Team Design for better products

UX / UI design is user-driven, almost every element you put into your layouts has the user in mind wondering how it will affect their experience. Designers are the keepers of a good UX in your product.

But Let’s face it. There’s no longer one single designer working as “The Lone Ranger” making design decisions over a product. Truth is, digital products have multiple designers. Starting with the client down to the dev-ops engineer, everyone is taking decisions that might affect the user.

The client might want the brand to stand out more and ask to make the logo bigger, the marketing team might want to have more banners and promos or a dev-ops engineer might be worried about making the performance faster. And all these concerns will affect the final design of the product.

Basically, It all comes down to “All product stakeholders will take design decisions and all these decisions should be considering the user experience”.

And it’s important that you (no matter if you are the CEO, a marketing team member, or a dev-ops engineer, we’ve already agreed that you are a designer no matter your role) as a designer, always think about the user and how it could affect having a bigger logo, a bunch of banners or loading animations flickering fast.

However, it is not always easy. Sometimes it is difficult for people to stand in someone else’s shoes and see things from another way.

In order to achieve this it’s important to hang egos at the entrance door and let all stakeholders share their vision of the product. Some would be thinking about how to make the underlying parts of the system interact, others on how to give value to a new feature, or how to make the product run smoothly on every platform.

Having all points of view and proposals will let you see and understand what’s worth and what will give value. What will make your user embrace or turn away from your product?

Not everyone involved in a project will have design skills, but each person should be armed with sufficient tools to understand their decisions will affect the user experience.

People tend to think designers have an “artistic” side, but UX/UI designers are far from that. I personally know a lot of engineers that have way more creative thinking than I have.

Designing a digital product is a mix between psychology, creativity and engineering. The work of a designer goes beyond fancy visuals and is focused on how to simplify flows and expand capabilities.

Let me give you a practical example:

We have been collaborating in the development of an application for rapid testing of the COVID-19 antigen for iOS where each test lasts 30 minutes.

So we thought we should give the user the option to test in bulk mode and increase the number from 1 to 20.

Now I am very happy to say that that simple decision was very useful in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking design decisions is not always easy, there are always moments when the project gets stuck and internal differences appear between the parts involved.

I’m pretty sure this might sound familiar:

“You are on your computer, doing the changes some stakeholder asks for while cursing in languages you don’t even know and thinking this doesn’t make sense! why make this bigger!?, OM F÷÷#…!!! God, really…?!!… and while you pull and move elements with your mouse you start to think… Well, it is not as bad as I thought… mmm… interesting, never thought this would match… and once you finish you realize it actually makes sense!.”

When moments like these hit, try to stay calm and keep the focus on the big picture, everyone’s goal is to satisfy the requirements and build a great product!

It all comes down to the same problem humanity has since we are on two feet: Communication

Start with trust. Let the other person take ownership and frame all the feedback within your project goals. Is not about who’s right or wrong but what’s better to fulfil the user’s needs.

Stay Objective. Sometimes the discussion might fall into personal’s aesthetic preferences or technical innovation which isn’t that useful. It is important to stay objective and focus on what your user would like.

Be clear. Speak your mind in a concise way. Try to avoid vague feedback. “I don’t like it” is not a valid point in any product discussion. Point out whatever feels wrong to you either if it’s the font, size, behaviour, performance, implementation or any other thing that might feel odd to you. Take into account, whatever feedback you give you should expect a “Why?”, “How?” or any other reply back, so try to be prepared with an explanation and solution, if possible.

Soften the blow. No one likes being criticized so try to step into your fellow shoes and start your feedback in a positive way. Maybe start by explaining something you like, then express your concerns and if possible finish your feedback on a positive note.

After all, we are all willing to create the best product and give the user the best experience.

Once your product is out and rolling, keep track of it and try to learn from what the real users experience. They might give you unexpected outcomes.