5 Things To Never Forget While Designing.
You might think that design is all about how your product looks and feels. But the truth is, it’s about getting things done. Designers are problem-solvers.
1. Real designers use data analytics.
Data analytics is a huge part of design. It helps you make better products, and it helps you make better experiences for users.
For example: if you were designing an e-commerce site for clothes, how would you know what kind of people would shop there? Would they be young men with minimal fashion sense? Or older women who want to look stylish on the go? Or both? Or neither? And what about their interests: do they prefer jeans or leggings (or neither)? These are all questions that data analytics can help answer.
2. Communicate clearly and accurately with your team and clients.
You’re not just a designer. You’re also a communicator, and that means you have to make sure everyone feels heard. If you don’t communicate well with your team and clients, they’ll never be able to follow along with the projects or understand what’s going on in the design process.
Communicating with stakeholders about data analytics is especially important because it can help them see how their input has been incorporated into the final product. It’s also helpful if they feel more comfortable seeing numbers rather than words when discussing changes made by designers (or vice versa).
3. Iteration is crucial to success.
As you iterate, keep in mind that iteration is a way to test your design against user feedback and data. Iterating is not just about making changes to the product — it’s also about identifying issues with specific features or layout and then fixing them before moving on to the next step of development.
This approach can be especially helpful when working with complex systems, as designers will have access to more information than ever before (and if they don’t have time right now, we’ve got some tips).
4. The way you implement something matters, too.
The first step to designing a great website is coming up with an idea. But what if your idea is terrible? That’s where execution comes in — how do you execute on the idea? How do you make it work? This isn’t just about how much time and money it takes to build something; it’s also about making sure that whatever you build supports the user experience (UX) requirements for your product or service, works within budget constraints and doesn’t fall apart halfway through development.
5. You can’t run a sprint for a marathon.
I know this to be true because I’ve done it myself. It’s not that running sprints is bad; it’s just that they’re not intended for anything other than getting things done quickly and efficiently, so you end up with an incomplete product or service that does not live up to its full potential. If you’re trying out new ideas at full speed, then maybe these are good exercises — but if you want something great from them (and don’t mind spending some time developing), then perhaps there are better ways of doing so.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we all want to move the needle. If you’re a designer, that means making something that people actually want to use. If you’re a client or team member, it means making something that helps your business grow and succeed. And in both cases, it means being able to implement what you create with confidence so that everyone who works with you has confidence in what they’re doing. The key is knowing when one approach won’t work as well as another — and then figuring out which options are best for achieving your goals.
