Tools I use.
Stage by stage.

A practical overview of the UX, user research, analytics, design, testing, AI, frontend, backend, and optimisation tools used across digital product work.

Observe

Understanding what users actually do, not what we think they do.

What I like to use

Google Analytics

Tracks how users actually move through a product, where they , and which paths to . It’s the baseline for understanding behaviour at scale and spotting where things are breaking down.

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FullStory

Captures detailed user along with technical , making it easier to understand both and underlying issues, especially in more complex products.

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Microsoft Clarity

Adds a visual layer through and , making it easy to see confusion, hesitation, and in real user behaviour rather than guessing from data alone.

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Mixpanel

Event-based product analytics that helps break down journeys, , , and in more depth than standard reporting.

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Hotjar

Combines , recordings, and tools into one place. Good for quickly validating and getting a directional view of what users are doing.

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Amplitude

Product analytics built for understanding behavioural at scale, especially across journeys, cohorts, and usage.

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Crazy Egg

Focuses on visual and , helping highlight what users are actually engaging with versus what was intended.

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Smartlook

Combines , , and , making it a useful middle ground between analytics and visual behaviour tools.

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Understand

Getting to the why behind , not just the numbers.

What I like to use

Typeform

Flexible survey tool that makes it easy to collect structured without creating for users, especially in live products.

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What else is out there

Dovetail

Helps organise and analyse , making it easier to turn interviews and into clear, usable .

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SurveyMonkey

More traditional survey , suited for larger-scale and more formal collection.

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Qualtrics

Enterprise and survey with strong for large-scale feedback, segmentation, and analysis.

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Hotjar

Useful for in-product and intercept as well as and recordings, making it a practical bridge between behaviour and direct user input.

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Sprig

In-product tool for and collection, useful when you need quick insight from live users in context.

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Gong

Conversation intelligence that helps teams analyse sales and support calls at scale to surface recurring themes and customer language.

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Structure

Turning into clear journeys and usable flows.

What I like to use

Figma

Used to design flows, wireframes, and , turning into something tangible that can be tested, refined, and shared.

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What else is out there

Overflow

Specialised tool for presenting clearly, making it easier to communicate journeys and to others.

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FigJam

Supports early-stage thinking, mapping, and collaboration, helping teams align before moving into more detailed design work.

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Mural

Collaborative visual workspace for workshops, mapping, and team across journeys, , and ideas.

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Lucidchart

More structured diagramming tool, often used for , , and technical flows that need and consistency.

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Draw.io

Practical diagramming tool for flows, , and structures when speed and matter more than polish.

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Miro

Designed for workshops and collaborative , particularly useful for mapping journeys and aligning multiple .

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Axure RP

Powerful tool for building detailed flows and logic-heavy , especially when need more depth.

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Test

Validating ideas before they become expensive mistakes.

What I like to use

Codex

Useful for quickly exploring implementation options, pressure-testing flows, and accelerating when ideas need to move from concept into working product.

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What else is out there

Maze

Enables rapid testing of with clear metrics, helping validate ideas quickly without needing full .

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Claude Code

Useful for working through implementation detail, structuring technical thinking, and accelerating when product ideas need to be tested in code.

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Lookback

Supports moderated , allowing deeper exploration through live and follow-up questions.

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Figma

Helpful for turning ideas into that can be tested quickly, shared easily, and refined before development effort increases.

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PlaybookUX

Combines and interviews, offering flexibility depending on the type and depth of needed.

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UsabilityHub

Supports quick validation methods like first-click and , useful for early-stage directional .

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UserTesting

Provides access to a broad user base and recorded , making it easier to scale and gather diverse .

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Optimise

Improving through continuous .

What I like to use

Hotjar

Useful for spotting , hesitation, and missed opportunities through recordings, , and on-page .

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What else is out there

VWO

Experimentation that supports alongside behavioural , helping teams optimise with confidence.

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Mixpanel

Strong for event-based analysis, , and when you need to understand where optimisation work will have the biggest impact.

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Amplitude

Strong product analytics for understanding , , and journey performance when optimisation decisions need deeper evidence.

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Optimizely

Enterprise experimentation for testing, personalisation, and structured when changes need stronger validation.

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Convert

Privacy-focused testing , often used where compliance and control are a priority.

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FullStory

Detailed and behavioural analysis tool that helps connect opportunities to real user .

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Explore

Looking beyond the immediate problem. Drawing from , references, and that have already solved similar challenges.

What I like to use

Awwwards

Showcases high-end digital design and . Useful for inspiration, but more importantly for understanding where expectations are heading.

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What else is out there

Mobbin

A curated of real product screens and flows, useful for quickly understanding how common are solved across different apps and .

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Pinterest

Broad and fast-moving source of visual inspiration across multiple disciplines, not limited to digital products.

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Land-book

A collection of landing page designs that helps identify , , and visual approaches across industries.

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Behance

More detailed case studies and design work, often showing as well as final output. Good for deeper inspiration.

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Godly

Curated web inspiration with a stronger quality filter, useful when you want sharper references rather than endless volume.

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Dribbble

Large volume of visual concepts and UI ideas. Useful for quick inspiration, but quality and practicality can vary significantly.

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SiteInspire

Well-curated gallery of modern website design, useful for spotting , , and visual direction across industries.

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Lapa Ninja

Large collection of landing page references that helps with structure, content , and visual approaches for -focused pages.

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Page Flows

Useful for studying complete and screen sequences across real products rather than isolated single screens.

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Build

UI and component used to consistent interfaces faster. These are less about design thinking and more about getting robust, repeatable UI into production without rebuilding everything from scratch.

What I like to use

MUI

Component I use when speed, , and matter. Strong for structured product work where you need reliable building blocks without losing too much flexibility.

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What else is out there

Chakra UI

Component-based focused on speed and . Useful for quick , though I generally prefer the structure and flexibility of MUI.

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Bootstrap

Long-standing UI that helps teams move quickly, especially for standard and admin-style . Useful, but it can feel generic if it is not customised properly.

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Ant Design

Comprehensive component aimed at enterprise products. Strong for complex , though visually it can feel opinionated out of the box.

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Tailwind CSS

Utility-first that gives more visual control at implementation level. Powerful in the right hands, but it needs discipline or things get messy fast.

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Frontend

The layer used to the actual product experience. This is where structure, , state, and performance come together in a working interface.

What I like to use

React

Core for building modular, reusable . Flexible enough for complex products and widely supported across modern stacks.

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What else is out there

Vue

with a gentler learning curve and strong experience. A solid choice, especially for smaller teams or lighter applications.

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Next.js

I use for building production-ready React applications with routing, structure, and handled properly from the start.

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Nuxt

built on Vue that adds routing, structure, and application-level in a similar way to Next.js.

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Svelte

Lightweight that can produce very fast with less code. Interesting, but not as common in larger product environments.

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Angular

Full with strong conventions and enterprise adoption. Powerful, but heavier than I would usually want for most product work.

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Backend

The and that power the product behind the scenes. This is where is handled, logic runs, and integrations are managed to support the frontend experience.

What I like to use

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Core for running , handling data, and scaling applications. Reliable, flexible, and fits well with modern product architectures.

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What else is out there

Cloud Functions

Used for running logic without managing servers. Ideal for handling events, , and lightweight processing.

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Firestore

NoSQL database for storing and syncing in real time. Works well for products that need speed and flexibility without heavy schema .

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Supabase

Open-source alternative to Firebase with a more structured, SQL-based approach. Useful when you want more control over your .

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Firebase

-as-a- that simplifies authentication, databases, and hosting. Good for rapid builds, but can become limiting at scale.

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AWS

Comprehensive with a huge range of . Extremely powerful, but often more complex than needed for most product work.

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Node.js

Runtime for building using JavaScript. Flexible and widely used, especially in full- JavaScript environments.

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Vercel

Lightweight alongside hosting. Useful for simpler use cases and tightly coupled frontend apps.

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AI

AI tools used directly in day-to-day work to generate content, explore ideas, and speed up decision-making. Focused on practical use, not experimentation for the sake of it.

What I like to use

ChatGPT

Used for generating product content, refining copy, structuring ideas, and speeding up thinking. Works best when guided properly rather than treated as a one-click solution.

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What else is out there

DALL·E

Image generation tool integrated into broader . Good for quick visuals, though less flexible than Midjourney for exploration.

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Perplexity

Fast, -driven AI that pulls in real sources. Useful for getting up to speed quickly and validating assumptions without digging through multiple tabs.

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Runway

AI-powered video and media tools, useful for generating and editing visual content quickly.

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Midjourney

Image generation tool used for concept exploration, visual direction, and early-stage creative thinking rather than final assets.

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HeyGen

AI avatar and video generation tool, useful for creating quick presentations or content without full production setup.

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Claude

Strong at structured thinking, longer-form content, and reasoning-heavy tasks. Useful when and depth matter more than speed.

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Gemini

Google’s AI ecosystem, useful when working across documents, , and integrated .

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Icons

Icon used to support , , and interface consistency. Icons should help users understand what something does, not make them stop and think.

What I like to use

Font Awesome

Massive icon with broad coverage. Useful when you need range, though it can feel visually inconsistent depending on what you pick.

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What else is out there

Heroicons

Simple, well-made icon collection used heavily in modern web products. A solid default, especially in Tailwind-based .

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Material Icons

Google’s icon collection built around Material . Useful in the right , especially for more -led interfaces.

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Phosphor Icons

Flexible icon collection with multiple weights and styles. Good when you need a bit more personality without going too far.

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Bootstrap Icons

Straightforward open-source icon set that fits well with practical product and dashboard work without overcomplicating things.

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Tabler Icons

Large open-source icon set with a clean, consistent visual style suitable for product and dashboard work.

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MUI Icons

Material-aligned icon set packaged for MUI projects, useful when you want across components and icons.

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Lucide

Clean, lightweight icon collection that works well in modern without feeling overdesigned.

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Typography

Font and collections used to shape tone, , , and consistency. Typography is not decoration. It directly affects clarity and usability.

What I like to use

Google Fonts

The main font collection I use when I need flexible, web-friendly typography that is easy to implement and widely supported.

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What else is out there

Fontshare

Free font collection with some genuinely strong options for digital products and brand work.

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Adobe Fonts

Strong premium font collection with a broader range of higher-end type choices. Useful when the brand needs something more distinctive.

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Typewolf

Useful as a typography reference point for seeing pairings, , and real-world usage rather than as a font source itself.

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Fonts in Use

Reference for seeing how typefaces are used in real projects, which is often more useful than browsing font lists in isolation.

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Educate

Places worth reading when you want to sharpen judgement, not just collect more opinions. Good for grounding decisions in established thinking, , and evidence.

Nielsen Norman Group

One of the most established UX reference points. Useful for -backed guidance on , patterns, and product decision-making.

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Baymard Institute

Deep ecommerce covering checkout, , , filtering, and product pages. Particularly useful when conversion and usability overlap.

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GOV.UK Design System

A strong example of practical, documented standards. Helpful beyond public sector work because it is grounded in and .

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Material Design

A large design reference for , states, components, and accessibility considerations across digital products.

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Smashing Magazine

Long-running publication covering UX, design, , , and product thinking with a more practical editorial angle.

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A List Apart

Still one of the better archives for thoughtful writing on digital design, content, structure, , and craft.

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LET'S WORK TOGETHER

Ready to improve your product?

UX, research and product leadership for teams tackling complex digital services. The work usually starts where things have become harder than they need to be: unclear journeys, inconsistent products, competing priorities, or teams trying to move forward without a clear direction. I help simplify the problem, shape the right next step, and turn complexity into something people can actually use.

Previous feedback

Will Parkhouse

Senior Content Designer

01/20