There is no doubt about the fact that UX tools have the potential to make your work go a lot smoother—ultimately saving you time and producing better results. Of course, not everything that claims to be a time saver really is, and choosing the wrong tools to try out can result in a headache at best and, at worst, you could end up with a missed deadline or project upset.
At GANDT, we’re always eager to try out new tools so we know which ones we can recommend with confidence to our clients (and make use of ourselves). One new app we’re excited about is Polish UX. It turns your browser into a powerful writing tool and allows you to edit text on any webpage, test, and iterate until you get it just right. Sound good? Let’s get into some of the specifics. But first—here are some tips on what to look for in UX tools more broadly.
What to look for when choosing a UX tool
Usefulness: Does it address the problem you set out to solve?
Usability: Will it be easy to incorporate into your daily workflow?
Collaboration: Can you easily share your work with colleagues or clients?
Integration: Are there any integrations with other tools? Does it make the transition between design phases easy?
These are the areas where you definitely want to hold a tool accountable. If you come across one that hits the mark in all four aspects—you’ve likely found a keeper. So, here’s a deeper dive into why we think Polish is worth checking out.
Polish UX tool
For anyone who works on UX topics or wants to be able to show clients or partners how to restructure a page—you’re one step away by simply installing Polish as a chrome plugin. This will allow you to directly edit what you see on screen without needing to find the <div> in the code and adjust there. You can then take a screenshot of the page and quickly be able to show how you believe the page should be viewed. You can only adjust text but it is a great visual aid to help bring our points across.
A much more efficient way to work
There are new tools emerging all the time, and, although some are great in theory, they don’t offer the kind of functionality needed to really make a difference in terms of workflow. By keeping their focus fairly narrow, though, Polish UX does seem to have found a niche where they can really make an impact. Using this tool, you can forget the outdated screenshots and spreadsheets, just edit the content on any website and see your edits within the site layout.
With the element selector, you can also learn to navigate through HTML blocks and understand its semantic, so you can optimize for SEO. With Polish UX, you’re able to see your edits in context and can therefore save yourself from getting feedback about how your texts don’t fit the layout. Ultimately, it will save you a lot of mouse clicks. You can simply navigate, edit, delete, undo, redo and clear pages using only your keyboard.
The most important features of Polish UX:
- Work on the source of truth – any text on the website is editable,
- See changes in context – watch your text meet the layout,
- Designed with writers in mind – features like spell-check, undo, style adjustments will help your creativity.
Polish is also free to use, so give it a try for yourself and see if it doesn’t just make your life a little easier. Likewise, if you’d like to stay up to date on current social media trends and growth marketing hacks, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for the latest digital marketing news.
