Bruce Temkin, whose blog I follow fervently, just commented on the design approach taken by Google. He felt conflicted after reading insights into Google’s method and raised the question of whether good design needs a soul. It’s a great question. Here’s the comment I made:
There’s no question in my mind that Google does indeed take the soul out of their design. They’re so good at speed and utility that they can get away with it, but if it were an even choice between Google and another search that worked just as well, that had a more delightful design, there wouldn’t be any contest.
That said there’s always a tension between beautiful design and practical utility, and more often it’s better to achieve one really well than make something halfway between which is half as good. That Google chose to take the utilitarian approach meant they could focus on doing their thing without distraction, and clearly it worked out well. It’s a very rare company that can achieve both utility and gorgeous design.
My response is largely based on witnessing attempts (including my own) to achieve both utility and beauty that end in a disappointing compromise. Apple is the company that does both utility and beauty – and proves it is possible to have both – but it’s very difficult to achieve what they do. It’s no mistake that few other companies also achieve it.
Filed under: creative delivery, method, style, user interface, user-centred , apple, beauty, compromise, delight, design, google, method, soul, utilitarian, utility
24 February 2009 • 6:15 pm
Something I regularly bemoan: the lack of knowledge, discipline, expertise, mentoring, schooling and respect for those things in UX in the workplace. It’s amazing how many people working in digital UX just make it up as they go along. Some people really are smart enough to wing their way through but 90% of the time it’s a bad idea.
I encourage anyone in UX to go out of their way to regularly read and learn about how others are doing UX. Share this with your co-workers and actively attempt to build learnings and improvements into your method. Your skills and knowledge are never perfect – I’m amazed at how often some new technique comes along that I can use to evolve my own approaches. Every now and then I find somebody who takes this approach and they are an energizer. What if everyone could energize each other in this way? A smart colleague pointed this out today and it really struck home with me – having those energizing people around raises the game of your team tenfold.
Looking at other fields where one learns a craft, the tools and techniques, there is a form of apprenticeship. Why not have this for UX? You can learn it at university, but what about when you get into the workplace? As far as I can see you’re either lucky enough to land with a person or people who will rub off well on you – or you are on your own. I predict that the great UX companies of tomorrow are the ones who are actively mentoring their people as apprentices today and for the future.
Filed under: creative delivery , apprentice, apprenticeships, energizing, interactive, learning, mentor, mentoring, method, skills, training, UX
18 December 2008 • 9:33 pm
When I say ‘high fidelity’ for a wireframe, I mean it looks almost the same as the actual interface you are going to publish. It most likely means there’s no design document (like a Photoshop design) based on the wireframe, and the wireframe is all you need to give to the UI developer. The wireframe is proportionally accurate in terms of layout, spacing, font size and colours are very close to the actual thing. Creating such a thing is actually quite easy using modern vector design software (Visio, OmniGraffle, InDesign, etc.). It should cut a whole design step out of your process and speed up your specification-to-build cycle. However, you should not take this approach unless certain conditions exist:
This is a great approach when the visual design has been nailed down already. That means there’s a styleguide with design rules and patterns already established and fixed. Essentially you are dealing with Lego blocks – you have an array of modular features and the wireframe is just to show how you want to stack them together for a particular page or screen. The best way to know that the modular pieces will fit well together and lay out well on the page is to make them as realistic as possible, and hence the high fidelity approach.
The scenario when you absolutely should not use this approach is when the design is in flux. As I’ve stated before, wireframes should never dictate design (nor vice versa). It’s also not the right approach when you’re breaking out of existing capabilities of the user interface, because that’s basically creating new design. This is an important realization if you’ve been in evolution mode for a long time – try to spot early on that you’re not re-using existing features and switch to a concepting and design mode instead. The high fidelity wireframe is 100% evolution not revolution, and trying to apply it when you need to innovate will end in poor results.
Filed under: creative delivery, information architecture, method, user interface , concepting, design, evolution, high fidelity, indesign, information architecture, lego, method, omnigraffle, revolution, visio, wireframes
One of the best lessons I learned at school was to always start with a plan. In exams where you had an hour or so per essay question, the worst mistake you could make was to go straight into writing and to try and pull the essay together as you went along. The smart approach was to spend five to ten minutes planning out the essay, thinking through the arguments and structuring your writing. What a great life lesson that proved to be. I’d say the same principle has applied to all projects that I’ve run or participated in, and the difference is very visible as they get into full swing. The projects without forethought and planning get stuck in quagmires and require painful upheavals late in the day to get them on track. The projects with a plan may not go 100% smoothly but with the benefit of a structured approach they have a clear direction and far fewer issues to distract from the core problems to be solved.
The biggest irony, it strikes me, is that making a plan sounds so simple and is so simple, yet so often people don’t think to do it. My advice is to always take a moment, even in the most time-pressured situation, and think through your plan. Ideally seek out methodologies that you can leverage for the specific challenges at hand. Tap the knowledge of people who are critical to the success of the work. Gather and assess research or data that will inform your challenges. Most importantly, question how your plan will deliver on the objectives and work it over until you are satisfied it will answer them.
Filed under: creative delivery, method , essays, exams, method, methodologies, plan, projects, school, structured approach, think smart
Creative work, particularly visual design, is often labelled as subjective and determined by personal taste. When it comes to Art that may be the case, but when it concerns creative work for marketing or user experiences there should be as little subjectivity as possible. Creative ideas that feed into the process do simply pop out of the air and are subject to the inspiration of the person producing them. However, everything that follows that initial inspiration should be guided by rationales and logical choices such as:
- What is most appropriate for the intended audience
- What options have performed successfully or not in user research
- Adherence to standards for the brand, campaign or product
- Culture preferences and norms (particularly international differences)
- Faithfulness to the message or vision to be conveyed
- Ability to achieve the desired objectives
Not only does the rationale guide the creative work to be more effective and targetted, but it also provides a compelling set of talking points when presenting the creative to stakeholders, and also powerful lines of reasoning in response to questions or challenges to the creative. I am a huge believer in big ideas and the power of a great creative vision, but when it comes to the management and development of those things there’s no excuse for not having a reasoned approach.
Filed under: creative delivery, method, style , big ideas, creative, creativity, design, inspiration, method, rationale, vision
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