Hardware I use, apps and other things I recommend

Here’s a list of what I use to design experiences and doing stuffs

Workstation

  • MacBook Air, Apple M1, 16GB RAM

    I have chosen the american keyboard layout, it is very portable and works great for running design apps. Normal-poor screen, decent keyboard and enjoyable pad.

    It gets a bit hot under pressure, lacks of ports forcing to insert the cables on the left side.

  • iPad Pro, Apple M1, 16GB RAM

    It’s better than a laptop but can not run some key apps nor receive calls despite having a sim slot, it works great as a second monitor with accurate colors in Reference Mode.

    It’s very portable, I can design pretty graphics using Procreate and Illustrator with Apple Pencil.

  • INZONE M9, Sony

    The biggest display on the market that matches perfectly the PS5 design. A bit expensive for what it offers and not portable but good for a gaming setup. I use it as main monitor, it has many ports but they are not very confortable to plug unless on a very tall desk.

  • Productivity Suite, Razer

    Razer Pro Suite has been designed in collaboration with Humanscale, the result is a combo of white gaming-style and ergonomics. I use the whole set of Click, Type Ultra and Glide XXL.

  • INZONE H9, Sony

    It is quite a bulky headset covering my normal ears completly. It’s confortable to wear with glasses and has a good battery life.

  • Quick Stand, Humanscale

    Huge and comfortable height-adjustable desk, allowing me to stand up after long sitting hours. Cables are too many to fit in the built in system.

Development tools

  • Visual Studio Code

    I don’t know how it is so good and free, intuitive and expandable with tons of extensions. Seldom crashes, but when it does auto-save saves the day.

  • Xcode

    It’s a great editor to use after it has loaded, SwiftUI is a joy but also intricate in some aspects, it’s a must to create Apple devices apps. The linked documentation is a nice feature but I find it is quite odd to read and understand quickly I rather search on DuckDuckGo for StackOverflow answers.

  • DuckDuckGo

    It’s a good search engine with a duck as a mascotte, it does not ask to refuse all cookies to be able to get results and can be reached on duck.com.

Design

  • Figma

    I have started using Figma since Adobe removed features from Xd to push for the premium version. The interface could be improved and it would be cool if it could read PDF.

  • Illustrator

    It is the best product I have tried so far to make logos and vector graphics, so it is worth it when wanting to have the productivity boost.

    The interface of Adobe Illustrator is not smooth but somehow predictable, just wish there was a lifetime license like Designer by Serif which is a great alternative.

  • Sketch

    I have tried it for some months, the interface is well crafted and polished, better than Figma but with less useful extensions and it’s available exclusively on Apple devices.

Productivity

  • Creative Cloud All Apps, Adobe

    After using Illustrator I have tried other Adobe apps and decided to subscribe to the whole suite software to also make use of the synced Library and Adobe Fonts.

    I already knew Xd, Acrobat and Photoshop, but now I also use InDesign with InCopy, Premiere with After Effects and even lesser known apps such as Animate and Dimension.

  • macOS, Apple

    I like the seamless design of the whole ecosystem, there are some constraints and limitations but it is suitable for me as it helps me focus on getting stuffs done with less distractions and confusing interfaces.

    For the built-in apps I consistently use Notes, Freeform and Safari, often Calculator, Shortcuts, Pages, Numbers and Reminders; other apps when necessary. The layout is intuitive for me so I do not have to think much about the interaction.

    Siri is useful to ask the time and improving english pronunciation until it understands the voice command, with Shurtcuts it is possible to do some interesting things.

  • Proton Unlimited, Proton

    I use Proton Calendar, Drive, Mail and VPN, paying less than $ 6/month for all these services with the 2 years plan. Using the VPN I can browse with blocked ads, the Mail app allows me to manage many custom domains with catch-all feature.

    They keep adding features and improvements. I wish they expand the service so to send automated mails or newsletters.