Are you too To get lost In all files, deliveries, shared documents, PDFs and reports related to your UX work? What about decisions spread throughout E -mail, relax conversations, Dropbox folders, SharePoint, Perception and Figma?
It is too easy to lose important assets and too difficult to find them right when you need them. While we often talk about how we nicely organize Figma files, we rarely discuss one Sensible folder structure For all of our UX assets. Let’s change that.
(If you are looking for more insight into design patterns or measuring UX, look at smart interface -design patterns and how to measure UX, Friendly video courses on design patterns and uxWith a Live UX training coming up in a few weeks.)
Organization Starts Kit (Free Template)
For a while back, I stumbled over a neat organizational starting kit of Courtney Pester. It’s an incredibly thorough Setup template To get started and build on. Your projects certainly require a customized setup, but it makes you drive pretty fast.
In the article, Courtney suggests breaking down all assets and resources in 7 Main categories -All represent different parts of the project’s life cycle and nicely divided into subfolders:
- Client resources,
- Research and synthesis,
- Concept Ideation & Testing,
- Wireframes & prototypes,
- Meeting artifacts,
- Final deliveries,
- UI + Dev Handoffs.
Each project starts with duplicate the same head Folder template And adjust it to the needs of the project. The most important thing is that we choose one Central place Where all key assets must be placed – be it the performance, Google Drive, Dropbox or something else. If an important detail lands in your E -mail or sent to you via Slack, it should end in the shared space.
I really can’t emphasize the importance of having a shared understanding About where the files will be saved and how they can access. Proper organization of assets will not happen automatically – Usually, it requires effort and commitment from the entire team to make sure it does not become a place with some bits and pieces, while other critical details and decisions are spread throughout other channels.
Now, when we bring all the documents and objects together we end up with a quite long but also Comprehensive folder structure:
It seems to be quite scary at first, but of course the overall structure would change quite significantly depending on what you are working on exactly.
Take care of duplications
The most underrated problem in any type of file structure organization is probably double work and versioning. Before we start the project, we have to be very clear about what types of files should end up in the shared drive and which should not be. You may or may not need intermediate versions of some documents, but you will definitely keep the last.
This is typically the questions I would travel:
- Should we restrict access To some sections of the folder (eg sensitive data)?
- What name Conventions We use for files/folders (eg semantic versioning, v1, v2, —final)
- How do we manage outdated or outdated files? Archives or Deleting them?
- What would be the most important communication channel For stakeholders/clients?
- Are there any legal claims For storing and sharing some specific files?
- What will happen to the shared space When the project is completed?
Frankly, the reason I raise these questions is not just to make decisions and create some common conventions in the team. A much more important goal is to strengthen Communication channels and Increase attention. We want to establish a shared commitment and ownership of this space – mostly to prevent the most important decisions from falling through the cracks, resulting in serious delays, costs or cutting corners.
Safe but easy to access
It may sound obvious, but worth emphasizing: If the shared space is difficult to use, it will not be used. That’s when people find solutions to save some of “their” assets in spaces that are more practical to use – with pieces of information spread over different channels.
The shared space should be easily accessible For anyone who must be able to access and maintain it. We definitely want to stay safe, but to create a multi -layer approval process with yubikey and a virtual machine is unnecessary.
In most situations, a Password/Passkey + 2FA (2-factor authentication) would be perfect enough.
The disadvantages of the tree structure
Personally, I have a small problem with the tree structure. Although it nicely organizes all items in folders, it doesn’t really reflect the project’s timeline. But different assets are more important at different times of a project life cycle. And: There are typically addictions between different parts of a project, so it can also be a good idea to Break Down of the time or at least Take after milestones.
For example, we might Beat up for research insight related to a particular part of the project. Or review the video from ease of use when a specific iteration was tested. It can be a little challenging and time consuming.
When I organize artifacts I try to follow a single principle: Set things that belong together close to each other. This typically means having a high-level structure with key grids, broken down by milestones. It can live in perception or in miro, with every milestone attached to a Figma mock-up (Uploaded not .fig files!).
There are lots of wonderful tools to help you organize and share your UX work too:
- Swallow tail to gather customer insights in one place,
- User interviews for recruiting and research work,
- Maze is another big UX research platform,
- Glean.ly to use as a nuclear research storage,
- Performance and aerial to quick posting of all files.
And: Do not feel forced to repeat any file structure completely. Use it as a foundation to be inspired by and build on. Customize away to the specific needs of your projects and your team. What works for you works for you. There really is no perfect and universal way that works out of the box.
How do you organize your files and assets? Which folder structures and organizational systems are you using? Share what works best for you and your team in the comments below.
Happy organization, everyone!
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