Sara Wachter-BoettcherInterview
Content strategy and UX consultant
Adapted from Sara Wachter-Boettcher's interview on Uses This, published 15 November 2016. The kit is drawn from their answers and each reason is an excerpt, lightly edited. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full interview ↗
Is this you? Claim this kit →Hardware
Until recently, I was using a 2013 MacBook Air, but I was spending all my time waiting on the spinning wheel of death.
So now I'm using my husband's more powerful 13-inch MacBook Pro from a couple years ago while I decide whether to get another Air or move to a Pro.
Wireless Presenter R400+ 4 others
The Logitech R400 presentation clicker is always in my bag, along with a couple random dongles, some sticky notes, and some sharpies.
Last year, my husband and I bought a Philly rowhouse with gorgeous third-floor office space, and I got what I call my "life desk": it's this stunning American Modern piece made by Copeland Furniture in Vermont.
Communication
Like everyone in tech, I'm also entirely Slack-dependent: I use it for work projects, as well as professional-ish groups (like the Content + UX Slack) and, um, not at all professional groups (like Pizza Club, which is exactly what it sounds like).
Productivity
If a big corporation all uses Microsoft Office, well, that's fine!
For book-writing, though, I'll admit that I usually end up back in Microsoft Word, because it can handle things like merging feedback from a bunch of reviewers - and because it's a preference for many publishers.
Notes
I love Evernote for keeping client meeting notes (I make a folder per client), book interview notes, random ideas, grocery lists, packing lists, and basically anything else.
Design
Since I don't do high-fidelity design work, I usually stick to super basic programs like Omnigraffle for things like visual content models, sitemaps, and user flows.