5 PRODUCTIVE Tips for Designing Mockups
I recently designed my first mockups for a food review mobile app for a fictional fancy restaurant as part of my Google UX Design course.
Here are 5 productive tips I learnt along the way for creating your mockups:
1. It’s ok to change a few things.
I initially thought that a designer has to rigidly restrict themselves to the design decisions they made in the wireframes. However, I learnt that it’s ok to make a few changes from the original design that make sense to improve the user experience.
2. Present the main user flow.
When presenting mockups, don’t share designs for every single screen you’ve created. This is an overload of information to the recipient of your designs. Focus on presenting mockups that show the main user flow.
Also, show diverse designs. Where you have pages looking the same, replace one or some (depending on your situation) & pick others that look different to bring visual diversity & interest in your presentation. There’s no point in sharing 2 or more pages that look exactly the same.
3. Less is more.
I was a bit obsessed with trying to make something “cool.” I imagined putting in all sorts of visually appealing elements. But I quickly learnt that putting too much stuff can make your design look sloppy & tacky. Your design needs to breathe — adequate negative space is important. Also avoid having too many different font types & sizes, and just doing too much overall. “Less is more” principle creates better UX for users.
4. Pretty designs aren’t everything.
UI is important but UX is the core of products. Check again to make sure that every screen has its purpose. Make sure that every icon & button leads somewhere. You could have missed something in previous stages of the design process.
5. Decide core aspects before you start designing.
I learnt that it is time-saving to decide on colours, font type, font sizes before you start designing. This makes it easier to finish the designs efficiently instead of wasting time overthinking on details. Just make the visual decisions once & implement them.
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