Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

I’m Stefanie, aka StefwithanF. I’m a UX designer based out of New York, NY. As I’m in a consulting role, I am somewhat of a UX generalist. My experience spans across user research, empathy and journey mapping, content strategy and information architecture, and dev-ready UX/UI design. Mental health advocacy and awareness is a passion of mine that has thoroughly woven itself into my job recently as well; moving from in-person to remote work over the last few years has brought mental and emotional well-being to the forefront of a lot of what I do.

Outside of work, I indulge in a variety of creative and gaming hobbies. I paint both digitally and in watercolor, and I occasionally write (albeit primarily world-building exercises). I play video games, tabletop RPGs, and wargames (my current rotation being ESO, MÖRK BORG, and Warhammer 40K, respectively). I am an avid fan of music, especially live music, and have a small but growing collection of band merch and concert mementos. When there isn’t a global pandemic raging, I’m also known to travel, ski, and attend conventions.

What hardware do you use?

For work, I use a 16” MacBook Pro with an MX Master 3 mouse. For sound, I switch between Sony WF-1000XM3s and WH-1000XM3s depending on mood and background noise—over-ear has better noise canceling and a longer battery life, but in-ear is easier to quickly pop in and allows me to wear big chunky earrings. I’m using an Oculus Quest 2 for VR. Oh, and I’m regularly grabbing my Theragun Elite while I slowly upgrade my WFH furniture to something more comfortable.

For fun, I’m on a Windows PC (and lucked out getting an RTX 2070 back in 2018 before the market exploded). I use Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones (80 ohm), a Wacom Cintiq 16, an Oculus Quest 1 with Link, and an Elgato HD60 S hooked up to a Nintendo Switch and HDMI splitter so I can swap between that, my PC, and my work laptop. My monitors have been swapped out ship-of-Theseus-style over the years, so those are a hodgepodge. Aligning the displays for a seamless wallpaper was a pain.

The Moonlander Mk I is my daily driver, but I have a small collection of other keyboards for other purposes: an Anne Pro 2 with Cherry Blues to compactly lie on top of my MacBook’s horrendous keyboard; a Redragon K605 with oversized Outemu Blues for the meme (which is to say, I display it on my desk and occasionally make an incredible amount of noise); and of course my original gateway drug, the ol’ Corsair K70 with Cherry Browns for MMOs.

My desk and chair aren’t anything special—just Ikea—but the nice part about this desk is that the side panel rolls out. I have some cabinets underneath the panel where I store pens, notebooks, and my work stuff, so the entire thing can fold away. I also have a monitor stand under which I stash my gaming keyboard and drawing tablet. Having somewhere to store everything lets me be versatile with my desktop: when I’m not on my computer, I use the desk for miniature assembly, painting, and writing.

And what software?

Working with clients means working with clients’ software. For design, it’s been Figma with occasional Photoshop and Illustrator lately, but I’ve used Sketch, InVision, Adobe XD, Abstract, Zeplin, and ZeroHeight. For facilitating workshops, I use FigJam, Miro, and Mural. User research is done mostly in Qualtrics and Usertesting.com for unmoderated testing, and Zoom for interviews. Chrome’s Dev Tools, like Lighthouse, are a major help when auditing sites or performing design-to-dev QA. I’ve also been learning some 3D stuff on the job to translate into VR, which has resulted in me picking up Blender and Unity.

Outside of work, I always have Discord, TweetDeck, and Steam open. When I have the time to draw or animate, I open Clip Studio Paint EX, which has awesome community-made assets and 3D model capabilities.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

My Moonlander is the white version, originally with Kailh Box Whites. I switched to TECSEE Purple Pandas recently for everything but the thumb keys. I love clicky tactile switches, if that wasn’t already obvious, and those have a really nice feel while being a little quieter than the Whites. I actually started with a box shape switch because I was afraid there would be wobble due to the base OEM row 3 caps on a flat body, but I was happily surprised that wasn’t the case, so I felt I had more freedom to experiment.

My first layer is the everyday setup. I named it the “normie layout” because I tried to mirror a traditional keyboard with the exception of a few bonuses. Do I really need a Caps Lock? No, but little things like that helped a lot with adapting to an ergonomic shape for the first time. The second layer is for drawing—one of my favorite aspects of my Moonlander is that I can detach and use just one side, freeing up the space for my tablet on the right.

I’ve been experimenting with keycap sets, but I can’t find exactly what I want, so I’m using blanks and base caps for now. I collect artisans, and every once in a while, I’ll put one on. However, I’m the kind of person who prefers to only have one accent at a time (like on the Escape key), and it’s honestly really hard to pick just one.

What would be your dream setup?

All I want are low-profile, uniform, backlit caps. Why is this not a thing? Who decided backlit is exclusively for OEM and Cherry profile? What about those of us with dinky little hands who like DSA? I don’t like using all blanks. I’d settle for side-lit, even though there isn’t much height to do that. Please.

Anyway, a more realistic goal is to upgrade for comfort and better use of vertical space. As I mentioned, I’m currently in the market for a sit-stand desk and ergonomic chair, though I haven’t settled on anything just yet. I’d like my monitor(s) mounted to free up the desk underneath. That way, my Cintiq is always available and I could throw in some nicer speakers where they’re supposed to be placed. I’m not sure about a curved ultrawide versus multiple monitors, though—on the one hand, having monitors out of alignment bugs the hell out of me, but on the other hand, one big screen means a hassle organizing and resizing windows.

If we’re really dreaming big, I’d have an office room with multiple work areas and a separate desk for my personal PC. Opposite those desks I’d have a Globe Garden chair to climb up with my laptop for a while, plus bean bags or something—point is, a lot of organic shapes and soft textiles. I’d go a little nicer with the PC too. Not to knock Corsair peripherals by any means, but I’d prefer to get adventurous.