Uses
A somewhat comprehensive list of tools, apps, hardware, and more that I use on a daily basis to design and code things. And yeah, that is a Johnny Mnemonic GIF in the background.
Design
- Figma is my primary tool for UI design these days. Made the switch from Sketch in 2020 and haven’t looked back. I’ve also created a few plugins that you can install.
- Any motion graphics I create are created in Adobe After Effects. So far I haven’t found a non-Adobe product that’s as good. If anyone has suggestions please message me.
- For any 3D models I use Blender. Since 2.8 it’s become way simpler to use and in a lot of ways better than expensive paid tools like 3DS Max or Maya.
Development
- I use Visual Studio Code as my text editor, with the Atom One Dark theme and Operator Mono as my typeface of choice.
- Firefox is my main browser for both development and general use.
- React is my front end Javascript library of choice. The component-centric mental model is the first thing that truly made sense to me as a designer.
- For 3D effects and image shaders I use three.js. It has a bit of a learning curve but you can do some really powerful stuff with it.
- For CSS I’ve used a myriad pre-processors and css-in-js solutions like styled-components, but these days I’m using vanilla CSS with PostCSS to get upcoming CSS features today.
- For Javascript animations I use Framer Motion, it’s a great way to add spring animations to React and three.js.
- For building and testing UI components in isolation I use Storybook. Check out the storybook for this website.
Hardware
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5800x |
|---|---|
| GPU | MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3080 |
| Memory | GSkill 32GB DDR4 3600mhz CAS 18 |
| Motherboard | MSI B550 Tomahawk |
| Monitor | 1440p IPS 144hz LG 27GL850 |
| Keyboard | Logitech MX Keys |
| Mouse | Logitech G403 |
| Laptop | Macbook Pro 14″ (2022 M1 Max) |
| Headphones | Audio Technica ATH-M50x/Apple Airpods |
| Microphone | Blue Yeti |