Last night I attended the LA User Experience Meetup event entitled Tools of the UX Trade hosted at the historic Los Angeles Times building. Here’s what the people were talking about when I was at their table:

1. User Research
Everyone agreed it was useful and important. Some had bad experiences with surveys. I personally like ethnographic interviews.

2. Brainstorming
Some said this happens before anything goes on paper. One person’s definition was it should be used to get together people that need to work with one another in order to accomplish a goal. Whiteboarding sessions was a tool some mentioned.

3. Early Design
Typical responses was sketching with plain old paper and pencil. I overheard someone say story telling was an early design. I like that one.

4. Sitemaps/Flows
Not everyone at my table did them. Those who did agreed iit takes a long time but it’s a good way to have a complete understanding of the architecture of the system.

5. Wireframes
Most people use Visio or OmniGraffle. Two person even said Photoshop. Axure seemed to be a hit among those who have used it but it’s iRise pricey.

6. Mockups
There was confusion about what was a mockup. People seemed to agree that it was somewhere between a wireframe and a more high fidelity screen.

7. Comps
Photoshop was the popular tool choice. No surprise here.

8. Lo-Fi Prototypes
People mentioned paper prototyping, as well as using wireframes as prototypes.

9. Hi-Fi Prototypes
There was a few ways to look at this. Does it mean hi-fi graphics, hi-fi interaction, or both? While it is nice to have, it takes a long time compared to a lo-fi one so it is hard to justify.

10. Usability Testing
Very useful and important but expensive. One person felt we should be doing it at an iterative approach sections at a time so in the end you are not kicking yourself for not having time to test a particular portion.

Overall, it was a very fun, interesting night and I can’t wait for the next one.