100 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT DESIGN  |  MAY 26, 2020

100 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT DESIGN
MAY 26, 2020

1. Design is user people-centered 

1. Design is user people-centered.

User-centered design has been around for a while. Basically since the people who design products started thinking about the people who would use those products. And I use the word people very intentionally. With user-centered design and even user experience, we often think of users as clicks or a tap on a screen. This alone has allowed us to make great strides in design. Now even bad products, are 10x better than good products a few years ago. However, with user this and user that, we sometime forget that these are real people, with real problems, needs, desires, and motivations.

After years of designing I still lose sight of this. Not so long ago, I had a conversation with another designer about a text input. I argued for one solution because it meant consistency and “good UX”. The other designer reminded me—and rightfully so—to think about what made more sense for the people inputting information in that specific context. 

See the conundrum here? A good user experience means consistency. But that doesn’t mean we should sacrifice good design and what makes sense in the moment, to abide by this principle. 

Here’s another example. Think about analytics and measuring conversions (a metric that tracks how many times your objective is met). Let’s say you tweak your designs to increase conversions. And this increase must therefore mean an improvement in the user experience, right? Wrong. Imagine a user is booking a flight and in order to reduce friction and increase conversion you get rid of all the nitty gritty information like, no cabin bags, no meals, no restroom privileges, etc. Sure you might see a huge increase in conversions, but when users—or people—actually hop on that flight they’ll be livid and will have a very poor experience. 

Design is a balancing act. Balance user constraints, business constraints, design system constraints etc. But when designing products, people always take priority. The people who use your products. Because after all, if no one uses our products, then there’s no point in creating them.

User-centered design has been around for a while. Basically since the people who design products started thinking about the people who would use those products. And I use the word people very intentionally. With user-centered design and even user experience, we often think of users as clicks or a tap on a screen. This alone has allowed us to make great strides in design. Now even bad products, are 10x better than good products a few years ago. However, with user this and user that, we sometime forget that these are real people, with real problems, needs, desires, and motivations.

After years of designing I still lose sight of this. Not so long ago, I had a conversation with another designer about a text input. I argued for one solution because it meant consistency and “good UX”. The other designer reminded me—and rightfully so—to think about what made more sense for the people inputting information in that specific context. 

See the conundrum here? A good user experience means consistency. But that doesn’t mean we should sacrifice good design and what makes sense in the moment, to abide by this principle. 

Here’s another example. Think about analytics and measuring conversions (a metric that tracks how many times your objective is met). Let’s say you tweak your designs to increase conversions. And this increase must therefore mean an improvement in the user experience, right? Wrong. Imagine a user is booking a flight and in order to reduce friction and increase conversion you get rid of all the nitty gritty information like, no cabin bags, no meals, no restroom privileges, etc. Sure you might see a huge increase in conversions, but when users—or people—actually hop on that flight they’ll be livid and will have a very poor experience. 

Design is a balancing act. Balance user constraints, business constraints, design system constraints etc. But when designing products, people always take priority. The people who use your products. Because after all, if no one uses our products, then there’s no point in creating them.

Get started with our online UX course.

Get started with our online UX course.