A Shared Home for UX Assets
UX work generates an enormous amount of material: research transcripts, wireframes, meeting notes, prototypes, and final handoff specs. Too often those assets live in different tools, personal inboxes, or chat threads, making them nearly impossible to find when needed. While much has been written about tidying up Figma files, the underlying folder structure for the full UX workflow gets less attention.
One practical starting point is an organizational starter kit built around seven top-level categories that map to the project lifecycle:
- Client resources
- Research & synthesis
- Concept ideation & testing
- Wireframes & prototypes
- Meeting artifacts
- Final deliverables
- UI + Dev handoffs
Each project begins by duplicating this template and adjusting it for the specific engagement. The critical step is choosing a single central location — Notion, Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar — and committing that anything important will land there. An asset sent via email or Slack only counts once it is moved into that shared space.
That commitment has to be shared across the team. File organization does not happen by accident; it requires ongoing effort and agreement, or the shared space will fragment and key decisions will continue to be scattered across channels.
Adopting this kind of structure yields a lengthy, comprehensive folder tree. It may look intimidating, but the final arrangement always adapts to what a given project actually needs.
Versioning and Duplication Rules
Duplication and version control are the most underrated threats to order. Before starting, teams should agree on which file types belong in the shared drive and which do not. Intermediate versions may or may not be needed, but final versions definitely must be preserved.
Useful questions to settle ahead of time include:
- Are there sections that require restricted access, such as sensitive data?
- What naming conventions apply to files and folders, such as semantic versioning or
V1,V2,-FINAL? - How are deprecated or outdated files handled — archived or deleted?
- What is the official communication channel for stakeholders and clients?
- Do any legal requirements govern how certain files are stored or shared?
- What happens to the shared space once the project ends?
These questions do more than establish conventions. They sharpen communication and build awareness across the team, creating ownership over the space so that important details do not slip between gaps and cause delays, extra costs, or rushed decisions.
Accessibility Over Security Theater
A shared space that is hard to use will be abandoned. When the official location feels cumbersome, people migrate their assets to whatever is most convenient, spreading information across tools again. The space must be easy for everyone who needs it to reach and maintain.
Security still matters, but multi-layered authentication involving hardware keys and locked-down virtual machines is beyond what most projects need. Standard password or passkey protection plus two-factor authentication is typically sufficient.
The Limits of a Folder Tree
A pure tree structure has a blind spot: it reflects file types but not the project timeline. Different assets matter at different stages, and pieces of work often depend on each other. Organizing by time or tagging items by milestone can make those relationships visible.
For example, locating research insights tied to a specific UI section, or pulling up usability session video from when a particular iteration was tested, is slow if everything is buried under a generic folder hierarchy. A better aim is to keep related assets close to each other.
A practical pattern is a high-level structure broken down by milestones, living in a tool like Notion or Miro. Each milestone entry links out to the relevant Figma mockups — linking, not uploading .fig files, keeps a single source of truth.
Tools That Help
Several platforms exist specifically to organize parts of the UX workflow:
- Dovetail gathers customer insights in one place.
- UserInterviews handles recruiting and research administration.
- Maze is a broader UX research platform.
- Glean.ly works as an atomic research repository.
- Notion and AirTable can serve as quick-lookup indexes for all files.
No template should be adopted wholesale, whether from these tools or from a shared starter kit. Use them as a foundation and adapt aggressively to the project and team. There is no universal structure that works perfectly out of the box — the system that works is the one your team will actually maintain.
Further Reading
- How To Organize Figma Files by Lee Munroe
- How To Build A User Research Database (Notion Template) by Odette Jansen
- How To Build Up UX Research From Scratch (+ Templates) by Ori Dar
- Starter Kits For Design Leads
- Useful Notion Templates, Miro Templates, and Figjam Templates
