• 25
    Aug 2011

  • The importance of good design

    Steve Jobs is to some an innovator, a leader in making technology products usable yet elegant. I find myself most of the time repeating the importance of good design and what it means to me and the product I am working on. This could relate to a web app, a mobile app, or a website. Design is everywhere, yet some find the need to cut corners with it. Products don’t succeed only by functionality, they succeed by binding the functionality and design together to become one.

    Here are few specific quotes from Steve:

    “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

    “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

    Filed Under: Design
  • 1
    May 2011

  • Working with Users

    When you design an interface for any platform you are designing it to be used by not only yourself (maybe sometimes) but most of the time for other users. When you create your interface, as much as you think it flows properly and makes sense you have to consider your users. How will less-experienced users handle the interface, how will more advanced users handle the interface. All of these things need to be considered. When a design is complete, finalized and implemented most of the time it is too late. If the interface doesn’t flow properly from the get-go your users will most likely abandon the application or struggle with it to the point of wanting to kill their device (see Microsoft Office programs).

    Preventative Measures

    So how do we prevent these things from happening?. Set-up usability testing based on pre-developed wireframes or product mock-ups. Have potential users check out the design flow and give valuable feedback. This way before the developers start the rigorous process of implementing your design and then completely changing it afterwards you can make your UI changes without little to any cost.

    Dealing with Stakeholders

    Your company is a fan of rapid design and development. However most of the time your product hits your potential users it comes back with negative responses resulting in massive changes to the product that was just released. Present the stakeholders with a proper plan for your product designs that will benefit the entire design and development process so things like this don’t happen again. No one likes re-designing or re-developing a product that was just released. You will get responses on your product either way but most of the feedback can be collected, compiled and used in an update later on down the road, but when you have so many negative responses and your product UI is flawed resulting in a complete redesign, you got problems.

    Stay safe.

    Filed Under: Design, Interfaces, User Experience
  • 16
    Mar 2011

  • Letting your design mature

    There’s nothing like finishing a design, sitting back and marvelling at your work. But how many times have you put your design online or implemented it into an interface only to look at it hours or even days later noticing all its flaws?. There is a simple way to prevent this. Let your design mature. Do as much as you can on your design, then come back to it later with a fresh pair of eyes. You will find that all the flaws in the design start to pop up.

    Never get ahead of yourself or put yourself under too much pressure that you need to quickly put a design together. Go on to a different project and come back to the one you are currently working on. Think of it as watching a movie with a very twisty plot. The second time you watch it everything starts to make sense.

    Filed Under: Design