My top rookie mistakes as a UX/UI Designer Pt. 2
Mistakes Made in Working With Real Clients
In one of my previous posts, I shared a few of my biggest mistakes as a rookie in the UX/UI design industry, particularly when it comes to ideation and prototyping. In part 2, I will continue to share with you parts of my journey in growing as a designer — this time as it relates to working with clients and across teams.
If you’ve read part 1, awesome. Thank you for joining me for part 2! If you haven’t, no worries! The ultimate lesson I’d like anyone to take away from my “rookie mistakes”, regardless of where you are in this series, is to know that mistakes are okay, especially in this industry. Trends come and go, technology is ever-evolving, and new challenges emerge as a result.
As a designer, I know that I will never know the answer to everything; I will have to learn, unlearn, relearn. After all, humans aren’t perfect, and our experiences won’t always be what we expect them to be. Easier said than done right? I admit — I’ve been struggling with accepting this myself (more on this in a later post). There are days where I’m pretty hard on myself, but I’m working on it. I guess this series is my own personal reminder, a way to reflect on the ups and downs in my early stages as a designer. I’m learning, and that’s okay.
So with that said, in part 2 of this series, I will share my next 2 rookie mistakes that I made, as it pertains to working with real clients.
3. Not effectively balancing user and business goals
4. Not considering the feasibility of my design (from a developer’s perspective)
Rookie Mistake 3: Not effectively balancing user and business goals
During my time in my UX/UI Design bootcamp, I had the opportunity to work with a real client. I had been in the program for almost 5 months already, so all of my experience when it came to working with a company was purely hypothetical. It was around this time that I had terms like “usability” and “user-first” drilled in my brain. I was truly indoctrinated to believe that the users were the end-all-be-all. In a way, this still rings true. But, I think the mistake I made was not realizing that there were OTHER things that were important to consider when it came to making design decisions.
My team and I were tasked with creating the UI design of a startup’s mobile app in time for its launch in the Apple Store. I recall getting an outline of the client brief, stating roughly what they were envisioning for their app. Their vision was basic, albeit open to interpretation. Nevertheless, I think my team and I failed to take into consideration our client’s goals of keeping things simple. Form follows function. Nothing too flashy.
My team and I initially created moodboards to reflect this, but it’s when our design was shared with a few users that things went south. We were left with criticism from our users for being “too boring” or “too been-there-done-that”. And so, we took this feedback to mean that our client was wrong and that we needed to completely scrap our ideas and come up with something more “exciting” and “divergent”. I remember looking into emerging trends in the industry and tried to come up with something bold, bright, and empowering. I, along with my team, spent about a week focusing on recreating and filling out wireframes with this new design aesthetic. We honestly believed our design choices were valid. We had “users-first” tunnel vision, completely disregarding what our client wanted.
You can only imagine what happened in our next meeting with our client. Our wireframes were shot down, and we were asked to re-work our designs to incorporate a bit more of what they’d asked. Although they appreciated us taking the time to ask for user feedback, they already had a “brand aesthetic” for the company and wanted to stick with that. We were set back by a whole week because of our decision to consider only one side of the coin and not the other. Ultimately, my team and I came up with something that was a better balance of user and business goals. Unfortunately, we were burnt out from having to meet the design deadline, and therefore, the launch deadline.
So here’s my advice: First off, communication is key, especially with the client themselves! Second, users are important but so are your clients! Your designs can still be informed by your users, but make sure you are considering the main goals of the company. Additionally, what deadlines must be met? What is their budget? It truly is a balancing act, a skill that must be learned.
At the end of the day, it’s their product, and as a UX/UI designer, it’s our jobs to create something that meets users’ goals without compromising business goals. For example, when it comes to the UI side of things, figure out if a style guide already exists and stick with it. Instead of creating a full set of wireframes, fill out one or two screens as a sample, and send it over to your client. (Tip: Whether you’re using Adobe XD, Sketch, or another design tool, say organized and create assets that you can change the size and color of at any time! I’ll be discussing this in part 3 of this series.) Ultimately, be sure to get the okay before jumping into any extensive design tasks. Doing so, you’ll also save yourself time and the company money!
Rookie Mistake 4: Not considering the feasibility of my design (from a developer’s perspective)
Sometimes I get really caught up in creating outside-the-box designs that I think look and sound cool. But most of the time, I don’t consider how it would translate if it were to be handed off to a developer. With Adobe XD’s auto-animate feature, I remember going ham with the animations and microinteractions.
There was one instance (of many) where I created an interaction that essentially functioned like a slot machine (but with letters) to create words. You input the name of an ingredient in the search bar, click on a button, and the word would transform (slot machine style) to produce a relevant cocktail name, with an accompanying picture and recipe.
A few friends of mine reached out and said they would love for this to be an actual idea. I was happy to hear that, and I would’ve loved for it to be a real app, not going to lie. But then it hit. How easy it would be to write the code for this to actually work? It’s probably possible… Given the animation and variability of the design, it may be one big pain in the ass to do the backend for. Who knows!
But that was my mistake. I was being somewhat reckless with my designs. I was spending loads of time creating designs that were purely hypothetical. Don’t get me wrong — this can also be a good thing for self-expression purposes and to help get the creative juices flowing. But when thinking about creating a viable product, especially for a client, it’s important to think about the feasibility of the design you’ve created.
So here’s my next piece of advice: Similar to what’s already been said, consider your client’s goals and think about the developers working on this project as well! Determine which key functions your client wants you to design. Do you need the crazy cool animations to achieve this, or can you do without? Check in with other teams, especially those doing the web or app development side of things. Some advice given to me by a colleague was to learn Figma, a prototyping tool that many designers use to design, prototype and gather feedback, across different teams. I’ve just started, but it already seems like an awesome tool to keep everyone in the loop about what is going on. Changes and feedback can be made in real-time, keeping everyone on the same course and saving time in the long run!
Conclusion:
Thanks for reading! That’s all for part 2 of “My top rookie mistakes as a UX/UI Designer”! In the last part of the series, I will be breaking down my top rookie mistakes when it comes to…accessibility!
