10 Muji Stationary Items for Digital Product Designers
Muji (Mujirushi Ryohin, 無印良品) is known for minimalistic and affordable products. Their designs are unobtrusive and humble, as if aware of their surroundings. Here are 10 stationary products that embody this philosophy, and that digital product designers will likely find useful in the analogue phases of their work.
1. Storyboard Notebook
The best part about this notebook is its imperfection. Its 88 pages are recycled, thin, and off-white. Have you ever had a notebook with paper so smooth, sturdy, and white that you didn’t want to “ruin” it with imperfect sketches? Well this one isn’t, which makes it the best kind to encourage ideation.
Useful for: storyboarding, sketching app and website designs, paper prototyping, screen flows, comics/manga, visual note taking, logo sketching, ideation
2. Erasable Rollerball Pens
Erasable pens that both erase and write well, and in a rollerball point. A real find. The eraser is attached to the cap, so cap it on the other end to erase like a pencil, or leave it off to erase like a separate eraser. The store writes that “the ink has a patented colour temperature setting. The frictional heat generated by the eraser at the end of the pen erases the ink immediately.”
Useful for: whenever you’re sketching and would rather erase mistakes than cross them out or redraw the whole thing
“0.4 ERASABLE PENS”
MUJI EU Store
MUJI Japan Store 税込150円
3. Craft Paper Sticky Notes
Sticky paper that won’t burn eyes, unlike those neon Post-its.
Useful for: whenever you need a sticky note but don’t need it to scream at you
“KRAFT PAPER STICKY MEMO”
MUJI US Store $3.00
MUJI Japan Store 税込190円
4. Storyboard Notebook Slim
Same as #1, but smaller and whiter. Spend more time sketching your ideas, and less on rectangles. Leave it sideways for desktop designs, or turn it the long way for mobile. Fill up the pages with user stories and personas. Write notes in the margins.
Useful for: storyboarding, sketching app and website designs, paper prototyping, screen flows, comics/manga, visual note taking, logo sketching, ideation
MUJI Japan store only: 税込100円
5. Mini Colored Marker Set
Colored markers that might actually have a place on an office desk. The whole set includes 10 colors but is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. While they’re not the easiest to write with, most people won’t find themselves using them for long periods of time anyway. This set of 10 mini pens beats the full sized set in portability, and beats the double-tipped set in simplicity and price.
Useful for: sketching and distinguishing different types of elements, group brainstorming sessions, logo, branding, and visual exploration, writing on sticky notes
“10 COLORS HEXA PEN SET MINI”
MUJI US Store $5.00
MUJI Japan Store 税込290円
6. Extra Large Sketchbook
Another imperfect perfect brainstorming tool. Its large recycled sheets allow plenty of space for expression.
Useful for: brainstorming, sketching, ideation, mind maps, site maps, information architecture, screen flows
“FREE NOTE PAD B4”
MUJI US Store $1.25
MUJI Japan Store 税込90円
7. Mini Sticky Notes
Another set of sticky notes, but with colors that make sense together.
Useful for: site mapping, flow charts, feedback comments, adding small notes on sketches/printouts, whenever you don’t need a huge sticky note
“STICKIES: ASSORTED COLORS SET”
MUJI US Store: 8 Colors $2.50, 5 Colors $2.50
MUJI Japan Store: 8 Colors 税込190円, 5 Colors 税込190円
8. Double Sided Ruler
Redundant but useful. The same numbers printed on the front and back, so you’ll never pick up the wrong side. I might have appreciated one of the sides in inches though.
Useful for: paper prototyping, flow mapping, quickly drawing lines to connect screens, sketching
“RULER 15CM BLACK”
MUJI US Store $1.50
MUJI Japan Store 税込100円
9. Portable Scissors
Scissors, but compact and harmless. A pain point of scissors is lack of portability, but Muji engineered a solution with a minimal and rounded body, about the size of a thick Sharpie. It’s safe as well; the blades spring apart when you loosen your grip, not immediately when you remove the cap.
Useful for: Paper prototyping, cutting out sketches, cutting printouts of designs
MUJI US Store $6.50
MUJI Japan Store 税込490円
10. Standing Pen Case
A frosted, translucent pen case-stand-glasses container-small object-whatever-combination to store it all. The small size is great for carrying a few pens, but the large size is ideal for fitting miscellaneous stationary as well, such as the ones listed above. The round shape and textured surface feels pleasant to wrap your hand around. The cap is also useful for holding an eraser or such when sketching.
Useful for: saving space. The case doubles as a case and stand, and the cap can reattach to the bottom of the case.
“GLASSES AND SMALL OBJECTS CASE L”
MUJI US Store $3.00
MUJI Japan Store 税込190円
