Topic: how can design “work”?

There has been a lot of talk of the influence of Agile development on user-centered visual design. The Agile manifesto says this: “Working software is the primary measure of progress.” With software, it is very clear when something is working or broken. With visual design, it’s a little harder to tell. Of course we can all tell good design from bad (or can we?), but empirically defining something as “working” or “broken” is much harder to do in the realm of visual design. Here is a sliding scale of the possible outcomes of the design of the landing page of an e-commerce site selling pickles:

1. Broken design: when customers are turned away either by poor design, poor functionality, both, or just too many distracting elements such as ads and pop-ups on the page

2. Somewhat functional design: when customers are intrigued but not likely to return. This could be either due to doing too little (usually the case) or doing too much (too much shock value)

3. Design that “works”: when the customer is surprised and delighted. The visual design is on the money, and the site functions smoothly.

As designers, we are accustomed to working with a blueprint, a plan. Some of us know what the finished thing looks like even before we open a blank Photoshop document window. How do we reconcile this visually final thought process with the highly iterative methodologies of Agile development?

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/bringing-user

http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/extreme_programming_vs_interaction_design.php

Current trends in Web Design: The influence of print/typography on the Web

(article also appears on reencoded.com)

or why it’s called a web”page”

Legibility has always been of utmost importance in the process of visual communication. Billboards, advertisements, flyers. The clearer the message, the better the impact it tends to have on the target audience; the greater the sales.

In the 1990’s, with the emergence and increasing popularity of the internet came attempts to adapt this attention-grabbing visual aesthetic to websites. The effect this had though was to clutter up the real estate of the screen with unnecessary elements that didn’t really add to the effectiveness of communicating the message, but instead distracted and confused the user.

Today, there is a changing trend where the rules of traditional print design are being applied to the web. We see websites that are more typographically driven, with the main design elements being lines, subtle shifts in color and maybe one or two large images. This is similar to print design, where the message is relayed through words and images, and thus legibility of those words and images is of utmost importance.

Some reasons for this shift include changes in user preference, evolution of CSS including the use of sprites and the availability of server-side and browser-side font rendering technologies that allow the use of more and varied fonts.

The emergence and growing popularity of blogs has added to this trend. We as the audience are more interested in what the website is saying as opposed to what it is displaying.

This trend can also be seen with online advertising, where banners and ads have gone from psychedelic aminated gifs of aliens dancing maniacally to more subtle blocks of text and color, similar to ads found in newspapers and magazines.

Some examples of websites that follow this trend of incorporating characteristics of print design in both layout and advertisements are below.

The Bold Italic

A list apart

Koda

For a beautiful web

Mine

What’s your web personality?

(article also appears on reencoded.com)

We all want to make a mark on the world – some of us want to be famous, some just want our voices and ideas to be heard. Today we have access to several avenues that make it extremely easy to be seen and heard, especially on the web. Each one of us has an online identity these days, be it on a social networking site like twitter, facebook, myspace or linkedin or on our own little piece of the web – our personal website.

Social networking sites allow one to express their opinions, tastes, likes and dislikes, albeit within a structured framework. Having said that, these are very important outlets to formulate one’s online “personality” and establish one’s virtual social milieu. Sites like Second Life take this even further where one can assume an avatar, or online personality, which of course, can be vastly different from one’s identity in the real world…

The biggest advantage of expressing oneself through a unique web presence is the freedom to say anything (within reasonable limits of web etiquette of course) in any way imaginable. The ability to express one’s thoughts and opinions, present one’s capabilities, and engage with an online audience in new and refreshing ways is paramount to creating a strong and independent online identity. This identity can then be propagated, and the audience can be expanded through social networks and participation in online forums, etc. One thing to remember is that anything said online reflects on the character of the author, and therefore one must exercise a bit of caution while expressing one’s views.

There are many ways to achieve a unique personality on the web. The first step is to discover your passion, and then find a way to communicate that passion to the rest of the world. And do it in a way that will grab people’s attention and keep them coming back for more. The second step is to sustain that passion, and find newer and more interesting ways to present your ideas. Sites that constantly reinvent themselves in both design and content are the most intriguing – this means the person behind the site is also constantly evolving. Sometimes, what’s unique is your personality itself which finds its way to the web through ideas and content.
The web is a wonderful medium to experiment and play, it doesn’t cost you to change the design of your site ten times a day if you like (unless of course you’ve engaged an expensive designer!), and with the reduced costs of webhosting, there is really no limit to how much you can say these days. There is also the wonderful component of instant feedback in the form of comments – something invaluable in a world where people have limited time and even more limited attention spans.

Unique personalities are not reserved for individuals alone. These days companies and even large organizations have unique online identities, twitter accounts and quirky websites.

Below are a few examples of websites that vividly showcase the creator’s personalities, be it an individual or a company – some through the design and others through the content.

Dustin Curtis: His site is a quirky collection of interesting anecdotes, each designed in a unique manner that make them very easy to read.

Johnny Cupcakes: This t-shirt company is named after the guy who started selling t-shirts out of the trunk of his car, and has now evolved into a successful business. A huge factor towards this success: the name and personality of the founder.

Where the hell is Matt?: Matt has made it big by dancing badly. He now gets paid to travel around the world and dance badly, which he archives on his website.

Martin Venezky/Appetite Engineers: Martin’s site showcases his quirky design sensibility. The cat on the homepage was his pet tabby, and has made appearances in a lot of his work.

Hungry&Foolish: A design firm based in Bangalore, India. Their website is funny and intelligent and presents the members of the studio and their work in a candid and unique way.

Pranav Mistry:  An engineer at MIT, his site showcases his educational achievements and also gives us a glimpse into his life’s journey in an unassuming and friendly manner.

Of course, if you are already a celebrity, then you probably have more followers on twitter and friends on facebook than you can handle! These words are for those who are yet to make their mark on the world, and the world wide web.

Please add the websites of people you think should be included in the comments so we can help them get famous.

The iterative process

Hotel Marques de Riscal, Gehry Partners, LLP, Elciego, (Alava) Spain

Is it providential when the first design presented to a client is the one that gets approved? (Even with the frequent occurrence of the client requesting a round of revisions, and then reverting back to their original choice). Or is it several rounds of iterations: of client input and designer interpretation, that lead to the best design solution?
A painting (unless inspired or modeled on a series of sketches and studies) is a one-time act of creation; of paint on canvas, clay on wheel. design in today’s world of command z’s, version n+1.0’s, and final_final_final.pdf’s is a never-ending process of revision, second-guessing and infinite tweaking. the original zest that was to be found in the very first sketch has morphed into something unrecognizable by ver.153
The ideal would be to strike a perfect balance. to envision a near-perfect solution at the very outset, and then take the clients’ invaluable feedback to make that solution even more effective; arriving at a piece that is complete, finessed and realized.

What are you trying to say?

The primary objective of any design process is some form of communication – i.e. an outward projection of ideas that are meant to influence the decisions of the target audience. But what gets often overlooked is the process of inward projection of ideas, or to put it more simply – listening. To the client, to oneself (in this case the designer) and the audience. Listening carefully and paying attention is usually the most effective way of first filtering out information that is neither necessary nor relevant to the design solution.

And a huge part of this process is asking a LOT of questions. In my experience, a client usually has a fairly fuzzy idea of what they want; and this process of questioning helps them clarify their thinking, leading to more innovative and effective solutions.