A few Design habits I’ve learned to help better plan for a project
My natural inclination is to want to jump right into the Hi-Fidelity phase while taking on any Design project. The importance of planning before executing a design, didn’t really register with me until later on in my school career. An important project that taught me this lesson was one that involved creating my portfolio website. A few basic yet important habits that I picked up during this process were:
Putting My Thoughts On Paper
The first action I took while planning my portfolio website was sketching out my thoughts. I had all of these great ideas swimming through my head about how I wanted the portfolio site to look but no direction for those thoughts. Putting my thoughts on paper really helped to channel my focus in a way that would be productive and provide a more structured path for the project.
Creating A Concept Model
I thought this was a silly exercise at first, and didn’t really see how it related to the design process. However, while completing this exercise, it began to make sense to me. The Concept Model made me ask myself, “What message am I trying to convey?” Yes, obviously a Portfolio website is there to showcase your work, but it is also there to showcase your personal qualities. And by understanding what qualities are important, I could better decide which content to include and which content to omit on the final version.
Using Post-It Notes In Planning the Site’s Navigation
Making use of Post It Notes was a great exercise that really helped me to hammer out my sites Navigation. Post It notes offered a quick method to see all possibilities to my sites navigational layout. I find the biggest benefit of using notes is the fact that no idea has to be concrete. If you don’t like how the navigation is laid out, then just move the notes accordingly until something better appears.
Creating A Site Map
After completing the Post-It Note exercise, creating the sitemap was quick and painless. I already knew how I wanted my site to navigate, but I needed something more permanent to reference. The sitemap helped to further facilitate the flow of the site and reinforced how the site’s navigation would function.
Using A Template for My Sketches
Although not an exact science, I found that using a template for my sketches helped to show potential size constraints I would be facing when planning for each platform. Obviously, the pixel dimensions won’t be an exact representation for each element, but at least it offered me a better idea as to how I wanted the site to adapt to each platform.
Documenting the Design Process
The final lesson is a process that is still hard for me to follow. I used to find the act of documenting everything like pulling teeth. It’s tedious and time consuming and unfortunately, it’s an essential practice. I learned that documenting each step of the design phase shows the thought process behind each decision. And even if I am the only person who is going to refer to the documentation, it still shows HOW I was thinking through the design process at the time. It also allows me to assess whether the goals of my design are being met before moving onto the final phases of the design process.
Conclusion
My Portfolio site is a work in progress as I am a student and my experience is still somewhat limited. However, the lessons I gained from this project have really stuck with me. As a student still soaking in all the knowledge I can from this field, I am learning that some of the most effective habits are the ones that help you better plan. Usually, the better the plan, the better the product.
Brett Monson is a student in the Digital Media program at Utah Valley University, Orem Utah, studying Interaction & Design. The following article relates to the final iBooks project in the DGM 2250 course and is representative of the skills learned.
