous – UX Researcher

I’ve been using a tool called Eagle to collect screenshots of good portfolios and case studies.

Elly Yu