About The Designer's Toolbox
Hi! 👋
Nick here, founder, senior UX designer, and UX mentor at The Designer’s Toolbox. Let me introduce you to what we do and what we’re all about.
In short, The Designer’s Toolbox helps you get hired UI and UX design. We’re your go-to place for tips, tricks, and best practices in the world of UI and UX.
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About the Designer's Toolbox
I founded The Designer’s Toolbox back in 2020 in the Netherlands. Since then, we’ve grown very quickly to include content by multiple experienced UX and UI design experts across our website, Medium publication, and other social platforms.
We provide extensive guides, templates, live classes, a community, and mentoring to help you become the best UX and UI designer you can possibly be.
You can divide our content into a number of main categories.
- UX Equipment. Every designer needs equipment to do the job. We help you select your laptop and other design gear.
- UX design tools. Once you’ve selected your hardware, it is time to move on to software.
- Learn UX. This category will help you understand what UX is all about, the history and importance of UX, and much more.
- How to built a UX portfolio. Learn everything you need to know, from case studies to sharing your work online.
- How to get a job in UX design. Once you finish the above, it is time to get that job! We’ll teach you how.
The Designer’s Toolbox is an Educational Partner for Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF). They were founded in 2002 and are one of the frontrunners in UX education.
How things started
At the start of my career, I was the only UX designer at a Dutch startup. Sadly, the startup didn’t make it.
A few months after leaving the startup, I wrote a post called “I failed as a designer at a startup” on Medium. This post has been one of my most successful posts to date. People started sending me messages to thank me for the tips and tricks I provided in the post. It felt good to help people!
Now, after a while, these messages changed. At first, they were messages of thanks. Later on, people started asking me for design advice. At that moment, it clicked for me. I decided to start the Designer’s Toolbox to share my experience as a UX designer to help others get the best out of their careers.
Today, the Designer’s Toolbox has reached over 100,000 people online while building a growing community of designers. How awesome is that?
Our core beliefs
Over at The Designer’s Toolbox, we’re all about helping you succeed in design. There are several beliefs you’ll see in about everything we do.
Balance in work and life
The first one is balance. Do you remember looking for your first job in UX? Or maybe you’re currently looking. I remember it to be very stressful.
Looking for a job is a lot of work. Each rejection is hard. Sometimes you don’t even get a reaction at all, which is even more challenging. So how do you keep it all together when everybody online seems to find success all the time?
Here’s how we apply this belief in practice.
- During our UX mentor meetings, we always consider your personal situation.
- Getting a job in UX shouldn’t be about speed. It is about getting a job that is right for you. You’ll see this in any post we write about the topic.
Community
Up next is community. I firmly believe that the best way to grow is together. The Designer’s Toolbox is open to anyone. You are welcome to share and ask!
Did you know we have a Slack UX community? Over there, we share resources, participate in each other’s UX research, and do monthly challenges.
Giving back
Finally, giving back. I consider someone’s career to develop in stages. Consider the traditional route of junior to medior, senior, and lead.
Whenever you’re at a particular stage, you can look at someone that’s one stage ahead for mentoring and advice. At the same time, you can give something back to the designer that’s one or two steps behind.
In addition, we keep our prices low to make our products and services available to as many people as we possibly can.
Our people
Let’s do an introduction of who works at The Designer’s Toolbox!
Nick Groeneveld
Hello once again! I’m Nick Groeneveld, a senior UX designer with over 6 years of experience working in different design roles. These include the role of UX designer, UX researcher, interaction designer, UI designer, and consultant for finance, retail, and public sector companies.
Since 2015, I have had a degree in Communication and Multimedia Design from the Avans University of Applied Science in the Netherlands.
Next to that, I’m a coach and mentor for designers. In 2022, I obtained my License to Train, which means that I’m trained in one-on-one and group teaching. I apply this every day when helping designers build a career in UX.
I’m a speaker at UX-related events, which includes a UXPressia event where I talked in front of 200 designers about UX research.
