This is my running list of helpful resources I’ve collected while performing various tasks related to designing products and services. This list is by no means exhaustive or comprehensive in detail. I use it as a reference.
Disclaimer: When using cloud-based tools, make sure the data you are posting to the site is not confidential. Be cautious about including client/customer PII (personally identifiable information) in cloud-based solutions. Check with your legal counsel if you have questions.
Empathy Map
Book
Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams by James Kalbach (O’Reilly)
URL (on-line source)
www.solutionsiq.com/what-is-an-empathy-map – Article includes Google Docs template
There are literally dozens of free download sources for this map. Just search on “empathy map” and pick one.
Modeling a Business
Book
Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder
URL (on-line canvas)
Both of these URLs link to cloud-based canvas construction solutions
www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc
canvanizer.com/new/busine
Mindmapping
Book
Use Your Head by Tony Buzan
URL (reference)
www.cleverism.com/18-best-idea-generation-techniques – good reference article where mindmapping is just one technique covered.
Product (free)
XMIND – www.xmind.net
Sketching and Wireframing (UX)
Book
Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton
Product ($89)
Balsamiq – balsamiq.com
Lets you change “skins” to reflect your thoughts as sketches or wireframes.
Image Manipulation (for non-UI designers)
Disclaimer: Many (most?) folks who spend large amounts of time manipulating images often have an almost religious fervor around Adobe products. This section for those of us who need something more than a basic paint application and don’t have the time or resource to learn the suite of Adobe tools…
Product (free)
GIMP – www.gimp.org
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring
Product (free)
InfranView – www.irfanview.com
A great tool for: format conversion, image re-sizing, cropping and many other image optimization processes. Not as steep a learning curve as Photoshop or GIMP.
Image Creation (for non-UI designers)
Disclaimer: Many (most?) folks who spend large amounts of time manipulating images often have an almost religious fervor around Adobe products. This section for those of us who need something more than a basic paint application and don’t have the time or resource to learn the suite of Adobe tools…
Product (free)
Inkscape – inkscape.org
Inkscape is a professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Inkscape uses the W3C open standard SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) as its native format, and is free and open-source software.
Technical Drawings
Product (free)
DIA – dia-installer.de
Dia is an application for creating technical diagrams. Its interface and features are loosely patterned after the Windows program Visio.
Project Managment
Product (free)
TRELLO – trello.com
Brings lean principles to PM in the form of an on-line (cloud-based) Kanban board
Product (free)
Project Libre – www.projectlibre.org
An open source alternative to Microsoft Project.
