10 Things every designer should know
(Part 1)
1. Ui/Ux
If you are a freelancer, chances are, the project owners don’t have a lot of budget. You are working very closely with the developer or development team that is coding the back-end of the application. There is no room, no time, no budget to hire a designer, a Ui wizard and a Ux astronaut. Developers and businessmen need an all-in-one solution to their problems.
What this means is you don’t have to be an Ui/Ux expert. What we want is a designer, one that does a such an amazing design that we immediately want to download their app. Usability is implicit within a great design, it has to be the core of design. The user has to freely flow through the application and that is it. We don’t need you to have 10 years of experience designing conversion funnels.
2. Make models, Be more productive.
On an ideal world, design is building up from scratch, from nothing into something perfect and unique as its creator. In real life, design is a constant repetition of items slightly changed. If you are constantly working with a certain type of application, make a model out of it. If you are building websites, having the idea of a gallery already prototyped might be a great start. If you are building mobile applications, a good place to start is to have a layout for launch screen, loading screens, lists and so.
3. Product design
Product design is important because 75% of the time you will be designing someone’s creation to be introduced into the market. It doesn’t matter if it is a website, an app or a new type of envelope; product design always shares some of the characteristics that make the final result great. Branding is a clear example of this, you want people to recognize your app, or cat food. Another great example is tone. A business product is a lot more serious than a chat with friends product. We’ll discuss product design on further articles.
4. Working from native kits.
Every technology you use has a standard output. Think about your iPhone. The lists and buttons on the core apps look almost the same. Rails applications crud also has a standard basic output. This is the case for Java, Android and hundreds of other technologies available to us. Choose your niche and learn their native interfaces, building from then on is a lot faster and easier.
Take an android app as an example. They will tell you to take this core app and make it look great. If you know how everything knows in the core, you’ll know how to export a few images enough to make an app look amazing.
5. Sketch 3
If you haven’t heard about it, Sketch is a Mac app that lets you focus on design. As design flattens and simplifies itself (We’ve seen the whole design for iOS 7 made on Microsoft Word), legacy tools like photoshop are starting to feel bloated and outdated. Sketch allows you to work with vector based objects. As simple as it may be, it has all the options that you may need for up-to-date design and none of the options that you don’t want. You’ll be making your designs in ¼ of the time now.
6. Get along with coders.
Unless you are building something with very limited functionality such as a blog or a static page, you’ll probably end up working with a coder. Wysiwyg editors like Squarespace are great but they provide limited functionality, stuck to their templates. Whether it is the front end of your latest website design or a powerful rails app, you need to interact with coders. This task can be a bit odd. What is the best way to work with them? Please check our link to this article.
7. Design is the first impression of a product.
People do judge a book by its cover, they will skim your product a few seconds before moving on to the next thing that is trying to catch their attention. You have one instant to catch them, and once you have them, all you have is a great experience to hold on to them. A bad first impression will make users run away from your app, even if it is the best application ever published.
8. Design for startups
The startup industry is booming. We see the word “startup” everywhere. People are learning to code to build their dream, to change the world. Everyone wants to create something and sell it to a large company for a couple of billions.
So we consider: is this industry profitable? Is the startup market really a good place to work? The answer is yes, most companies are largely funded by startup accelerators and hiring lots of workers to build their products. Most of them don’t make it. Yet, it doesn’t matter if 99 companies lose and 1 becomes the next big thing.
Design, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects from start ups. From websites to portfolios, boxes and brochures, design is involved in most of the process of development. A startup that looks great is a startup that gets funded and a company that grows. This is one of the best markets for designers to thrive in.
9. Have a portfolio. 4 items are enough.
Every experienced designer has a countless items to add to their portfolio. From the first website you made 10 years ago using dreamweaver to the amazing logo for “Insert startup name” you made last month.
Chose the very best items of your work and show them off. No coder or business owner is going to skim through more than 4 items. But those 4 items have to be decisive on whether you are someone they would hire, or not.
10. iOS 7 / iOS 8 / Yosemite
Flat design is on and will continue to be on with iOS 8 and Yosemite. Chances are, you’ll be porting designs from iPhones to Android devices and not the other way around. Check the latest design trends from them on their website and do look for the Apple Design Awards winners for inspiration.
