Lessons learned. I still don’t consider myself a brilliant designer, but I now better understand what constitutes good and bad design, particularly in a commercial context. It may seem obvious, but is all to often overlooked; design it’s about so much more than just aesthetics—it’s the process of developing solutions to defined problems. It’s also an exercise in determining those problems in the first place. In fact, the design process begins long before pen touches paper.

There’s no getting around the fact that 90% of the interfaces we design exist to, at some point down the line, make money. B2B, B2C, e-commerce, blogs, forums, galleries, apps, games etc; whatever the initial touch point is with the user, be it a website, mobile app, email newsletter, brochure or physical item—the primary goal may differ greatly, but the ultimate objective is almost always to convert that ‘user’ into a customer.

Conversion and retention are two of the commonest goals we find ourselves dealing with on a daily basis. Hence why at BLISS we refer to ourselves as a digital marketing agency; although the bulk of our time is spent creating pretty websites and the like, everything we do is essentially coupled with marketing strategy. Every design decision is determined not only by a practical knowledge of the craft, but by the specified objectives of the product.

As simple as it sounds, it can be all to easy for designers to get carried away with their imagination and ego, and lose sight of the purpose of their creations. It requires a maturity and respect for visual design that goes a long way to separate work that merely looks nice, usually dictated by trends, fads and micro elements such as gradients, patterns, font effects etc, from that which may sometimes go against the grain of what’s currently cool, perhaps in turn setting new standards, but ultimately serving the greater purpose of meeting it’s objectives. Which, when done consistently, can return exceptional results that convert to long-term success.

Depth

An objective led approach requires us to question every subtlety and every nuance of the interfaces we design. Layout, composition, colour, texture, typography, balance and contrast, tone of voice, photography and much more are determined not by trends or by competitors, but by how we can successfully meet the desired objectives.

As designers we should be able to pride ourselves on our attention to detail and expertise in creating engaging, usable designs that provide a return on investment, meet set targets and where possible do so whilst creating a sense of delight, which isn’t always so easy when you factor in all the variables encountered on a design project (clients/creative directors/account mangers/budget/timescales etc).

There are a several essential stages of an objective led design process that simply shouldn’t be overlooked, regardless of timescales, budgets and clients/account managers breathing down our necks. When adjusting project length I suggest that we simply condense the time spent on these individual areas as apposed to dismissing them altogether.

Variable processes

I’m trying to cover all the bases here, but I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve missed out. Some aspects of this process can take as little as 5 minutes, or can really be investigated for days. This may be determined by how well you already know the client and the goals of the project, how much time you have to spend or what takes priority. Parts of this approach also become second nature with experience.

It’s also worth noting that there is no fixed order in which to conduct these tasks. Different projects may require an emphasis on competitive analysis whereas others may demand more attention to be paid to content strategy. This is usually determined when assessing the initial requirements.

The design process can be broken down like so:

• Research & analysis
• Content strategy
• Sketching & wireframing
• Composition
• Prototyping
• Testing & redefinition
• Build

The difficultly with outlining a process in such a way is that it appears so linear, where in reality we quite often find ourselves going back and forth, skipping steps and revisiting previous areas.

This also don’t take into account project management and development methodologies such as waterfall or agile. With more people trending towards more economical ways of working, the stages of the design process outlined above are being condensed but revisited more often, which is healthy. Instead of slogging through weeks of research and planning then closing that door to that step in the process and moving on, it’s better to keep on your toes, keep inspired and maintain a high pace of progress—then as new developments unfold in the project life cycle, you can revisit earlier stages and adapt your observations and objectives.

For example, in the design and build of an e-commerce website, it may discovered in the prototyping stage that there are too many product variables that may cause customers confusion; it’s at this point that you can refer back to earlier research, investigate how competitors address the issue and instead develop a more refined system, whilst still meeting the client’s core objectives.

More than meeting objectives

Objective led design is about more than dealing with requirements. It’s about creating better work. It’s about being a more respectful designer. Forcing ourselves to really consider the why behind our design decisions will only help us to improve not only the quality of design, but also our ability to empathise with the users we design for.

Instead of carelessly throwing shape and colour around in Photoshop it’s important to understand the consequences of the products we create. It applies to more than just websites and screen-based interfaces, but to all areas of design—product, industrial, fashion, print etc.

If this all seems a little obvious I suppose it should do. Some smart American architect summed it up over 100 years ago:

Form follows function.

Yeah, that.

However form following function is still often overlooked in these teenage years of the web. Trendy new toys like Canvas, CSS3 animations, parallax effects and the magic that jQuery can weave sometimes distract us entirely from the purpose of our design, and we’re all guilty of it.

It’s important to balance critical design with an injection of emotion and imagination that takes it the extra distance. It’s always fun to push boundaries and see what’s possible, as long as it doesn’t compromise the function of the product.

I suppose the art is in finding that balance.