I recognize that business tool design is not at the top of anyone’s mind in the midst of this unprecedented ongoing global pandemic. As much of the world adjusts to a new reality, I, too, am attempting to adjust. I’m focusing my time working from home on the subject matter that I love, while also worried about my friends and family like so many of you. I hope this piece helps you feel a little less isolated and, on some small scale, more connected to your fellow product designers.
We live in a post-UX world, a world in which a high-quality user experience is not only valued but is expected. The people we design for — the users of our products — no longer merely desire well-designed products and enjoyable experiences, but they will, in fact, refuse to interact with poorly designed ones. When designing quality products in this post-UX world, we must rely on — not neglect — our basic design principles and commitment to craft.
Visual literacy and visual processing are two basic principles vital in crafting well-designed products and creating quality experiences. These fundamental building blocks of design can at times be blurred or forgotten in systems-orientated product design. In some cases, they are not taught to up-and-coming designers at all.
At Facebook, designers tackle the challenge of balancing and integrating systems design and visual design at a massive scale every day. As a product design manager working within the Ads and Business Platform, it is my role to implement and guide a cohesive approach to design. I do this by advocating for product designers to better understand visual design fundamentals — fundamentals that I believe exponentially improve the products we design, increase their value and encourage a holistic approach to design thinking.
Honing visual literacy
So, how does a product designer who might be more comfortable with systems thinking develop a design ethos and think holistically? First, they must understand the fundamentals of design, starting with visual literacy.
Visual literacy is the way we interpret and make meaning from things we observe. In a traditional sense, visual literacy could be developed by interpreting the form of an image, its meaning or its relationship to something else.
To develop or improve their visual literacy, I encourage my team and other designers to find simple ways to be alert to the world at large.
One way to do this is by stepping out of one’s immediate environment and observing the world with a focused lens. Consciously observing the world allows for a sense of order, flow and balance. It creates a heightened sense of aesthetics.
Visual literacy is a muscle that anyone can build. Try observing fashion, patterns of traffic or even manhole covers. Store this information intentionally with the idea that you will access it later in your work as a designer.
Another way to hone visual literacy is to observe what’s been done before and build upon it.
As designers, we can sometimes get caught up in thinking that we must come up with something original, or that a solution has to come from us alone. The truth is, looking at other people’s works helps to inspire us, and, in turn, the products and experiences we craft.
Isn’t that stealing? No, it’s not — not any more than scientists “steal” from the research they build on. In fact, that’s exactly what foundational elements are — seeing what’s been done, decoding it, honoring it and improving it. Understanding what’s been done before serves as a fantastic way to increase visual literacy.
It’s all in your head: visual processing
Unlike visual literacy, visual processing is our ability to actually identify the world around us. Not to get too far into the weeds on how our brains process information, but suffice it to say that the brain’s visual cortex is responsible for identifying the basic features of the world and the associated data that goes with it. Take, for example, this poster:
The printed letters create an image on your retina, and then the meaning of the sign passes from the retina to the primary visual cortex to the association cortex, which ultimately identifies the sign and the letters.
As with visual literacy, visual processing is a muscle that can build and improve with practice. Consciously focusing on visual processing — things like shapes and patterns, the distance or lack of distance between objects, and contextualizing letters or images — helps improve visual processing speed and perception. Collecting such visual data helps increase visual literacy, strengthens our work as designers and enhances the user experience.
The best of both
Foundational elements of all sorts come together to create successful designs. Color, imagery, typography, whitespace — entire libraries have been written about each, and designers at Facebook regularly apply these elements and more in their visual craft.
Promoting visual design doesn’t have to mean ignoring systems design — both are important in product design, and true design excellence comes from understanding and implementing both. But growth as a well-rounded designer comes from consciously practicing necessary and fundamental elements like visual literacy and visual processing.
Stay tuned for my next post in this series, which will explore the power of aesthetics and design in shaping product experiences that are beautiful and useful.
Read Part 1 of this series, which seeks to promote the practice of good visual craft in our systems-oriented world by highlighting foundational elements and offering tips, tools and processes.
