171 - Matt Armstrong

Matt Armstrong is a product designer based in San Francisco working on Communities at Meta

Jul 10, 2022

Welcome to another Sunday edition of Workspaces ✨

In case you missed it yesterday - Workspaces now has an Instagram account! I’ll start by re-sharing the previous guests but will also be adding other fun content along the way. What would you like to see?

Do me a huge favor and give the new page a follow → instagram.com/workspacesxyz

Thank you!
Ryan (@rjgilbert)

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Matt Armstrong is a product designer based in San Francisco working on Communities at Meta, focusing on helping creators and contributors have the tools they need to best build and grow their communities. Matt has previously built products at Square, Dropbox, Eventbrite, and more and has a particular passion for design systems and the intersection of brand and product design.

Twitter → twitter.com/swftjack

Inside Matt’s Workspace(s)

Tools:

Daily Driver: HP Omen i9 10900k, 64GB RAM, RTX 3080 FE, 4TB NVMe storage
This is the main machine I use for gaming / streaming / 3D work and definitely gets the job done even with a slightly older CPU.
Microphone: Blue Yeti
Camera: Razer Kiyo Professional
I’ve been using these for a while and been very impressed with the cam quality especially in low light. I’m pretty space limited so this being good enough has kept me from needing a Camlink setup.
Keyboard and Mouse: Razer Blackwidow Mini Hyperspeed and Razer Basilisk Ultimate
Monitor: Samsung G9
This monitor ticked all the boxes for me: 32:9 ultrawide, high refresh rate, good color accuracy, and some of the best HDR performance out there.
Audio: Razer Nari Ultimate (Headset), Master and Dynamic MW65 Leica Edition (Headphones), and Sonos Beam Gen2 / Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 (Speakers)
The Razer Nari is probably my favorite headset of all time purely because it supports 2 audio channels over RF with a hardware mixer on the headset. It makes balancing audio between a game and chat so simple and seamless. The M&D MW65s are my go to for music, great comfort and sound quality stole me away from Bang and Olufsen.
Fun stuff: prints from Rob Sheridan and the Intercom Brand Team, Nanoleaf Shapes, Rad Dudes trading cards, and the Don Zimmer teddy bear

Software:

Figma
Sketch
Principle
Origami
Unreal Engine 5
Discord
OBS
Craft (for short form writing) and Scrivener (long form writing projects)
Adobe Creative Suite
Ableton Live
OneDrive

Tools:

Daily Drivers: 16in 2019 MacBook Pro (Laptop) and Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 5900HX / RTX 3080
While I am a Windows guy whenever I get the option, I do need to use a Mac for work and this one gets the job done. Still using the Blackwidow Mini (great cause it works with Bluetooth and RF), Basilisk Ultimate, and the Magic Trackpad. The glass desk has some of my older hardware that’s been lying around and currently using that with an M1 Pro MBP for some music stuff. I have the Elgato mic and camera hooked up there since I had been wanting to try their stuff out.
Audio: Beats Solo Pro (Headphones), Razer Nari (Headset), Razer Nommo (Speakers)
I went with the Beats Solo Pro largely because they are on ear and have Apple’s magic Bluetooth chip. Good battery life and comfort for long haul use.
Monitors: Razer Raptor and Aorus AD27QD
The Razer Raptor is one of my favorite 27in monitors as it hits a good balance on resolution and performance (high refresh rate, G-Sync, and decent HDR) while also having great out of the box color accuracy and calibration. It’s a great “do everything” display without many compromises.
Microphone: Blue Yeti
This is a great mic for the price and with some tuning sounds fantastic. You aren’t going to get the same quality as with an XLR setup but the ease of setup and space savings make it a great option.
Camera(s): Logitech Streamcam and Razer Kiyo
The Logitech StreamCam is hands down the best webcam I’ve run into for the price and literally the only one in my collection that has 0 issues with macOS.

Thanks for reading another edition of Workspaces! See you back here next weekend!

If you enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend or family member!

-Ryan (@rjgilbert)