Author: UXPin

In the world of UX (user experience) and UI (user interface), one thing that you should always keep in mind when starting a project is a style guide. It will help you enhance your brand’s user experience and bring it to a whole new level.

A style guide will help you craft a consistent design system. It will pave the way for effective communication of ideas and the creation of great content. It will save time when working without hindering productivity and most of all, will showcase your brand and company in the most professional light.

The whole UX process that involves meticulous planning, heavy research, and testing in order to nail down the details of human online behavior is done so that the company can convert while the user meets their goal and fulfills the purpose of their online browsing. It’s a win-win situation for both sides. 

But, in order for that to happen, it requires a repeatable process that yields repeatable results (success).

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What Are the Benefits of Having a Style Guide?

At the beginning of every cohesive project lies the genius of the style guide, which is why every team member should take notice of and reference the document as much as possible when working. 

Let’s go through some of benefits of having a style guide:

1. It will be easier for the front end developers to write their CSS and HTML by referencing all the important information and data, find hex codes for colors easily, reuse UI components, SVG files and quickly find and extract any other asset that they may require.
2. Will help the UX designers to craft responsive layouts that fit the brand’s style. 
3. The social media managers can consult the document to use the same exact typeface, color palette, and graphic assets to create a consistent social media feed.
4. The creative writers will produce copy that corresponds with the brand’s specific tone of voice.

 Having a style guide to define the scope, style (duh!), visual direction, and tone of voice prior to starting a project can be really beneficial to all team members. From the front end devs all the way to the design team, project managers, researchers or strategists. 

In addition to that, it can also be a reference point to help you craft the end-product you’ve envisioned and guide you (duh!) so you don’t stray away.

A UX/UI style guide document will help you meet deadlines, keep productivity high at all times, and avoid stress in general. 

Style Guides or Brand Guidelines?

Let’s quickly make one thing very clear – style guide is not a brand guideline book. 

Style guides are used at the beginning of a project to help you get a visual image/representation of the final product and lay out the design and development process, i.e, what to expect. 

Whereas the brand guideline book is a document that specifies the usage of certain brand elements like logotypes (primary and secondary), graphic elements, patterns and icons, and their application in web, print, and other media. It also suggests the optimal application size and spacing for every brand asset.

If you abide by the rules of a style guide and utilize what is given to you, you won’t have to worry about these things:

• Typography / Typefaces
• Color palette
• Icons
• Images
• UI components
• HEX codes, CMYK, and RGB values
• Tone of Voice
• Code Documentation

You just have it laid out in front of you and to spare yourself the headache and possibly dozen iterations, all you have to do is consult your C3PO in the form of a digital style guide document. 

One such thing worthy of praise is the NASA Graphics Standards Manual, Mailchimp’s style guide, or Barnes & Noble’s ui style guide.

So, after this brief intro, you might already have a faint idea of what is a style guide, but to help you grasp the full concept of it so you know how to create one, follow along with this article.

Style Guides and Brand Messaging

If you made it so far, we’re pretty sure you already know what a style guide is. Let’s instead, touch a little bit on the brand side of things and make a discourse to put a few words about brand messaging..

According to Marty Neumeier, a brand is a gut feeling (The Brand Gap). 

“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It’s not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is”. (Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap)

It’s all about making people feel safe, secure, cozy and everything you want them to feel. Think of it like this way: When a potential customer comes into contact with any of your brand’s touchpoints, be it the website, app, or other digital and printed media, you get the chance to influence that person through color, typography, copywriting, clever UX and clean UI. It’s your brand’s time to shine.

What Should a Style Guide Include?

As already mentioned, a style guide that can effectively serve as a reference point to consult during the design and development process in a project should at least have these crucial elements:

1. Typography
2. Color Palette
3. UI Components
4. Images

As we already mentioned the defining elements of a style guide, it is time you learned how to create.one. 

How to Create a Style Guide?

A style guide will give you full control over a project from start to finish.

Now, let’s break down the crucial elements one by one and see how every piece of the puzzle helps drive optimal design decisions and keep brand consistency.

Typography

Implementing typography the right way is not as easy as it may seem. 

For example, the formatting and structure of a website’s copy or a brand’s overall tone of voice expressed through copywriting is very well one of the most crucial aspects to consider.

So, as mentioned, you can encapsulate the goal and mission of your brand through a well-written copy and storytelling or encourage a user to engage your CTA’s (call to actions) that may lead to conversion. 

On the other hand, proper, SEO-friendly content formatting and structure with clever use of character spacing and line height is something that can elevate the experience to a whole new level. Using headings like H1, H2, and H3 to introduce hierarchy in a text should be standard practice. 

After all, a big chunk of a website is the typography. You want the paragraphs on your homepage and the rest of the website to look clean and not like a ransom letter.

It should be clear, alluring, legible, and high-converting. Determining the right font size for the body and the headings to provide the best possible legibility should be high on your priority list and is one of the most important accessibility features.

Knowing what typeface and font size to use for headings and body text right away instead of experimenting and trying to find the font on their own can be a time-saver (not to mention a time-saver) for the ux designers and the developers who are usually working closely.

Color Palette

Much like the typography on a website or app that helps convey the tone of voice, the colors used within a brand’s visual identity help evoke a certain emotional response from the user. The right color palette can affect the user’s mood at the moment and improve their feeling about the brand which translates to a higher possibility for conversion. 

Colors are one of the main features of every brand identity and style guide. They carry a lot of weight in their shades and hues. A color palette can affect a user’s buying psychology and express a particular set of emotions and vibe that reflect the brand’s voice.

Every brand has a set of primary and secondary colors. 

When choosing colors to create a color palette, you have to define the primary and secondary colors in respect to your brand’s attributes. The primary set of colors will carry over to the main brand assets and that’s why it’s important you nail them. 

The secondary set of colors are the accent colors. They help you contextualize certain UI elements and text on a webpage and make things even more clear for your users and customers. 

The Accent or secondary colors can be utilized for links, text, buttons, menus, animations, forms, or input fields to give off a distinct look that explains an action or conveys context to a user.

One thing worth mentioning though is that accent colors and primary colors should always play well together when matched. You want to create a harmonious color environment where there is no conflict between the interplay of colors.

And ultimately, choosing a suitable color palette can help you create brand positioning, communicate your brand values and tone of voice to your target audience. 

UI Components

The user interface design components are a crucial part of offering a top-notch user experience.

Through the GUI you can bring your website to life.

UI components you will need for your style guide:

• Buttons
• Forms
• Input Fields
• Icons
• Toolbars
• Layouts
• Menus
• Lists 
• Grids
• Steppers
• Modals

Your UI elements need to be clean, functional, and pixel-perfect. Their priority is to visibly convey the specific meaning they are designed for. The user needs to grasp the context of what he or she needs to do next and how that action should be done.

For example, your buttons need to have a clearly defined state. By getting the right combination of animation, color, and text you can communicate that to the user. The same goes for your forms too. Design your input fields with a user’s perspective in mind. 

Imagery

The photos and illustrations that are part of your brand identity should reflect your brand’s vision.

A picture is worth a thousand words. The truth that comes from this saying is evident and a simple one. Sometimes visual communication can touch people a lot more than words can.

But having an established and consistent look and feel that bleeds into your brand’s imagery isn’t everything.

The technical aspect of having the right colors and aspect ratios for all the touchpoints and channels through which customers can access or reach your brand is important too.

Pro Tip: Always Design with Accessibility in Mind

Following design trends is good as long as you don’t forget to adapt the user experience to people from all walks of life and backgrounds so they can interact with ease.

Always make sure your designs and design elements comply with the most up-to-date accessibility standards and include that in the style guide.

In short, the style guide helps unify the team’s efforts by making everyone comply with the given set of brand standards that they must follow in order to achieve a desirable outcome while retaining brand consistency.

The style guide you consult during the design and development process of a project will help you deliver an end-product that appeals to your audience and will make all the difference between good teamwork and great teamwork. 

Improve your teamwork even more. Use UXPin, an end-to-end prototyping tool and create a more efficient design process from start to finish. Try it for free.

Welcome to 2020 Design Trends by UXPin. Today I’m joined by Bree Walter. Bree, please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Walter: I currently work at H&R Block as a lead user experience designer. We’re headquartered in Kansas City. And for those who don’t know, H&R block as a tax company, but we’re trying to expand our horizons to fully embrace the financial world and personal finances. What I do is work on the products that serve our tax professionals in the field. So, we have a pretty large user experience team. We’re broken up into client experience and employee experience. I lead up employee experience, which is specifically the applications in  H&R Block offices used by all of our 80,000 tax pros across the country.

UXPin: That’s impressive. We’re talking today about 2020 design trends. Can you tell me which of the emerging trends is your favorite one? What are you like really looking forward to?

Walter: I like to think of design not just in the visual and UI aspects. But being a designer or user experience leader of a team, we have to think about operations and business and strategy and testing and all of that. The trend that I think I’m looking forward to the most would be design ethics. I actually saw a really amazing speaker this last summer at the USP, a conference that I went to in Arizona, named Mike Monteiro. He has a book that is one of the best-selling design books this last year. 

It’s called Ruin by Design, and it’s basically how the world has been ruined by design. But even with that kind of light-hearted title, it was a really serious talk about how we commonly get put into a position as designers where we have to somehow consider the user’s needs while we’re being asked to make decisions that go directly against those needs. A lot of times it’s because a company is considering ROI or conversions, and their revenue. And sometimes we do things that are really deceitful, and really wrong, and not very morally or ethically right, because of revenue. And so, it was really empowering to see that talk this summer. I came back really excited because of a couple instances where there were questionable things that had been brought up, that didn’t seem like a big deal. And it was neat, because I actually had this foundational knowledge now about design ethics, and could encourage the rest of my design team and my product managers, and some of my business leaders, instead of just making the best decision for our revenue to make the best decision for our client experience. 

So, I’m really excited to see where that goes in 2020, specifically because I think we’re at the cusp of the awareness of design ethics. Everybody has surface-level knowledge about it, but maybe not necessarily how to apply it in our day-to-day work. The world of design ethics is going to erupt and people are going to be empowered and rally around it. And I’m really excited to see where that’s going to go.

UXPin: I’m excited about it too. We are actually preparing a few accessibility features that could help designers using our tool to embrace ethical design. But as you said, sometimes the design is here, and business is way over with money and ROI. But I strongly believe that specifically this year we’re going to collaborate more so that designers get like a seat at the table. Not only caring about the pretty stuff, right? But business and ethics too.

Walter: Right. Collaboration is also a key part of what I’m kind of looking forward to in 2020 as well. Exactly what you said – it’s not business versus design versus development, or us versus them. 

How do we work better with developers, because we feel like we’re totally siloed and segmented, and we don’t get each other? But we’ve seen a trend over just the last couple years in these amazing articles and empowering speeches about how people can work together as a team, and not think of yourself even as a development designer, product owner, business leader, or IT director – but how can we truly think of ourselves as a team. And we’re all in this together. 

Speaking to collaboration, that is another trend that I’m looking forward to that I’ve seen grow immensely at H&R Block over the last year. We have done so many crazy awesome things in the collaboration space around doing workshops and strategy sessions together, and we have people going out into the field, like developers, IT leaders, product owners, and shadowing together as a team and talking about it as a team. And we’re doing collaborative road-mapping sessions. 

What I think has been really huge that I’ve seen this last year, and that I think is going to keep growing across the whole industry, is that teams are embracing each other and doing it in ways to not position each other against one another. But, for example, in collaborative workshops everybody has an equal voice. And every single person on the team, regardless of your role or discipline, has a seat at the table and is able to contribute to the future of that product from the very beginning. That’s something that H&R block has really grown in this last year, especially on my team. I think that’s going to continue in 2020 as well for the rest of our industry.

UXPin: Yes, I strongly believe that too. But would you say that this kind of approach needs a little bit of a change in mindset of how we think about teams? So, what are the responsibilities in the design team?

Walter: Absolutely. Whenever you get away from this idea of people having very specific titles and roles and responsibilities, and this person takes on this thing, and this other person takes on this thing, and you hand it off, and it’s not really a collaboration. It’s easy for you to have an “us versus them” mentality whenever you’re in that kind of dynamic. But when you get to more collaborative methods, it’s funny because the lines actually start to blur a little around teams. 

What H&R Block is seeing is that, back in the day you would have a product owner with very specific rules, and you would have very specific rules. And if you ever dabbled in each other’s worlds and tried to help each other out, it would be like stepping on their toes. What I am seeing with my teams is that we’re integrating this idea of feature teams or Tiger teams. 

If you’re not familiar with that concept, it’s that instead of trying to tackle a gigantic product as a whole, we can create these micro-teams, or as we call them, feature teams. We create a self-sustainable team that can design and develop launch features completely autonomously. That means that you don’t necessarily have specific roles or responsibilities. I actually have some VAs or business analysts, some UI developers, and product owners who are all helping make UX decisions. And I actually have some of my business analysts going into the prototype, updating content and putting in documentation nodes for our developers – they’re getting really hands-on. 

Sometimes the product owner might not always have time when we need to have a discussion to make decisions. So, I can actually step in and be a UX/product owner hybrid, and make some product decisions as well. I think it’s neat because with this idea of a feature team or Tiger team, it allows you to move so much more quickly. And people become multipurpose. I have really strong developers who are actually making design decisions and product decisions. I have UX and MBAs sometimes doing our QA work. 

And so, I think whenever you allow people to not be seen as boxed-in to a role with certain responsibilities, we learn to help each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And whenever we see that a certain person is swamped we can step in and help them. It goes back to the fact that collaboration happens when you start to work together as one autonomous ecosystem, and not these separate siloed roles, and different people on the team can become extensions of you. I have many extensions of UX on my team, and I trust them because we’ve gone through all these collaborative workshops together. They’re going to be making good decisions. You can give up some of your ownership because you know that you’re all in it together as a team. 

Nobody’s out to get one another. Everybody understands the common goals that we’re working towards because we’ve done vision mapping and workshops. I just get super empowered and super excited about speaking about Tiger teams because it’s such a new concept that I think is still new to the industry. But I know in the tech space, like here at H&R Block and in our tech industry, it’s growing like wildfire because it allows you to get releases out so much quicker and so much more effectively.

UXPin: Yes, and also, building a collaborative environment in your workplace helps you learn from each other. I think this will grow in 2020 – a lot of learning from each other like in smaller teams, and also in the communities. Do you think, where’s that coming from? Or where’s that going to occur, in your opinion?

Walter: Prior to the epiphany that we had about how we can act more synonymously and integrated, we were always trying to take on certain things here and there. And we weren’t really understanding things holistically, or how we could all work together and how we could use agile methodologies, or collaborative workshops and methodologies, to create one kind of team working together. 

Some people point out this idea that feature teams create more disparate natures because they’re smaller teams working in their own little areas. But actually it’s really neat, because what I’ve seen on my teams is that you may have certain feature teams that are building features that are part of a bigger product. But everybody is so aware, because they are in a smaller group, of how to stay integrated and aligned and how the work that they’re doing impacts other teams. We have had so many more alignment sessions and other sessions around how we can be better integrated, for example this team is developing a certain feature so let’s utilize that, and that team is testing out this new technology, can we learn anything from that. 

We’re actually in the process of creating a company-wide design system right now. So, we just went through a really long process to get that designed and do user testing on it. And now we are using UXPin. So, our designers and developers are using that and referring to that. Whenever you go to the feature team model, design systems are so helpful, because that alleviates the concerns about consistencies and discrepancies, and how can teams stay aligned on design standards and paradigms. Whenever you have a really solid design system, that’s your foundational level – all of the feature teams can just run really quickly, because we all know what our common design goal is. 

UXPin: And with design systems, and when you stop having to do the mundane work of repeating everything over and over again, you can jump onto another level of creativity.

Walter: Absolutely. You can finally focus on strategy, and not just pixel pushing. I think that’s something my team has loved. And I know that my development team is utilizing a lot of crazy new technology, like an immense amount of new technology. I know that we can’t get hung up on these small, little design paper cuts, because we have really big things that we have to work on and consider. And it’s not just like, “How does this one button display? And how can we build out the interaction just right, say, with only seven different prototypes?” Instead, we’re using our design system. It’s seamless, it’s nice, and we get that extra time back to instead talk about how we’re integrating this one application into all of our applications. And how we are getting everything on one platform. That’s our bigger-picture technology goals right now. So yes, I think it’s exactly what you – it empowers you think more strategically.

UXPin: Yes. Thank you very much, Bree, for your thoughts and for your input. It was really insightful. 

Welcome to 2020 Design Trends by UXPin. Today I’m joined by Cheryl Couris. Cheryl, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Cheryl: I am currently a UX design manager at Cisco here in Seattle.

UXPin: Could you tell me more about your work experience or education, or maybe some other stuff that you’re doing? Because I know you have side projects as well.

Cheryl: I started as a traditional sort of graphic designer. I’ve done a lot of marketing and advertising campaigns. When I moved to Seattle, I sort of jumped into the world of UX because I really wanted to solve problems. Not just sell stuff, but solve problems for users. So, I started my UX career at Microsoft, I spent a year at Google, and now here I am at Cisco in Seattle working on some really cool collaboration apps in what we call “the future of how people work.”

UXPin: I know for a fact that you are so also teaching UX in Seattle. Today we are going to talk about design trends. Education and the landscape of design jobs is something that is going to change for sure. So, my question to you would be, what are the top design education programs for starters? 

Cheryl: I’m super passionate about teaching. I am currently a UX instructor here at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle. And it’s a really great program for people who are wanting to break into design. A lot of people are changing careers, so, coming from another field. To your point, I think the landscape of design, and design careers and opportunities, are changing. And I think now more than ever we’re seeing people have a passion for problem solving, and connecting with people. Gone are the days that you have to absolutely be a formally design-trained person to be in the field. We’re seeing folks coming from a variety of different industries and bringing that experience with them. That really represents user-centered design, right? I teach a lot of former accountants or baristas, or folks with really great experience dealing with people, and they make really great designers. And so, the landscape is opening up, and it’s becoming more and more available and accessible to everyone. And that’s why I got into teaching and why I just think it’s really exciting. Everyone has the opportunity now to put on that human-centered design thinking cap and start to solve problems in that way.

UXPin: Yes, it’s so much easier now than 10 years ago to get like proper education in UX, because whenever I talk to people in UX design who have 10 plus years’ experience, they didn’t have the opportunity to have that education. And now we not only have tons of resources on the internet, but also schools and teachers like you.

Cheryl: I think that’s what makes better products and us better designer is that we’re all bringing different facets and different experiences to the table. And that makes sure that we’re designing with everyone in mind and not just a subset of users. So yes, it’s really exciting. I already see the landscape changing. I’m excited to see where it’s going to go after that.

UXPin: Do you think there are some jobs connected with design or UX that just emerging in 2020 that we have never heard of before?

Cheryl: On my team, I really try to curate a talent set that’s product design as a whole. Certainly, that’s a sort of job title that we all know. But I’m really trying to expand that beyond just pushing the pixels, but to also include writing content and strategy in that same way. And then what does it look like from the website, all the way to downloading the app to using the app to the help and support. 

So, I think job titles may or may not change. It’s more that our scope is growing. As people expect now from beginning to end, the whole experience, I challenge folks that I work with to think about it in that way. Again, lI think job titles come and go, there’s probably a whole subset of them have been coming that I don’t even know about yet. 

But for me, it’s all about that scope growing. We’re making sure we’re thinking about it from the beginning, all the way to how anyone would experience a brand or a product in other ways, not just by using it.

UXPin: A holistic approach to design?

Cheryl: Totally.

UXPin: As a person who hires designers, do you have any words of advice for new designers, or people who are trying to find their first job?

Cheryl: I love this question. I’m carving this out as a specialty because I’m so passionate about giving everyone the opportunity to get their foot in the door. It’s really hard, especially if you live somewhere like Seattle or in other cities where it’s so saturated, and you really have to stand out from the crowd. If you’re trying to get one of your first jobs in UX, my biggest thing I preach is sort of telling a story. And so that’s your story. 

As a designer, of course. It’s not just about the work, but it’s how you present the work and how you talk about the problems that you’re solving and their solutions. At the end of the day, I think the secret is that your solution almost doesn’t matter. It’s more about how you approach the problem, and your design thinking, and how you unpack the problem. It’s something I work with my students all the time. They get so focused on whether they chose the right color for the button, and is the design itself right. But I’m actually more interested in how you picked apart the problem. And did you put the user’s needs first? Tell me that story. 

So I really work with folks to make sure that their portfolios and their websites and their presentations tell a story, not just about them, but about the users and problems. That, to me, is the difference between just pushing pixels and creating a holistic journey. It makes a huge difference.

UXPin: I kind of observed this change in the approach of designers as well, because it used to be like, the designer is the artist. And now we’re more user centered. We are more focused on empathy.

Cheryl: To be fair, that was me. I’m an artist, I’m a designer. Now we’re starting to see design democratized and not with my PMS and my engineers. And yes, we hold the skillset that maybe produces the artifact to look at, like the mockup or the wireframe. But at the end of the day it’s truly a team effort. It’s coming from everywhere. I’m not necessarily a formally-trained designer, that’s not my job title. But good ideas come from anywhere, and you tell that story as a squad. And that’s been working really well for the team that I’m on. I hope to carry that with me wherever I go.

UXPin: We’re looking at generation alpha coming into the picture, people who don’t remember a time before touchscreens. Do you think that’s something that young designers are ready for?

Cheryl: It’s crazy. So full disclosure, I had to look up gen alpha. I am truly an elder millennial. I have two young children and they will not remember what it’s like not to have technology available to them. We all remember having to sit through commercials on TV, yet my four-year-old just wants to fast forward right through them. It’s a very different world with technology. And what really excites me about the next generation and that their expectations of technology are so high and they’re also fearless. 

I watch my parents interact with technology. And oftentimes, they’re scared about what will happen and what they’ll do. The next generation is not scared, they are fearless. And they’re going to really expect technology to take us to the next level, even beyond what we see today. And that, to me, is like the Wild West. There are so many opportunities, and they’re not afraid to push it because it’s available to them. Having no boundaries in that way is a really good thing, because I think we’re going to push it. Also, we’re starting to see designing for good. With ethics and changing the world, I think we’re seeing what’s really important to everyone, but particularly younger generations are more aware of it than we were or our parents were. It’s really cool to think about how design will complement changing the world for good. That’s really exciting.

UXPin: When you say fearless, I see my daughter. When she asks me a question I don’t know, she’s like, look it up. 

Cheryl: They have no concept of boundaries with technology. The expectation is that it’s there and it works for you. And they’re not scared of it. It’s really amazing to watch, particularly when you see really young kids interact with technology, they’re already so fluent. Can imagine how they’re going to really push it into the future? It could be scary if it weren’t so exciting. Actually, I’m going to go with exciting, thinking about how I can design for good. I think we’ll be in a really good place.

UXPin: They have the basics of technology. There’s nothing particularly new to them when it comes to technology, so they can build on top of that, like with ethics. We have to somehow balance the development of technology, like AI, and inclusivity in the design field, too.

Cheryl: Absolutely. It’s funny, I didn’t even get my first cell phone until high school.  If you’re already thinking about kids and how they’re going to take the technology available today, which is already amazing, and start to make it work to make their lives better, it’s going to blow our minds. I’m interested in seeing where that goes. We do need to balance that ethical piece of it, and AI and all of that. My hunch is that the younger generation already has that in mind, with the landscape and the world today – that idea is already out there. I think we learned as we went, and so we had some bumps. And they will too, but it’s really exciting.

UXPin: Speaking of inclusive and accessible design, for gen alpha kids, voice search is something obvious. But we didn’t anticipate that when we developed it. But it’s also making things easier for seniors as well. So that’s the irony of going so fast forward with technology, but also having that in mind when designing technology to be accessible. We achieved things that we didn’t even think of, right?

Cheryl: I’m glad you brought that up. At my time at Microsoft, I was involved in some of the accessibility work, and it put this new lens on it for me. You can think about designing a solution for someone who maybe doesn’t have their extremities or has only one arm. But you’re also solving a problem for a new mom who’s holding a baby and can only use one arm, right? So you’re designing for one but you’re solving that same problem for so many people in a variety of circumstantial or permanent circumstances. It really is amazing. That really shifted my mindset and opened it up to thinking that this is not such a targeted problem we’re trying to solve – this is a very common use case in many ways. So when you solve for one and think about it in terms of many, it’s really powerful.

UXPin: Yes. I hope this particular trend is going to be an evergreen.

Cheryl: I think so. I think we’re seeing inclusivity. And I would say that across the board, everything from body positivity to other aspects as well. Unlike when some of us grew up, it’s very much out there and accepted and that self-love and acceptance is very, I don’t want to say it’s on trend, but it’s coming up as something big. That’s the norm. And I think that’s really important. Again, that’s probably why the younger generation is already in better shape than we would have been, because they’re thinking about that and how to solve for those types of things. Whereas that was not really on our radar, until more recently.

UXPin: Fingers crossed that this empowerment is going to be trending for not only 2020, but the 2020s and beyond.

Welcome to 2020 Design Trends by UXPin. Today I’m joined by Joe Cahill. Joe, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Joe: I have been doing design and user experience for 20 years. I started out as a print designer. I’ve had the pleasure to work with some great clients over the years. Most recently with American Express, Saks Fifth Avenue, MasterCard, and I’m probably one of the most annoyingly happy people about doing design this whole time. I’ve never not loved what I’ve done and you’re going to hear me talk a lot about it. 

UXPin: That’s perfect because we’re going to talk about your point of view on design trends for 2020. Since you have 20 years of experience, what would you say about generation alpha coming into the picture? These are the kids that don’t even remember not having an iPhone or a smartphone with a touch screen. Do you think it’s going to change the way people design stuff? 

Joe: As generation alpha gets older and grows into this industry, their perspective is going to be so unique compared to how we’ve been doing it now. We had those flash websites that were super bulky and heavy, and they would take so long to load that we created loading screens for them. Now we’re looking at mobile devices and getting annoyed after a three-second load. Looking for information instantaneously is going to be a key thing with how [generation alpha] interacts with devices and everything that’s going to go on around them. We don’t even know yet, and that’s the funniest part. I have a lot of friends who have kids that are on their iPhones or iPads all the time.

Joe: [The kids] tell me what they want inside of [their devices], and I say, “We’re not there yet.” I like the energy, but that’s the thing – the world is going to be their oyster because this technology is going to be something they’re used to. Some of us who have been doing this for a long time are still trying to figure out what we can do. Where does the hardware and the software meet? And they’re going to be apt to knowing what the software is. A lot of them are learning coding now – it took me until I was 20 to learn coding and I was like, “What am I supposed to do with this? Let’s build HTML sites and do MySpace updates.” That just dated me. But they’re going to learn coding as part of their regular curriculum. 

UXPin: Like people in preschool learn coding now.

Joe: Yes, they have that little toy, the Code-A-Pillar, that rides around and little kids can direct its action. It’s amazing. English might not even be a language anymore. Kids will know code before they start talking, which I think is going to be amazing.

UXPin: Do you think they will talk in ones and zeros?

Joe: No, they’ll get super, super logical. They would be like, “If this, then that. Can you give me that FFFFFF shirt over there, please?”

UXPin: So since we started talking about colors, what do you think about Pantone’s classic blue for 2020 or, in general, having a color of the year?

Joe: The funniest thing about Pantone and knowing I’m somebody who has that Pantone book – fun fact, I’m actually colorblind. So when I was doing print design, I memorized the Pantone book. Any designer that’s worked with me knows I would just yell out colors and people would be asking, “What?” and I’d say, “You know, that red,” and they’d go, “Okay.” But for them to pick out that blue, they were going to have to pick a regular color at one point. But they did also just have a year where they added a hundred and something new colors to their color portfolio, and none of those could be color of the year? I don’t know. It’s blue.

UXPin: There’s a story behind it, where they said that this specific shade of blue is very soothing and we’re living in crazy times and everything is so hectic, so their statement is that maybe we should all just calm down.

Joe: Every year our color should be blue then. Anybody who’s been doing design long enough knows it’s never not hectic. One of my favorite things when you interview with a company is them saying, “Are you used to a fast-paced environment?” What’s the alternative? Are there jobs out there that are not fast paced? My version of fast paced is everybody else asking why I’m working so quickly. But guess what? All my layers are named, my files are tight. So no matter how fast we work, we still make sure that anybody could pick it up with no problem.

UXPin: We started talking a little bit about technology and how it’s going to change and influence the design world – what do you think about AI coming to the scene? Like AI technology not only helping designers, but also designing itself.

Joe: It’s an interesting thing. So Adobe has Sensei—they built it into Photoshop—that uses machine learning to figure out how to better retouch photos and take out backgrounds, which is a great additional tool for us to use. When we’re doing stuff, we can make it even quicker. We could load it with information about how users interact with the site. We can load it with information about how we expect people to react to it. But there’s always going to have to be a human element – our influence has to be there. No matter how much AI helps us out, there’s going to have to be a person on the other end using their intuition.

Joe: We have to test hypotheses. If we just have AI running and making insights, and running and making experiences, everybody might have a unique experience, but how unique will it really be? Granted, the machines will probably be smarter than us and just take over. This MacBook might just attack me at any point right now. But it’s still the idea and we need somebody behind it. Car manufacturing is now all automated, but there are still people in the factories working. There’s no way that we can only have machines doing our jobs. Except for checkout, because those things kind of rock, and that Amazon Go store. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you just scan a barcode, you walk in, you walk out. It’s like stealing. It’s amazing.

UXPin: Is it though?

Joe: Yes, it really is. There’s a clerk here and there, but nobody’s bothering you, grab a water, grab a sandwich, walk out. Look it up. It’s amazing.

UXPin: That’s so cool, but on the other hand we have this huge need for human contact or human touch when it comes to branding, or even in fashion. I don’t know if you noticed that, but we now could have a huge billboard with a huge photo that is not Photoshopped, and that’s crazy.

Joe: Who would do that to the poor photo re-touchers who are just sitting there waiting for something to come across their desk? Granted, our cameras are fly as hell now, but there’s always going to be a need for somebody to breathe life into something. You don’t have to go crazy. You don’t have to take out all the wrinkles on my face, but at least make me look like I’m not sick.

Joe: Going back to how the iPhone, the Galaxy, the Pixel’s technology of taking photos has grown exponentially in the last ten, fifteen years. If we look back to those Palm Trios and stuff that we used to take photos with – I still got really bad pictures from my Razr. It’s all machine learning. It’s all software that drives the quality. And even for real photographers, you’ll look at it and you’ll see a great image, but it still needs a little bit more to bring out the richness. You take a picture of a sunset, it’s never actually what you see. It’s always a little washed out or the colors aren’t balanced correctly. You might not get those vivid colors that you want to get, and that’s why you give it to a photographer to do some Photoshop and make sure it looks as picturesque as you want it to be.

UXPin: I swear to you that I’ve recently seen fashion photos where girls had stretch marks and freckles and everything, which ten years ago wouldn’t happen.

Joe: Oh no, definitely not. That stuff would definitely not fly ten years ago, maybe even five years ago. But I’m guaranteeing that there’s still a little retouching. They might take out other things. It’s good for people to feel like we’re looking at regular people, too.

That’s where all human experience comes from. It’s to want something that you’re going to relate to. Even from a software end with apps that really bump up the personalization for me – when I say, “Oh man, I need laundry detergent” and then I see an ad for Tide on my Instagram, it’s fine because I’m going to remember to order that, and then put it in my Amazon cart, and then Amazon would remind me that I also need dryer sheets. It still helps you out, like personal assistants in a way. So when you’re saying these people look like real people, it’s great because we can relate to it.

UXPin: That’s true. So that’s a business decision, right? Because I strongly believe that this is a reaction to the fast pace that we live in, and technology is developing so fast that we need to balance stuff. We need a human touch in our life as well. So that’s why I think businesses would choose to go that way.

Joe: That’s the nature of business. Sometimes they’ll make moves that we might question, and then we sit back and realize that it makes sense. We can go way back to when Apple decided to make the move from macOS 9.2. 4 to OS 10, which was a Unix-based system. It was the big move to a whole new UI, a whole new experience. What we’re used to seeing now in a Mac was brand new at one point and developers were worried because it wasn’t in the codebase that they were working in. It wasn’t built the same way it used to be. Developers wondered what they were going to do.  At the time, they used QuarkXPress, a desktop publishing tool.

UXPin: Yes.

Joe: And they said, “Listen Apple, I know this is what you’re going to do, but we’re not going to support it, so good luck.” They disappeared, now we have InDesign. Adobe sat back and said “Listen, our people use this software, they’re not going to support it. So we have to carry on with the times.” It’s a tough thing to change a code base for any developer who’s had to migrate from old code to a react code. It’s not easy. It’s a big haul.

UXPin: Well, people are talking more and more about designers learning to code and that maybe there’s going to be a merge between design and development. For example, as you explained, we have those components that translate the design directly into HTML.

Joe: There’s always going to be a divide. There are always going to be people who are coders and people who are designers, but I feel like the understanding of what these people do will get better. When we started out designing websites, I learned how to code. I learned HTML, Java scripting, Flash, and jQuery, because I felt it helped me understand how I was going to build a design. I think it’s still true now for designers and especially the designers that I’ve worked with. I tell them you don’t have to be a react developer, but understand how the component works and the parts around it. Go grab a drink with your developer and pick their brain about things.

They’re going to pick your brain about user experience, because despite our best efforts, people still think UX designers are visual designers. They don’t understand that there’s psychology that comes with it. When we talk in a room, it’s not because we want to, it’s because we have to. Because somebody has to think about this. It’s cool because if you do want to do both, it’ll be a great opportunity. But it’s tough to learn coding. You have to be in it to win it. But having the understanding of both ends is definitely the best part. My thing is always design development – you’re partners in this. If we’re using the analogy of a sports team, you guys have to work together for us to win. 

You can’t just have the quarterback take the ball back and then look for a running back who’s over on the other side and say, “Oh, we’re supposed to run this play together and you’re not even here.” You have to be there next to each other in the trenches and have that vocabulary. Back in the day when we did print design, you would meet with your printer and you would talk to them and find out how the press works. How would you want your files? Does this run a little more blue on the blacks? Do I have to throw that in my spot colors? Just having that relationship changes the game across what we did 20 years ago and still do what we’re doing now.

I love having developers iterate with us because they have great ideas, because they’re just like us. We’re all students of UX. That’s my favorite thing to say. All of us have phones, all of us browse the web, unless you’re Amish and you don’t do technology. But we’ve all downloaded an app and said it sucks and then deleted it or played a game and said the controls are wonky. So we have an opinion about it and it might not be the same, like a technical opinion from an actual UX designer, but it would still be, “Hey,  I was on this and I saw this and it didn’t work. But this worked really well and I enjoyed it. Can we use this?” And then it’s yes, let’s do it. Let’s figure it out. Let’s bring it to usability testing and then have a user tell us if they love it or hate it, you know?

UXPin: Yes, and when you talk about how UX designers are the people who have to think about stuff, and I’m pretty sure that accessibility and inclusive design is going to be a really strong trend in 2020. I hope it’s not going to be a trend that comes and goes, but a necessity in the future because we have to be inclusive in our designs. 

Joe: Yes. I think it’s actually going to become way more a part of that initial process of design. The more we get used to having accessibility as part of our vernacular, the easier it’ll be for us to just build experiences effortlessly. Like the idea of color contrast – that was never a thing until somebody started talking about it, and now you run everything through a plugin that checks your accessibility and makes sure your color contrast is good. Now we’re going audible in using screen readers, by using sound. I just read a great article about using haptic feedback on phones for accessibility. It’s so important. 

It’s got to be a part of it and the more I’m meeting designers, they’re all telling me about the importance of accessibility. I just met a bunch of people last night and their job was accessibility for UX at a big corporate environment, and it’s when companies get sued that they decide that they need accessibility. That’s the trigger sometimes. People don’t know that this is really important until something happens. We have to be an advocate and speak up when it’s not going to pass accessibility checks. How’s this going to work with a screen reader? Again, educating the development end so that they’re coding in a way that’s accessible, but is also part of our design process. We can’t build stuff just for the sake of building and we have to realize how everything works. A great book is Mismatch, it’s all about inclusive design. 

UXPin: Cool. Thanks for the homework. I would love to talk to you more about your views on UX design and 2020, and what’s it going to bring us. But for now, thank you very much, Joe.

UXPin: Welcome to 2020 Design Trends for UXPin. We’re here to talk a little bit about design trends for 2020. First of all, please tell us a bit about yourself.

Grace Brewer: Hello, my name is Grace Brewer. I lead a small design team at a medium-sized healthcare IT company that’s based out of Kansas City. Our team just started about four years ago. It’s been really exciting to see the company become more design mature. We utilize UXPin and we’re very big fans. We’ve spoken on behalf of it before because we find the tool to be really user-friendly and extremely powerful for what we need to do, particularly for designing healthcare software.

And then as far as usability testing we use some other tools for tracking metrics which is really important for what our team does, including validating moderated user testing. In our field it can be really hard to get face-to-face with our users since we’re working with those in healthcare.

UXPin: Because you work for the healthcare industry, I would like to ask you how the practice of inclusive design and accessibility will grow in 2020 in your opinion. Is this trend important to you?

Grace Brewer: Yes, definitely. I think being in healthcare software we need to think about that more so than other sectors. But the great thing about that trend is that we’re beginning to understand how it applies to so many different types of technology. Overall, designers have more of an eye on it, even for things that we might not have necessarily associated with accessibility. So it’s important for us, especially because we get checked for whether we’re meeting regulatory standards. It’s been top of mind for us for quite a few years now. But I do think it’s just going to become more and more common amongst those in other sectors as well, which is really exciting.

UXPin: I read something a couple of days that had me thinking, which said, “when is the time companies will measure how many disabled people are using their app?” Because if only one person uses your app, you should be thinking about accessibility, right?

Grace Brewer: Yes. I think it goes beyond a change in mindset. If you go into it with the mentality that we have to account for 20 people who maybe have this sort of disability, versus 20 people who are different in another way, then you’re always going to end up kind of excluding someone or just not doing it quite “right”. It’s more than just being creative in the way that you actually build your software – you need to allow for people who have different needs to be able to actually use it effectively. It’s not necessarily, “Here’s this group of people and here’s this group of people.” You can think of it in a more inclusive way overall, how to help people who might have different backgrounds – and not just disabilities. Of course, there are many things that can lead to design changes and approaching software differently. We focus on all the ways we can think of it in a more holistic way.

UXPin: Do you think that 2020 is going to be the year that people are going to think holistically about that?

Grace Brewer: Goodness, it’s so hard to say because every company moves at a different speed. If you look at today, there are so many different companies that are on different levels. So, like anything, it’ll take time for different groups. Some will move more quickly towards that than others, but hopefully 2020 will be the year that it gets more traction.

UXPin: More designers are advocating for accessibility, so I think the trend is going to be pretty huge in 2020. My next question to you would be: minimalism or maximalism? I can see that there are two versions of design and two sides of the trend. Which party would you consider yourself in?

Grace Brewer: I don’t know. Once again, I think it’s kind of hard to say because it just depends on the market you’re in. Some types of software or some types of designers can get away with a little bit more. For healthcare, we don’t get to try as many of the hot new trends because they move in and out very quickly, and healthcare software would not be able to keep up with that. But also, we are utility-focused – people come into our software needing to get a job done.

For us, we are a little bit more on the side of minimalism. The more straightforward that we can make it, that’s us doing our jobs well. We’re not trying to compete in a market where we’re convincing people to download our app versus another app. We know that our users typically don’t have a choice in the matter, because they’re the ones who work at the hospital. The hospital is the one buying the software, but we want to make sure that the employees also enjoy the experience. So the simpler we can make it for them is usually the route that we have to take.

UXPin: So it’s not whether it sparks joy like Marie Kondo said, but it’s about usability, right?

Grace Brewer: Yes, exactly. And to that point, for those who have more consumer-facing apps, it can be very joyous and very happy-inducing for users to actually see a minimalist design sometimes. But there’s always a place for both routes.

UXPin: Exactly. So my next question to you would be, I assumed that you are aware that Pantone said that classical blue is the 2020 color, but do you think that there will be another color that would be the new black of 2020?

Grace Brewer: I don’t know. It’s always hard to compete with blue. Obviously, if you look at the amount of logos that are blue, it is always something that’s very accessible to a lot of people. There’s a lot of psychology behind that. So I don’t have any particular [color] in mind, but you know there’s always something that comes out of left field. Obviously when material design happened, nobody expected that pink was going to be the hot new thing.

UXPin: There’s this whole psychology of colors, right? And blue is connected with the intellectual sphere, etc. So I think that’s why blue is connected with the tech industry. But as you said, you never know. What is your favorite emerging trend in your field of design and industry? Meaning healthcare, obviously, but also you are a UX designer. So please share anything that pops into your mind that would be what you are most excited to watch for in 2020.

Grace Brewer: Something that I find particularly exciting is the fact that the lines between business and design are becoming a little bit fuzzy but in a very good way. In recent years there’s been a lot of teaching business leaders about design. There’s been design thinking and trying to democratize design and make it more accessible to people. But I’m really excited for a little bit going the other way, with designers getting more involved with business decisions and understanding a little bit more of that side. It aligns with my passions because I also find the way that businesses are run to be very interesting.

Grace Brewer: But I do think it is becoming more prevalent because for so many years now, as designers, we’ve said, “We really want a seat at the table.” That’s a very common phrase. And we need to make sure that once we do get that seat at the table, we really understand what that means and switch from this mindset of, “Okay, what does the design team need?” Because for so long we were really having to fight for just getting resources on design teams, but we need to switch that mentality to what the business needs and how can the design team help.

UXPin: Usually designers are considered artistic souls who wouldn’t know anything about business. And there are strict rules, how to design stuff, especially apps and how to bring business value.

Grace Brewer: I completely agree. For so many years it was really easy to write us off as creative idealists. There’s been a lot of trends that helped that. Big data and more focus on user research has helped people understand that we’re not just making these decisions because we think they look pretty. But I think the next step will be us being able to speak the language as far as how businesses are run so that we can also understand how what we’re doing fits into a bigger business strategy.

UXPin: So you think design thinking is one of the ways to develop this kind of thinking in the whole company?

Grace Brewer: Yes, I think so. It’s funny – for the past few weeks my team has been doing weekly UX research time for continued learning. And for the past several weeks, I’ve just been reading design-thinking articles – ones that are for design thinking and ones that are against design thinking. And it’s really interesting because there are definitely arguments on both sides of the spectrum. Like anything, it can be used incorrectly and it can be used to say [a company is] really design mature, when really they aren’t. But there are also times where it can really help spread the word and help people understand that we need to not just make decisions to make decisions. We need to validate these assumptions. We need to iterate. So, like anything, of course there’s a good and a bad way to apply it, but I think generally helping people better understand design and understand the value that it provides is a good thing.

UXPin: I agree completely. So my last question is what are your professional goals for 2020? Are you following some kind of trend or going against it? What are your new year’s resolutions?

Grace Brewer: I have a passion for the way businesses are run. So I think mine is learning more of the business side. I already listen to some business podcasts, but I think within my own company, especially now that I lead a team, I want to start being a little bit more proactive of going after those business conversations and trying to have more understanding, and really making it known throughout the company. I want them to know that I want to listen in for things so that I can learn more about it.

I’m also very excited to see what UXPin has to offer because when you guys release a new feature, my team always says, “Did you see what they did? Did you see how it does this?” We always find that to be a really great part of our year as well.

UXPin: Yes, we have a few amazing things coming up in 2020. So I’m going to make sure you’re one of the first ones to see the new version.

Grace Brewer: Thank you very much.

UX design or user experience design is an integral part of product development. Whether it’s a physical product or next groundbreaking SAAS application, an overall good UX design is always the key to success. 

Interaction design or IxD is an important part of UX design. It defines how your users will interact with your product or solutions. In a word, it crafts “how to use” for your product for users. 

To bring success to your digital products you will need a solid understanding of IxD and it’s elements. In this article, we’ll explore what IxD is, it’s key areas, dimensions, principles and methods. 

First things first. What is UX Design?

It is the process of assisting the user to complete goals through usability with planned interaction design. UX extends traditional human-computer interaction (HCI) by addressing the user’s goal, journey, and pain point and proposing an effective solution.

This includes designing products, user research, processes, services, events, omnichannel journeys, and environments with a focus on the quality and culturally relevant solutions. 

UX is not guided by a single design discipline. Instead, it needs a cross-disciplinary viewpoint that considers different aspects of the brand, business, community, user group etc.

UX design is consist of the following:

• Process

The UX design process has four key phases: 

1. User research
2. Design
3. Testing
4. Implementation

These are continuous and interactive processes. Thus never-ending. 

That is because, throughout the process, we discover new insights that lead us to rethink the design decisions. It is expected to rethink and repeat certain solutions as we iteratively optimize and improve our design thinking.

• Interaction design

This defines how users will interact with the design solution we’ve made throughout the UX process. This includes evaluating target user groups’ technical know-how, user needs, business strategy, and our vision for the experience we want our users to have. 

• Elements

UX elements consist of five dependent layers. They start with an abstract level towards a solid one (from bottom to top).

• Strategy

In this layer, we define the reason for the product, or the application, why we are creating it, who are the target users, what they desire, why users will be interested to use it, why they need it, real-world applications etc. In short, we are here to define user needs and business objectives.

• Scope

Defines the specifications for features and concepts. Ideally, it answers what are the features and content of the application or product, what requirements should be met, and what to match with the strategic priorities.

• Structure

Defines how the user interacts with the product, how the system behaves upon user interaction, how it is structured and prioritized. The structure is divided into two components, Interaction Design & Information Architecture.

• Skeleton

Skeleton describes the visual structure on the user interface, the appearance, and organization of the component layout. It is responsible for how users interact with the features on the interface. Also, how the user navigates through the information and how the information is presented. The goal is to make it efficient, transparent and intuitive.

• Surface

Wireframing is commonly used to construct a graphic format, which is really a static diagram that depicts the visual format of the object, including information, navigation, and interactions. Wireframes are used to validate design solutions.

Source : Pinterest

• Methodology

There are a couple of methodologies to follow while crafting UX design. Like Card Sorting, The Expert Review, Eye Movement Tracking, Field Studies, Usability Testing, Remote Usability Testing, User Personas, to name but a few.

What is Interaction Design or (IxD)

No, IxD is not that fancy, flashy UI animation you see on dribbble. This is bigger than that. And as a UX designer, you need to have a clear understanding of IxD, Its’ importance, method, and principles.  

IxD is part of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) discipline. It’s a field of study focusing on the design of the interaction between humans (the users) and computers.

IxD is in everything we use in our daily life. Your smart TV menus, smartphone apps, uploading selfies to Instagram, checking sports scores, replying to your boss email, and you name it. 

It’s nothing but every action you make on digital services or devices. 

As an interaction designer, you have to design the content and functional aspect of the products. While keeping it useful, easy to use, user-friendly, and feasible. Also aligned with brand and commercial interest. All of these are meant to improve the UX.

The importance of improving UX with IxD

You help users through the conversion funnel as you enhance UX. Users will face fewer obstacles on their way to complete the goal. The conversion funnel transforms prospective customers into leads.

Let’s say a user visits your eCommerce website. He or she might read a blog or browse different pages. If your website gives a good first impression, the user will follow you on social media or subscribe to a newsletter or make a purchase.

Once you have the contact details of the user, you have a lead. You can provide the user tips, guidance, deals, and product offering later via email or promotional SMS.

However, the things above might not happen if you haven’t taken the time to improve the UX. Users may refuse to devote more time or make a purchase from your website because of the friction experienced by the user while browsing your website.

By improving UX, you create an easier to use functionality for your consumers to engage with your application. Also, reduce the friction between your website and your target audience. E.g., if you streamline the checkout process, tourists will be more likely to purchase your items.

Simply, UX is responsible for fulfilling the user’s needs. It covers all facets of a user’s contact with the application, including user behavior, actions, expectations, and satisfaction. Focusing on UX will not only help your users but also play a vital role to produce success for your business.

The difference from visual design

The visual design (also known as UI design). It’s a visual representation of the UX design you’ve prepared throughout the UX design process. Both of them are essential for a product and cooperate closely. However, they are very different from each other, relating to very different areas of product creation and design.

The bones reflect the structure if you think of a product like a horse. The organs reflect the UX design: which tests and optimizes various tasks to serve life functions properly. And visual design represents the visual look of the horse;  It’s color, shoulder, jaw, muscles etc.

The difference from UX design

Successful IxD without good UX is almost impossible. Interaction design is a part of the UX umbrella.

Key areas of IxD

Knowing the key areas will help prepare your user research. It will ensure that you’re examining each element to some extent and that is working well for your users. Here are the three key areas of IxD. 

1. Usability

Usability is the bare minimum of IxD. If your users can’t use your product, they certainly won’t desire it. The Usability of a system should be straightforward. The less the user pays attention to figure out how to use it, the more he/she can complete the goal. A system must be usable before it can be beautiful. 

2. Influence

A critical element of UX is the ability to influence your users to do something. Whether it’s making a purchase or subscribing to the newsletter. The key metric of influence is usually the conversion rate.

3. Visual Design

Visual design plays a vital role in UX. This lets users know what they need to respond, what to click or where to navigate. It is the first impression your product will make. Studies have shown that you have 50 milliseconds before users have made their first judgments on your product.

Dimensions of IxD

Gillian Crampton Smith, an interaction design academic, first introduced the four-dimensional definition of the IxD. In an interview in Bill Moggridge ‘s book “Designing Interaction”. Later Kevin Silver, senior interaction designer at IDEXX Laboratories, added the fifth. Behaviour. Here are the five dimensions of IxD

1. 1D: Words

Words used in interactions, like button or input labels—should be meaningful and easy to understand. Should be written in such a way that they communicate information easily to the end-user.

2. 2D: Visual representations

Visual representations include graphical elements like images, typography, photography, icons, diagrams and any graphical elements. The visual representation can be more powerful than texts. For example, search icons are very much familiar to the users. Without even looking at the label anyone can tell there is the search option. 

3. 3D: Physical objects or space

This includes the medium through which the user interacts with the product. It could be a mobile/tablet screen, computer peripherals, joystick, etc. For instance, A user is standing in a crowded subway while using the mobile app on a smartphone or sitting on a desk in the office surfing the website. All of these affect the interaction between the user and the product.

4. 4D: Time 

Time is the length that the user spends interacting with the first three dimensions. Interactions happen over time. Usability, Responsiveness, Context, Perception, etc are defined for the users to understand the interactions between the users and the product/ interface

5. 5D: Behaviour 

It’s how the other dimensions define the interactions for a user. This includes the functionality of a product: how users perform actions on the product, how they use the product. It is the emotions and reactions that the user has when interacting with the system.

Interaction design principles

There are certain principles for IxD. It’s impossible to list all of them. Here are the major principles that are proven and widely used.  

• Goal-driven design

It is the design that considers problem-solving as the highest priority. It focuses first and foremost on solving a specific pain point of the end-user, as opposed to older methods, which focused on technical capabilities.

• Usability

Usability is responsible for the question “can the user use this product?” Good usability is a fundamental requirement of IxD. Four things that have a direct impact on usability.

1. Learnability (how easily can a new user learn to use the product?)
2. Efficiency (how efficiently can users achieve a specific goal?)
3. Error rate (how many errors do users make while performing a task?)
4. Error-recovery (how quickly the product and the user recover from errors?) 

• Ergonomics

For IxD, Interaction designers often use a predictive model of human movement, known as Fitts’s law. According to Wikipedia, 

“Fitts’s law is a predictive model of human movement primarily used in human-computer interaction and ergonomics. This scientific law predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the ratio between the distance to the target and the width of the target.”

• Positive responses

The system must impose a good design that influences positive emotional responses in users. Colour palettes, fonts, animations are the elements that influence user emotional responses.

• User-centric approach

It is difficult to design for an abstract user when it comes to product design. For a specific user group, designers should always personalize their decision. “User personas” are a great design tool.

User personas are fictional characters, which designers create based upon their user research to represent the different user types that might use the service, product, site, or application. 

• Design patterns and guidelines

Designers address interaction problems by using patterns. It’s a solution for a particular context. Often, it’s possible to address new problems through the modification of existing patterns. 

Usually, interaction designers start with well-known UI guidelines such as Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) by Apple and Material Design by Google. These interface design guidelines provide the familiar pattern, best practices and use cases.

• Validation via testing

We may have multiple solutions for one specific interaction problem. The best way to find a better solution is to validate it through testing. Not all solutions pass the test, hence sometimes we have to return to the drawing board to design an alternative solution.

IxD Methods

Here are a couple of widely used IxD methods. 

• Defining Use Cases

A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on an application or product. It outlines the topics from a user’s point of view.

• Card Sorting

Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a product. In a card sorting session, participants organize topics written in cards into categories.

• Prototyping

A prototype is a draft version of a proposed solution against a specific problem. It is used for validating ideas before implementation and iterative improvements.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve covered the interaction design and the importance of improving the IxD. From key areas to dimensions, and methods. We’ve discussed all the principles you need to grasp as an interaction designer to design and improve your UX. We’ve also discussed the basics of UX and it’s relation with IxD. 

To create efficient IxD, I recommend using UXPin. UXPin offers all the features you need to create a successful IxD, simplifying the process of designing and prototyping with powerful features!

Welcome to another one of our interviews for 2020 Design Trends. Today I’m joined by Chiara Aliotta. Chiara, tell us a bit about yourself.

Chiara Aliotta: Hello. Thank you, first of all, for inviting me. I am an Italian designer. I define myself as a brand keeper and I work under the name Until Sunday. 

UXPin: Can you share a little bit about your experience? What’s your field of expertise?

Chiara Aliotta: What I mostly do is branding and brand consulting. I work with companies and startups to help define their brands, work on their core messages, and define their targets. And, of course, define their image and how they need to talk to their audience. I love typography. I love designing logos with a purpose and I love sharing my knowledge with other people.

I often participate in two conferences where I talk about my life as a designer and how design can influence everyday people, not just designers and developers. I like making people happy, using what I design. Actually, I found that my work is very interesting because it has touched so many people, and it may change their lives as well.

UXPin: That’s amazing. Speaking of design trends for 2020, you said that you like logos and you consult with new brands on designing logos. Can you share with us what will be hot in logo design in 2020?

Chiara Aliotta: I hope that the eighties’ esthetics are coming back because I’m a millennial, so I’m moving to where my forte is. I see successful studios like Netflix, and the shows Stranger Things and Dark, and they are inspired by the eighties and they brought me back to my childhood. I think if brands want to engage more with my audience—millennials—one way to do it is by bringing back this kind of nostalgia. I can imagine logos to be inspired by neon lights or being pixelated or inspired by video games like Super Mario. I can imagine very fun logos. 

Otherwise, another trend that could be very possible is animated logos. We are slowly moving away from structured logos that are printed and always need to be that way and never change. Right now, brands are spinning on the screen more often, and the brand experience actually happens on the screen of different devices. Logos can also be very interactive and interact with the user in different ways. Animated logos could be another trend that could happen in 2020. I am very curious to see how it would go. We are still in the beginning.

UXPin: I’m wondering about the eighties and nineties nostalgia thing as well. A couple of days ago, I had this talk with another designer and they said that they never would have guessed that pink was going to be the next “it” color. I think it’s because of the neon fluorescent color. You said things change and we’re going from the structured logo to maybe animated logos, but a huge part of branding and logos is typography. We had a year of Helvetica. We had a year of Comic Sans – maybe we’ll experience the great comeback of Comic Sans. So which fonts will be, in your opinion, popular in the 2020s? Do you think custom typography will be a significant trend?

Chiara Aliotta: This brings me back to a talk that I gave in 2008 about the power of typography and the ability to be expressive without using images. The title of the talk was, “You just love me for my body.” The title was very provocative because I was trying to ask developers to join a design talk. The talk was about expressive typography and that was also the year where the font Gotham was used to deliver a message of hope, change, and freedom in Barack Obama’s campaign. So that moment, typography was starting to be a very strong element in design. Finally, people were recognizing typography as being an expressive tool, and an emotional tool.

Chiara Aliotta: In 2019, I saw how many websites and many applications were using a very type-only approach. What I expect for this year is that variable fonts will become mainstream on the web, and custom typography for brands would be the only viable way to deliver a message that is consistent and to the point. 

UXPin: For the second time you bring up the point of shifting from print to web, and of course it has a great value and amazing opportunity, right? When it comes to logos or typography.

Chiara Aliotta: It’s also my background, because I started as a print designer. Whatever I knew from print I brought into the web, when notebooks were telling you how to design for the web. Supreme was always my reference. There will always be this duality for me in my work.

UXPin: Speaking of which, I think that design in general changes, obviously the trends are changing, but jobs are changing too. It is said that in about 20 years we’re going to have 70% new jobs and positions that we don’t even know about yet. But of course most of them will be in the development field or engineering. But in our environment and our industry, people are saying the UX designer job is disappearing. Would you agree with that? And if so, or if not, what are the new titles that are going to be trending?

Chiara Aliotta: It’s funny because in 2016, the first company asked exactly the same questions to design leaders. And four years later we are still discussing if the UX designer job is going to die. I think it won’t die as long as we need to create interaction between humans and technology.

It will evolve because technology is evolving, and the words used for this year are specialization and diversification. So if you’re asking for new job profiles that will be listed in 2020, I already wrote a few that could be very interesting.

Chiara Aliotta: So let me recall. One is the drone experience designer. The other one is emotional intelligence experience designer, or human empathy experience designer. As long as technology is going the way of VR and all these new tools that are appearing in our lives, there will be more of a need to create experiences that are close to the way humans actually work, so that we can teach these machines to actually communicate with us.

UXPin: Yes, exactly. I agree with you that UX designers are not going to be needed. They just need to specialize, right? And maybe specialize to the technology that they work with.

Chiara Aliotta: They work with, yes.

UXPin: So my next question to you would be, what is your favorite emerging trend in your field of design in 2020?

Chiara Aliotta: As a brand designer with a focus on branding, what I see right now is how brands are getting more involved in the real world we live in. And how the stories they tell us are more real and tangible. Brands that are getting involved in new trends like global warming, gender equality, sustainability, and so on, will be even stronger this year. And what I like is that these brands are trying not to be meaningful just for you or me as individuals, but they’re trying to be meaningful for communities, and be more powerful. They are starting to understand they have power and that their message is going to be strong enough to dictate change. I like that this is happening this year, and I hope they will invest even more funds to support the causes they believe in. This is going be a very interesting year in that sense. We’re going to have a lot of interesting brands getting involved and making their voices heard.

UXPin: Yes, exactly. Technology is developing and that is the reason why we need brands to be more human. That’s why you have to have a story – not just for the sake of the story, but for the people who engage with your brand.

Chiara Aliotta: Exactly, yes. I agree. True connections.

UXPin: So my last question to you would be, what are your professional goals for 2020?

Chiara Aliotta: A few days ago I finished writing a very long list of solutions, which I’m not going to share with you because time is short, but I’m going to share just one. I hope that behind every prediction that I just gave to you, I will be able to actually face the unpredictable with creativity and use my creativity to beat the odds. That’s my solution.

UXPin: Yes, creativity is like the evergreen trend, isn’t it?

Chiara Aliotta: Yes, it is.

UXPin: Thank you very much, Chiara, for joining us. 

UXPin: Welcome to 2020 Design Trends. Today I’m joined by Benjamin Hersh. Ben, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your little friend there? 

(Ben is holding a small dog.)

Ben: I’m Ben, a Product Design lead at Dropbox. [The dog] is my associate creative director. I’ve been at Dropbox for a while now. Previously, I was a designer at Medium. Before that, I was designing karaoke apps and briefly worked at a zoo. It all comes together.

UXPin: So we will talk a little bit about design trends for 2020. I’d like to hear your opinions about a few things. And first thing I would like to ask you is, what do you think about this discussion on AI in design, because I’m hearing about bridges being designed by AI, and they’re 3D printed and put on rivers. That kind of scares me, but also really inspires me. What would you say?

Ben: I feel like AI and design is nothing new. I’m definitely not an AI expert, so I can’t speak to the developments on that end. But in tech we’ve been using AI and machine learning for a long time, usually for purposes that are not entirely in service of the user – making products super addictive or hard to put down, and making feed suck up your attention. One of the things that’s exciting now is that we’re starting to see uses for these tools that are much more aligned with human needs. 

I’m thinking about some of the stuff that Dropbox is doing, because that’s very top of mind. We’re doing things like making it much easier to stay focused and stay in flow when you’re working. Meaning, using tools to make sure that your workspace knows which documents you’re going to need when you’re sending someone a bunch of stuff at the end of the call, or just being able to streamline a lot of very small processes to make it easier for you to actually pay attention to things. 

And I’m really excited by the developments in AI that make it much, much easier for us to make the design a lot more seamless and disappear. And to address the very basic human need to feel effective in what you do, to feel in control of your work, and to connect with other people. I think it’s exciting when AI facilitates these basic things that are ultimately the reason why anyone uses the tools that we make. So that’s the stuff that I’m looking forward to seeing develop.

UXPin: So do you see it just as a tool, and not nothing to get worried about?

Ben: Not yet. I’m sure that we’ll get there. Right now, we’re seeing things that make tools better, make them smarter – there might be a point in time when it gets out of control. And that’s terrifying. I don’t know how far away we are from that. But it also has a lot of upsides, and there’s a lot of opportunity to use it responsibly and intelligently and to enhance design instead of seeming like it’s in conflict with human design, which I think sometimes happens in press coverage. It seems like a bridge is designed by either a human or a robot, and there’s no middle ground. But the truth is that there are humans who are also working on [the design] and guiding the AI. And AI can help find creative patterns that humans may not be able to see. So, I see a lot of opportunities for collaboration with robots.

UXPin: As long as we are the ones who pull the cards.

Ben: Yes. I was just thinking about Neuralink, the company that Elon Musk is putting together for brain-computer interfaces, where there can be very real integration between AI and human minds. And that certainly has its own scary science fiction-like scenarios. You can imagine a situation where computers can control our minds directly. But there’s also a lot of opportunity for really interesting design work and what it would be like if the interface was literally just, you think something and the tool does what you want. It would be completely subconscious and seamless. That’s kind of the holy grail for interaction design. I’m excited by the opportunities ahead.

UXPin: Now we are starting talking about voice commands, or the UI design for voice directors like technology, but I think that’s the next step for mind-directed stuff. But here’s another question – a couple years ago, everybody was about making everything mobile first. Now it’s about making everything voice first. In a couple of years, maybe the focus will be AI first. What do you think is the brand’s response to the demand of device-dependent design? 

Ben: One of the things that I’ve been observing from where I stand is how even though a lot of things on the surface have changed as the tools we use change, a lot also hasn’t changed. A lot of the core patterns and directions we use are the same as they’ve always been. I’m thinking about the basic stuff like URLs on websites and buttons—an interface—a thing that you press. With voice interfaces, you don’t have that. But there’s a lot of patterns that we carry with us through all the different iterations and form factors. 

As an extreme example, I’m wearing a watch where the hour hand goes around [clockwise]. If you trace that design pattern back, it goes 500 years back to when we thought that the sun was moving around the Earth – we still have that exact same pattern in Apple watches. So, even as the tools we’re using become a lot more powerful or distributed, or integrate with us in different ways, a lot of the design elements actually stay the same. And I think that’s because there’s more of a need for familiarity. So, with voice interfaces, we’re supposed to talk to them like we talked to normal people. That’s as basic and familiar as an interaction can be. That’s the way we grew up interacting with the world.

I see more continuity with the way things have always been done, as these tools enable us to let a lot of these interfaces sink back into the background or become more seamlessly part of our everyday lives. I see the role of design, in many ways, keeping it super grounded in the familiar, and making sure that all these new experiences are packaged in a way that feels very old and tangible. In a way that any regular person can wrap their head around.

UXPin: When you talk about things that are evergreen, like the basics, and new trends that are growing on top of that—design education, for example—do you think that new designers have the basics, and also already embrace new things?

Ben: I don’t know if anyone is ever ready. The unfortunate truth is that we’re all kind of figuring it out as we go along. Having new people with a new perspective is always good. But I do think there’s never been a better time than now to get into this stuff. I’ve been marveling at a lot of the educational resources on the internet. There are couple different websites—I think one of them is growth.design—that have what are basically online comic books explaining the way interaction design works. I would have killed for something like that when I was getting started 10 years ago. It’s inspiring to see that the design world is finally making itself a little bit more user friendly, and much more accessible and fun to get started. I’m excited by all that stuff happening now that’s making it easier to understand the kind of work that we actually do.

UXPin: Yes, I think the landscape of jobs in design is changing as well. So, you say you would kill for those resources. And maybe people from 10 years ago would kill for a job like you have now. What do you think, because I’m hearing that the UX designer job is disappearing?

Ben: I can’t say whether the job is disappearing or not. It hasn’t for me yet. I do think it’s one that changes constantly. We used to have webmasters, and now we tend to talk about product designers, at least in San Francisco, and there’s a lot of content annuity network. But the things you’re accountable for have definitely shifted a little bit. And the skillsets that you would have needed 10 years ago are slightly different from what you need now. A lot of the work that I remember doing when I got started is now being automated or made very easy. 

I remember, and I’m going to date myself here, there was a time when we used to manually round corners for UI and have a little asset that you’d take into photoshop and make a rounded corner. And then you’d have to manually position it on top of the UI to give it that appearance. But now it’s so easy, you wouldn’t ever think about that. In two clicks you have exactly that you handed off to the developer, and they know exactly what to do. It’s not anyone’s job to look at that level of the design. And as a result, we do spend a little bit more time being strategic about business impacts, how to weigh the different tradeoffs between design options and a much bigger context.

Certainly, in my own career, I’ve been liberated to spend less time focusing on the details and more time being a little bit of a philosopher and thinking about, if we introduce this metaphor, what is this going to mean for our users? What kind of research can we do to validate these things? All that time that, at one point, would have been taken up with much more obscure and arcane details that, thankfully, I have not thought about for a long time.

UXPin: When you talk about designing good UI, I’m thinking about the trend of the struggle of minimalism and maximalism. I strongly believe that 2020 is going to be like a big war because we’ve had this Marie Kondo-like trend to slowly delete everything and make it as simple as possible. And now we are experiencing more vintage stuff, like neon blue colors. But whenever I talk to UX or product designers, they always want minimalism. Would you say the same thing?

Ben: Honestly, yes. I enjoy maximalism, I don’t begrudge anyone who does that. It’s just not the kind of design that I happen to do. But that is culturally relative. There are parts of the world where people tend to prefer maximalist designs. There’s been a lot written about web design in places like Japan where there are different expectations for what kind of information is available. I think for better or for worse, the mainstream web culture is minimalism. 

And if you want a website to be really easily understood by a wide audience, that’s usually the way to go. One thing that sometimes gets lost in these conversations is that it’s really hard to pin down what minimalism actually is. You can have a screen that has two elements but it can still take 10 steps to do something. And often there’s a tradeoff between the simplicity of the process and the simplicity of the basic elements on the surface. It’s easy to have something that looks simple, but it’s actually really complicated, and vice versa. 

And sometimes when I see maximal stuff, I’m actually surprised when I look a little bit closer, and I see that it’s actually very simple. It might hit you over the head when you first look at it, but once you engage with it, it’s much more obvious and intuitive than expected. So, I kind of feel like you can do both, if you try.

UXPin: In UI design, it is more about usability and intuitiveness, right?

Ben: Yes. And I think there are ways that you can get away with being a little bit maximalist. Look at the art direction on big websites right now, which are very filled with illustration with really lush, vibrant typography, and you could make the case that that’s maximalist. It’s definitely a lot of design detail that might have been ignored a few years ago. But for the most part, these things are still very simple to use. I think that’s ultimately what matters. 

UXPin: Yes. Thank you for joining me today.

UXPin: Welcome to the 2020 Design Trends by UXPin. Today I’m joined by Agata Orlowska. Agata, would you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Agata: I’ve been working in the UX world for almost six years. Professionally, I’m a senior UX designer and a UX researcher. Basically, I’m a one-woman army of UX in my company, but I’m a design technologist too, and I’m a clinical psychologist. And what I find to be important now is educating young UX designers and submitting them into the English academy. And I think that it’s enough. You can find me on LinkedIn and at a lot of UX industry events.

UXPin: You said that you’re a psychologist, so I think you would have to say a lot about trends when it comes to brands being more human and UX having a more human touch. So I would like to start with not exactly a UX question, but this is a very important trend as far as I’m concerned. I’m seeing more real life in design. Like real life beauty and fashion, for example, or trying to be as human as possible, as simple as possible in design in general. So what is your opinion on this trend, and do you think it’s going to be taking off in 2020?

Agata: Yes, I think it’s a kind of professional deviation. It’s a huge, huge topic and  a big influence. What’s happening now is a big influence in our lives and we don’t see it now, but maybe our children can live in totally other worlds. And I think that we are part of it now. Maybe you can say what you mean first about this huge topic. What is the first part of this?

UXPin: Where my thoughts come from is that we experienced digitalization and social media stuff on one hand, and on the other, brands want to be more human and build communities and have this customer-first approach. So, I think this is where this trend comes from – showing the real human face of brands. I’m sure it’s showing in fashion and photography. Do you think this will stay in fashion and photography, but not in technology?

Agata: Yes. I think that this trend of real life beauty is something new and it’s coming from artificial Instagram beauty. Research shows that social media is making people depressed. You know about it because it’s popular. We see and we work and it’s real – it’s imperfect. This trend will develop because more and more people need it. I believe that this will stay and grow stronger. I believe because I want it!

UXPin: That’s the psychologist part of you.

Agata: Yes, it’s my psychologist thinking. I think that for people, [the trend of showing the human face of brands] can be better for them than social media. 

UXPin: You said that what you also anticipate is that when our kids, or the kids of today grow up, the landscape of design will be totally different. How will generation alpha shape this design? What are their expectations? What do you think? 

Agata: New research says that 27% of adults said they asked for their kid’s opinion before buying a new TV, laptop, tablet, or iPhone. And of course, it’s a new landscape of design now because the older generation are changing the landscape of design. 

For example, take Apple products. There has been a huge change over the last 10 years in terms of design technology, even the size of screens. We have new keyboards and it’s only been 10 years. And I think that the generation born in the year of the launch of Instagram and the iPad will expect more interaction than previous generations. VR will be a daily reality for them. Today, we see small children trying to touch and swipe the butterfly on the bus window. I think that these gestures are innate from birth. And the same situation, generation alpha has a different way of thinking about interaction. When you look at the development of home appliances, everyday automation will be obvious for them because, in maybe five or 10 years, you will come home and your smart home starts your coffee and turn off everything. I hope that’s the future.

UXPin: Do you remember the cartoon, the Jetsons?

Agata: Yes, of course.

UXPin: That’s what I imagined when you said that. That would be so cool to live in their world – fingers crossed it’s going to happen like that. Have things done by robots. Speaking of robots and a Sci-Fi-like future, what is your view on AI and AR/VR in design?

Agata: I think that it certainly has lots of potential and I’m glad that we live in  times that enable us to do so. I don’t think that [AI] will take our jobs away from us – it’s common to talk about, “[robots] are taking our jobs.” No, no. I think that [AI] will make our jobs easier. And in this case, for me, the best part is the possibility to transform user interface design into HTML markup codes. AI is not our enemy. I think that it can make things easier. AI allows you to strengthen your search capabilities, improve visitor interaction, and provide personalized service.

Agata: We have some successful companies using AI in design in new ways. For example, Wix or Squarespace. But for me, the most interesting thing is the human aspect. The human aspect of AI, for example, is a self-driving car that needs to make decisions during an accident, whether to rescue an older woman or a child. And this is the difficulty of ethical issues that we will face. The most interesting part of AI is that it sometimes needs to make decisions like people. But AI doesn’t have empathy, and that will be our challenge over the next few years. It’s not that hard to make businesses based on AI when you design websites and stuff like that. But the most interesting part is empathy. Because we need it to make decisions, for example, to choose between rescuing an older woman or a child. If you’re a mother you rescue the child, but if someone has only parents, maybe this person thinks that the older woman can do that. That’s interesting to me.

UXPin: I strongly believe that these are the tools that we are supposed to use, but use them wisely and learn to maintain them or shift them into what we as humans need them to do. So one more question to you, Agata. What are your professional goals for 2020? Because we talked about big trends and psychology AI, human touch and everything, but I’d like to know your personal role in it.

Agata: My individual part, for AR, is that I’ve been working on a mobile app for my company and now it’s my own project now. I’m at the same time a project owner and the designer for the same project. It’s a big challenge and we want to finish it in the first half of this year. And that’s my professional priority at the moment, but I have to admit that my last year was very intense for me, both professionally and privately. This is my second job. I would like to maintain my work-life balance and spend more time with loved ones. And I think that those goals are on the same level.

UXPin: I wish you all the balance in the world to have your professional goals met, and also to be present with your loved ones. Thank you very much for joining us to share your insights.

A study published by Forrester Research makes it clear that UX projects can have a significant influence on how much money a business earns. When companies used UX based on excellent design systems, they found that their websites:

• Converted 400% more consumers.
• Improved the willingness of customers to recommend products by16.6%.
• Increased customer willing to spend money by 14.4%.

Increasing conversions by 400% should grab your attention. Take your amount of sales generated today and multiple it by four. That’s the number of sales you could have by investing in an ROI project that revamps your UX.

Your UX ROI Depends on Your Current Design

Obviously, you can’t count on every UX project increasing your sales by that much. If you already have an excellent UX, then you might only increase conversions by 25%. It’s impossible to know until you look at your current design, recognize opportunities for improvement, implement a new UX design, and measure the results.

Some common flaws for websites and apps include:

• Slow loading times,
• Confusing menus.
• Unclear instructions.
• Erratic design systems between products.

The more issues you find, the more chances you have to improve the ROI on your next UX project.

If you want to focus on making your design better to boost conversions, you should start with:

• Making simple, unique UI and UX elements.
• Adding options for real-time customer support.
• Creating landing page design elements that will get customers to buy.
• Improving SEO elements to attract more traffic to your website.

You Won’t Know the Financial ROI Until Later

Naturally, you want to know the financial ROI of your UX project. Studies can only show general trends in how improved UX leads to increased revenues and profits. You will not know your business’s financial return on investing in UX until you finish the project, update your design, and wait for customers to respond.

Keep in mind that your financial ROI will not improve dramatically over night. It may take a few weeks or months before people start visiting your site and spending more money. Don’t rush the process. Trust that your team’s work will lead to go things. Research shows that improved UX will get the job done.

UX Projects Can Save Your Design Team Time

It may sound counter-intuitive, but UX projects can actually save your design team a lot of time.

Make sure the project starts with creating a design system that your designers can use across multiple products. Once your team has all of the design assets that it needs, future prototyping and design updates happen much more quickly.

A design system includes approved:

• Color schemes
• Icons
• Templates
• Editorial guidelines
• Image assets, such as photos and images
• Interactive elements

When your designers start working on future projects, they can turn to the approved design system instead of starting from scratch. Suddenly, a job that may take 1,000 hours turns into a project that gets finished by the end of the week.,

A Design System Also Makes Your Projects More Efficient

Many small businesses have already discovered the benefits of starting UX projects by creating effective design systems. The financial benefits of a UX project aren’t usually apparent until long after your team has a design system. Once you have the system in place, though, you can expect your business to benefit from:

• Faster time to market for new products.
• Fewer errors that force designers and developers to track down mistakes.
• Easier onboarding when you hire new team members.
• Better collaboration between team members using the same design system.
• More accurate user data that lets you compare how people respond to updates and new products.

It’s difficult to measure the ROI of efficiency. In financial terms, though, you can expect to spend less money because your teams finish projects faster. You may discover that your business can release more products, or you may decide that you need a smaller group of designers working on your prototypes.

Good UX Reduces Customer Support Questions

You can expect to find tremendous UX ROI when you see how users respond. One of the first things that you will notice is a decline in customer support questions. No matter how many instructions you give people, some of them will get confused and need to reach out to your support team for answers.

Good UX should make websites and apps intuitive for users. When a new customer picks up your product, they should know how to use it within seconds. They may continue learning new features over time, but the basic functions should reveal themselves immediately.

At least two important things when you make products more intuitive for users:

1. You get happier customers who keep using your product.
2. Your customer support team receives fewer questions and complaints.

Let’s focus on the second benefit. How much does your business spend on customer support? You have to hire and train people to answer questions via phone, email, and chat. You have to pay for the extra office space and equipment that your customer support employees need to do their jobs. If you adopt an Ai chatbot to answer common, simple questions, you have to pay someone to make the bot for you.

Customer support can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

Remember, your ROI involves more than the additional money you can make. It also involves the money that you save.

UXPin Makes UX Projects Easier

The ROI of UX projects increases even more when you have a great tool that helps your designers create design systems and functional prototypes. UXPin fills those needs easily. The design and prototyping platform includes abundant features that will help your team members collaborate in real time, work from a shared library of approved assets, and understand which ideas work best.

Do you want to learn more about how UXPin can help your business improve its UX ROI? Sign up for a free trial that lets you explore UXPin’s features. Once you see the advantage of using software that combines design with prototyping, you’ll know that you have the right tool for your products.

One of the most important jobs of a designer is to come up with new and innovative solutions to user problems. How can designers keep generating innovative ideas? The answer is in the design thinking ideation process. It allows designers to come up with fresh ideas by thinking outside the box, challenging assumptions, and exploring new territories. This article explains what ideation is, why it is important, the process for ideation, and how to create the right environment. 

What is ideation?

Ideation is the second stage of the design thinking process where participants in a design thinking workshop come up with ideas on how to solve a specific user problem. The design thinking process is made up of three phases: empathize, ideate, and prototype.

The ideation phase of design thinking is guided by the user problems that were defined during the empathize phase. Ideation is about the exploration and identification of potential solutions. Not all ideas will be viable solutions, and that’s okay. The primary goal of ideation is to spark creativity and innovation. 

Why is ideation important in design thinking?

Sometimes designers ask “what is the purpose of ideation?” The answer is that it marks the transition between understanding the problems that users have and generating solutions for these problems. 

Ideation gives designers the license to let their minds run wild, question the status quo, and look at problems from different angles. It also helps designers to collaborate and create groundbreaking solutions as a team. 

How to run the ideation phase of design thinking: a step-by-step guide

 Here are the steps that you need to follow for a productive ideation process. 

Step 1: Define the problem

The problem or problems that were identified during the empathize phase of your design thinking process will guide your ideation session. Your team will generate ideas that will solve these problems. 

Phrase the problem using a ‘How might we’ prefix. For instance, if your team is solving the problem of poor user experience in an app, the question would be ‘How might we create an intuitive user experience?’ This phrasing focuses the ideation session while implying that there is a solution to the problem. 

Step 2: Choose a space

The location of your ideation session has a huge effect on how safe and comfortable the participants will feel. Choose a large room that has whiteboards or enough wall space for you to set up your own writing materials. 

It is a good idea to choose a space that is away from the environment where your team usually works in. Being in a new environment triggers creativity and alternative ways of thinking. It’s also important to come up with a few icebreaker activities to help the participants loosen up. 

Step 3: Set time limits

Decide beforehand how long the ideation session for each problem is going to last. Set the number of ideas that the session should generate for each problem. These limits will give the session momentum, create energy, and an adrenaline rush which will spark even more creativity. 

Step 4: Select ideation techniques 

There are several ideation techniques that you can use to help your team come up with ideas. The most common ones include:

• Brainstorming– verbally sharing ideas within the group.
• Mind mapping– visually ideating by starting with a keyword that is related to the problem and then writing all the ideas associated with it around it. 
• Storyboarding– creating visual storylines of how users might go about solving the problem.
• Worst possible idea– coming up with the worst possible ideas to remove creative blocks. 

Don’t limit your ideation session to one technique, you are free to use more than one technique. This will ensure that your team generates the highest number of ideas. 

Step 5: Rank the ideas

If your ideation session has gone according to plan, you will end up with lots of ideas. Some will be promising, others will be outrageous and others will be crazy. Together with the participants sort the ideas according to different categories such as promising, interesting, unconventional, or crazy. For each category, rank the ideas. Don’t throw away any ideas as they might be useful in the future or in other design projects. 

Step 6: Choose the ideas that will move to the prototyping stage

The end goal of the ideation in design thinking is to come up with ideas that can be prototyped and tested. Choose the ideas that are going to be prototyped and maintain a record of those that didn’t make the final cut. 

How to get your team into the right mindset for ideation

The success or failure of your design thinking ideation process will depend on how you approach it and the atmosphere that you create. You need to create a safe judgment-free environment that will give all the participants the chance to express their ideas including the most outrageous or unconventional. Here’s how to create the right atmosphere:

Accept all ideas

To encourage creativity and open mindedness, do not reject any ideas. If you do, you will dampen the mood of the session. Remember that the aim is to generate as many ideas as possible. On top of accepting all ideas, encourage participants to build on the ideas of others by using the ‘yes and…’ phrase. This will lead to interesting ideas and perspectives. 

Stay on topic

During a high energy ideation session, your team can easily get derailed and start ideating on other issues that are not related to the problem. As the facilitator, it is your job to guide the session and refocus the ideation session. Should your team come up with a  juicy idea that is not related to the problem, note it down for future reference and then guide the session back to the problem at hand. 

Document all ideas 

Ensure that you log all the ideas produced during the session. The facilitator can act as a secretary by writing the ideas down on a whiteboard. Alternatively, the participants can also document their ideas by writing them on sticky notes or on the whiteboard.

When documenting ideas, summarize them, and record the key point. For instance, if a participant suggests “we could create an interactive story-based app to improve user  experience” document “create an interactive story-based app.” To ensure that you don’t miss any ideas, work on ideas one at a time. 

Turn your ideas into prototypes with the best design tools

The ideation phase of design thinking helps your design team to come up with innovative solutions to design problems. Use UXPin to create prototypes of the ideas you come up with during ideation sessions. Transform your ideas into lifelike prototypes when you sign up for a free trial of UXPin today.

UXPin: Welcome to 2020 Design Trends with UXPIN. Our guest today is Ramsés Cabello. Ramsés, can you tell us a bit about yourself, such as your work experience? What is your field of design?

Ramsés: I work at GAN Integrity in Copenhagen. My role in the company is UI engineer, but I mostly work throughout the whole design process. My main focus is prototyping ideas and concepts so that we can interact with them and validate them with the customers. So I’ve been working in design industry for around seven or eight years now.

UXPin: I’ve hardly ever heard of your role, UI engineer. Can you tell us a little bit about it because I know you are a designer or product designer, and engineering is usually separate, right?

Ramsés: I feel this whole title thing is very difficult. For some companies, the same title might mean one thing and for other companies it means something else. I feel like UI engineer is mostly related to working closely with the development team, and making sure that the designs and the prototypes you create are implemented as close to the design as possible. It’s kind of interesting that you talk about this topic because I’ve felt for a while that we’ve been struggling to find out what is my role and title are. 

UXPin: I think it changes a lot. Let’s talk about the 2020 trends right now. I’ve heard that some of jobs are going to disappear or evolve into something else. While we are speaking about your title—which is really rare—could you tell me your thoughts on the idea that UX designer jobs will be disappearing and new jobs will be emerging in 2020?

Ramsés: I think for a long time, as designers, we have been wearing too many hats. I do this role, but in the end I also kind of do everything throughout the process. So I feel that as more specific roles will be appearing, I also sense that they will be sounding more like a “UX culture curator” in the company. Somebody who is responsible for all those different people. There’s something about “curation,” and I don’t like the words “management” or “manager,” but I feel designers have this responsibility to ensure that everybody in an organization knows that UX is everyone’s responsibility. This is a feeling of curating the UX community within the organization. So I see the need for more roles like that.

UXPin: So it’s not going to be just speaking about users or talking about user experience, but actually going through the whole process, from making it the smoothest you can get—like throughout the whole organization—and making sure to collaborate each time.

Ramsés: I think there’s a big need for curation and helping everyone in the organization understand that the UX designer can shape the design of the experience as an interactive point of view or service point of view. But at the end of the day, how sales sell their product, or how every different part of the company speaks about the product and how the customer and organization interact, there must be somebody curating these experiences. So I don’t know, it sounds like a “design culture curator” or something related to that kind of concept, you know?

UXPin: Yes. There’s this whole new field of business called customer experience. But now people in business or marketing roles are expected to know a lot about customer experience, because I think we are switching the focus from brand and product to real people, and the more real the brand is the more authentic the relationship with the customer or user is, right? So I strongly believe that it’s in the design as well, for example in photographs, real life beauty… it’s no longer one type of model. But people are not photoshopping pictures as much. Do you think that this trend is like really holistic, like from the business side to the customer side, to real life people?

Ramsés: I love photography and I love street photography and for me, street photography is about capturing all these daily interactions in a very lighthearted way. I think also in this trend that you mentioned, of real life, how can we apply that to products, for example, or UX. It kind of reduces the intermediaries between the product and the real people that are going to use it. For example, in the field I work, I would say that the most important thing is that people get to the data as soon as possible. So we try to cut all these things in between—how can we reduce that? How can we make the product more real and avoid putting in filters? I think it’s about reducing complexity. Photoshop, at the end of the day, is like selling an idea that’s not real; it’s like retouching reality to fit a specific mindset, but there are several mindsets. There are too many. It must be diverse.

Ramsés: So I feel like if you put it out there and you don’t sugarcoat it, if you don’t put filters on it, then people can relate easily. It doesn’t look like it’s out of their reach.

UXPin: And speaking of more diverse, I think especially UI design is shifting towards being more open to all kinds of people. It’s not like, okay, this is the typical user and we are only focused on them. From what I gather, accessibility is a huge trend. It’s not supposed to be a trend, but a must in our times. So I’m really hoping that in 2020, it will be a must—what do you think?

Ramsés: For a very long time, I’ve had these ideas how trends, like mobile first, all come and go. But there has never been something like accessibility first. There has never been this whole idea of putting accessibility in the first row of this story. So I feel this year—and not only this year, but forever and ever—we should just have accessibility on top of everything. And I also get the feeling that when we think about accessibility, we tend to think it’s kind of like so out of our everyday, right? So we don’t tend to relate very much to it as a designer, but I think industries that have never thought that accessibility will be relevant are now suffering the pains of not having thought about that before.

Ramsés: For example, I am also very close to the video game industry and many video games are struggling because they did not think about problems with eyesight.  Some users with eyesight problems will be playing games where the subtitles or the text or the UI is very complex. Last year, I had to drop so many games because I could not play due to the text being very small. I hope that means more industries will wake up and see that accessibility is not just a trend—we have to be accessible. But it’s also more about opening your product or whatever you’re building to as many people as possible.

UXPin: I was going to say that speaking from a design tool point of view, I think technology is making it so much easier for designers to really be able to design real life experience, or be accessible. Do you have an experience of how you would build this real life experience in your work?

Ramsés: Yes. Again, we’re using [inaudible] and for me it’s the tool that I use constantly, because it allows me to take accessibility on the go. Over the past year there was implementation of new features to check accessibility, like the tags, the textbook, the size of the text and the color contrast, and stuff like that. Because of all the small features that allow us to build a very high-fidelity prototypes, whatever we display to customers or colleagues is always as close to reality as possible. I see people in my company clicking around and, by mistake, they forget that this is not the real thing. Sometimes you need to remind them that this is just the prototype. Especially regarding accessibility, I would like to see tools and implementing, in context, accessibility tools. Very often for developers, you see plugins or consoles where you can check the accessibility of the site, but very rarely do we see design tools also take this approach.

UXPin: I think we have a few features to come in 2020. So while we are speaking about your point of view and your experience, what will be your favorite emerging trend for 2020?

Ramsés: Maybe this is a little bit controversial, but I think during this year we need to take a minimalist approach. What do we actually need? And during this year, we’re going to have to try to fix a lot of the mess we’ve created in the last [inaudible]. We’ve been making too many apps, too many products and just too many things or creating too complex designs in general. This year I would really like to see more designers and product people taking new approaches. Do we actually need that thing? I would love intentional design to be a trend. Why are we designing this?

UXPin: That’s a really good trend that I would like to see as well, because I think the design is not a good design unless it’s usable. But the more we dive into business and money is taking part in it, the more we kind of drift off of the how—how are they supposed to use it and is it really necessary.

Ramsés: In my field, which is a compliance solution, it’s kind of strict because it’s regulated by law. But enterprise software has a very interesting take on design because until now, it has been enough to have a long list of features. We take the enterprise software, because we can do more or you can do less. But at the end of the day, the consumer products are getting better. They have good design, they are being exposed to really, really good applications or really good websites. So I don’t feel it’s enough for enterprise software to have a ‘good list’ of features. That is not enough. So I see enterprise software embracing design more into their everyday.

Ramsés: So even customers will pick one product or the other, even if some of the features are not available yet but the design and the experience is nicer. They’d think, “I might pick that one. Maybe I can do a little bit less, but this one can do it and perform it better and easier.” That is something to think about this year in enterprise software. You can also see that thought process coming from a long time with Atlassian or others—they are embracing design a little bit more.

UXPin: Fingers crossed that it is going to happen. You’ve given us some amazing insights on 2020 trends, and thank you very much for joining me today. I hope we can engage in this discussion with our community. 

No matter what type of business you may run, finding the best methods and practices of gaining and maintaining customers for the long-term can be challenging. Indeed, given that many markets are saturated and there are literally new businesses popping up overnight, companies now need to go above and beyond to encourage customer loyalty. Nevertheless, doing so can mean the difference between struggling to secure every dollar and securing years of effortless sales from a staunch selection of repeat customers. With that in mind, let’s look at experience design and how it is becoming increasingly important to brands and businesses of all kinds.

Why is User Experience Design so Important?

It’s no secret, more and more customers are shopping online searching for the best deals, rather than feeling any actual obligation to support any given brand or business. Therefore, brands need to find deeper ways to connect with their customers to secure them as long-term supporters. As a result user experience design is so important. It helps businesses uncover the goals and desires of their customers, in order to provide them with the goods and services they need to improve their lives and become more content overall.

What the Heck is Experience Design?

For those who are yet unfamiliar, user experience design is a process that takes on a customer-centric focus when it comes to designing and creating products and services for their customers.

In other words, by studying user experience, or the various ways in which customers interact with the goods and services, businesses are able to provide clients with an improved shopping experience in general. This can include everything from the packaging used, to the features of the products, and much more. The bottom line is that user experience design makes it possible for companies to provide their customers with enhanced experiences that serve as a foundation of a meaningful, long-lasting relationship between the customer and the company.

Experience Design: Meeting Users’ Needs

Focusing on the entire journey of the customer, user experience design helps meet users’ needs by offering:

• Empathy – One of the top benefits of user experience design is that it allows your customers to feel heard and understood. While previous marketing methods gave only partial consideration to appealing to the emotions of the customers, UX design makes it one of the primary focuses. This is one of the most effective ways to forge long-term relationships with your customers.
• Functionality – Another major benefit of UX design is that it allows companies to better cater to their customer’s needs by offering products and features. Rather than creating products based on what they believe is the next big thing, companies are now creating products based on what the customers have directly requested.
• Experiences – UX design goes above and beyond products. Rather, it focuses on providing memorable and favorable experiences. These experiences can become invaluable aspects of customers’ lives and something they grow to cherish and seek repeatedly over time.

Human-Centered Design for a Human-Centered Experience

By involving a human-centered perspective in every facet of your company, you are creating a brand that becomes more relatable and helpful to your customers. This method makes your customers feel respected and valued, rather than making them feel as though they are simply being used as a means to and end.

The Benefit of Humanizing Websites and Apps

Given that websites and apps are being marketed to humans, it only makes sense that companies would start to focus on making them feel more human. The benefits of humanizing websites and apps are:

• Aesthetics – Given that companies often pay top dollar to experts to figure out which color schemes and graphics will help them make more sales, offering aesthetics that are pleasing to the customer is mutually beneficial.
• Ease of Use – Many customers seek products that can help them become more productive. Therefore, by considering customer feedback when designing products, you will be able to provide them with a product that is not only easy to use, but adds value to their life experience.
• Information: Lastly, many customers are also seeking knowledge that can help enhance their lives in some fashion. Therefore, if you are designing an app or website, it should offer tons of useful information that helps empower the customer.

Experience Design improves Customer Retention

By creating memorable experiences, useful products, providing them with empowering knowledge, and life-changing products, UX design allows many companies to improve customer retention. For instance, if you have a website that offers your users useful information that helps them become more productive and successful, these customers will start to view you as a go-to in your realm of expertise. Over time, this will make them more likely to visit your website and purchase your products before shopping with similar brands, even if they are offering the products or services for less.

Experience Design Creates Competitive Advantage

Similarly, UX design can help establish your brand as a trusted source in your field. Once you have been established as a leader in your sector, many customers will always prefer you over your competitors.

Experience Design: Brands Become Stories

Since UX design helps to create memorable experiences, these experiences then become stories that your customers will love to tell for years to come. This is one of the most powerful types of word-of-mouth marketing as your brand becomes a part of your customer’s favorite stories and experiences for a lifetime.

Offering Enjoyable Experience Instead of Selling a Product

As mentioned, rather than just focusing on selling a product, UX design makes sure that the customer enjoys the whole experience. For instance, certain stores offer product demos, coupons, and other special perks to anyone who enters their store. When these experiences are warm and enjoyable, customers are much more likely to want to frequent your store.

Overall, UX design can be one of the most effective ways of attracting and maintaining your customers. Luckily, UXPin offers an all-in-one tool that makes managing your UX design efforts as simple and effective as possible. If you need help or guidance to help you incorporate UX design into your business, please contact our team of experts here at UXPin today.

Agile environments, teams, and manifesto. In the world of design, there is no way to escape these buzzwords that have gradually entrenched themselves in work circles around the globe.

What is an agile environment and why is it so important to those in the design industry? To understand how agile environments revolutionize a design team’s workflow, it is crucial to delve deeper into the “agile” world.

The Evolution of Agile Environments  

First, let’s explain what an agile environment is. While the term “agile environment” sounds complex, it simply means that a company or organization embraces the values of the “Agile Manifesto” as a part of their day-to-day work culture. This methodology, developed by a group of seventeen different software developers in 2001, has been adopted by companies that wish to put waste reduction, transparency, and customer preferences at the forefront of their operations. 

This is achieved by dividing large chunks of a project into smaller ones that can be developed more quickly on their own, but also by prioritizing a culture that encourages a team of people to work together to reach a shared goal. Some of the main characteristics of an agile work environment include:

• Being open to change – Many companies would be hesitant to change the path of a project in its late stages of the development cycle. Instead, they prefer to follow timelines, but agile work environments expect and embrace change at all stages. 

• Face-to-face conversations – In today’s tech-savvy world, it is easy for companies to collaborate via email, phone conferences, or project management software. Agile environments, however, have a strong preference for face-to-face conversations. This is because it is the most effective way of communication.
• A unique workspace – Agile work environments typically look much different than your standard office. You likely will not find cubicles with large dividing walls or closed-off offices for most employees. Instead, there are few walls and desks and tables are arranged to prioritize communication and collaboration. Likewise, there are usually many social spaces for gathering, such as sofas, tables, large whiteboards, and other furniture/tools that can easily be rearranged for impromptu meetings and discussions.

Applying Conceptual Models to Enhance Design Workflow

Conceptual models are models of an application that are created by developers to offer increased understanding to users. These models can differ in terms of their composure and are divided into two categories: sequential and structured or nonsequential and unstructured. While designed with users in mind, these models can also be used to enhance the design workflow when the abstract concepts can be refined and envisioned as practical elements. For instance, a conceptual model regarding entity relationships within a database (or an Entity-Relationship Diagram) can be used to assist both designers and developers in different ways to increase workflow when creating a website or an app. 

For design purposes, this conceptual model allows designers to visualize various database design ideas while identifying any flaws before actual changes are made.

To maximize the benefits of conceptual models for design teams, they must be well-defined with visual and written elements to express abstract concepts effectively, provide a basic structure, be available to all team members, and be easily changed to reflect the most up-to-date information. 

How Does Agile Influence Team Culture?

Following the “Agile Manifesto” creates an innovative work environment where openness and transparency are key. Each member of the team, and those in leadership roles follow the same set of core values, behaviors, and practices in the workplace that allow these concepts to flourish as a priority above all else. Likewise, the high level of collaboration and a focus on supportive leadership over command and control increases trust, loyalty, and overall integrity. This method, in turn, produces teams that are much stronger than those who follow traditional practices and they have an impeccable ability to adapt to change. Additionally, agile environments are more conducive to productivity, personal mastery, and meaningful results. 

Are Agile Environments Built for UX?

Agile environments have been rising in popularity since the initial concept was created in 2001. Although the environment and overall methodology are immensely beneficial, the focus of the “Agile Manifesto” lies prominently on developers and not those involved in UX. Because of this, typical agile practices do not include UX. They often neglect to consider the level of time and amount of research that those in UX require to create flawless designs that can put UX professionals who work in agile environments in a difficult position. Despite this, agile practices and UX can harmoniously co-exist. To make this happen, UX must be added to the software development process. Additionally, the organization must understand the importance of the UX professional’s work, include them as a part of the team and the agile environment must be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of all team members, including those in UX. 

Suggestions for Designers Incorporating Agile Practices

For designers who wish to create an agile development environment, it is crucial to understand the basic principles of the “Agile Manifesto”. This consists of four foundational values and twelve principles, but each can be applied in different ways to suit specific businesses’ values and practices. The main concepts to apply to reap the rewards of an agile environment; however, include: 

• Be open with all employees and those in leadership roles about the shift to an agile development environment and inform them of the principles, behaviors, and benefits of incorporating agile practices.
• Create small, flexible groups where each team member has different skills and encourages increased communication, collaboration, and transparency on a companywide level. Extend this focus to clients to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Opt for leadership over management. Those in leadership roles should be supportive and encouraging instead of the directive and commanding. 
• Focus on people over set processes. This will allow teams to freely experiment with tools to create more effective and innovative processes than the ones that are currently in place while aiding in personal mastery.

• Embrace change. To incorporate agile practices, it is crucial to be open to change at all stages of design and development. This may disrupt standard timelines but in turn, will result in more thorough results.

When the agile methodology is adopted by a company, it can present immense benefits to the overall work culture, employees, and level of productivity. For those in the design industry, an agile environment is equally beneficial and can revolutionize the entire team’s workflow. To reap the rewards, however, designers must ensure that their environment remains flexible enough to accommodate crucial components like the use of conceptual models and a focus on UX. Curious about other ways design teams can streamline and simplify their work? Reach out to our design experts at UXPin to learn more. 

Strategic design is the crossroads between user experience and business objectives. It means creating a set of design principles that guide your team through the process of building a product or experience. The principles articulate the vision and mission of your project and keep you focused on the big picture as you move through the stages of design. Ideally, strategic design means you will always know the next step. 

Strategic design affects every aspect of your product or service. It encourages designers to look at the design process and a fluid, adaptable approach to problem-solving. Strategic design thinking creates an understanding between designers and stakeholders. It outlines how the design team plans to align the user experience of a product with business objectives. This kind of design thinking improves branding and innovation as well as the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of an organization.

Learn these 10 ways to incorporate strategic design thinking into your user experience designs. 

Table of Contents:

1. Get Inspired 
2. Assess the Project
3. Center Strategic Design Around Business Goals
4. Ask Thoughtful Questions
5. Match Strategic Design Principles With Core Values
6. Keep Strategic Design Principles Fluid
7. Establish Ownership of Strategic Design Principles
8. Encourage Collaboration on Strategic Design Implementation
9. Set Expectations
10. Have Regular Reviews
11. Practice Good Communication
12. Conclusion

Get Inspired

Before laying the groundwork for your own tactical design thinking, you can start by researching the design principles of other companies. Design Principles FTW is a great resource for creating your own set of principles by browsing through collections of inspiring companies and strategies. Principles.Design also has a great open-source collection of design principles and methods. Getting some insight into what other organizations are doing can inspire you to formulate killer strategic design principles that will benefit your team for years to come. 

Assess the Project

Once you and your team have gotten into the strategic mindset and observed how other organizations are using design principles, turn your focus back to your team. Assessing the project in a holistic way is the most important principle of strategic design and the one that should run as an undercurrent throughout the different steps of the project. This is an opportunity to analyze obstacles and opportunities, and to look at the design from a bird’s-eye view. What is the purpose of the project and what impact do you want it to have on the business? 

Center Strategic Design Around Business Goals

The best way to implement strategic design in your UX design is to tie every design decision back to your business objectives. In order to do so, you need to have a clear outline and hierarchy of both your design and business goals so you can make sure they remain aligned. Look at the desired outcome of the project –  how does it directly relate to business goals? What are the key measurements that will serve as performance indicators? 

Ask Thoughtful Questions

Any designer or design team that has successfully implemented strategic design principles will tell you that curiosity is a critical element of this approach. Tactical design is not a step-by-step formula, it’s a manner of thinking about design that serves as a problem-solving mechanism. In order to incorporate design principles into your UX design, you’ll want to ask thoughtful questions about the client, the team, and the project itself. Why does the project exist? What problem are you solving for users? How does the product reflect the mission of your business? Does the product/experience help users in achieving their goals? How does their satisfaction help your company achieve its goals and build your brand? 

Match Strategic Design Principles To Your Core Values

Design Principles should align people around the nature of your organization. It’s important to evaluate every strategic design touchpoint according to the vision and mission of your organization. This involves having designers and stakeholders work together on establishing guiding values. Shopify has a great example of how they outlined their experience values here: Shopify Experience Values. 

Keep Principles Fluid

Strategic Design is not about coming up with fixed, static rules to guide a project from start to finish. Thinking strategically is more about problem-solving and creating new approaches to old problems. This approach involves practicing the strategy over time, making adjustments, and improving. Implementing strategic thinking into UX design means leaving room for adjustment and change. It also helps you learn along the way by adapting to new understandings of your users.

Establish Ownership of Strategic Design Principles

Implementing strategic design into UX is a project in and of itself, so it’s important to establish ownership from the outset. Assign the job to a person or team who will manage the project from start to finish and keep all of the team members on the same page. Strategic design is a philosophy that will apply to every level and member of your organization, but without an explicit owner of the project, it’s easy to lose focus of the principles. Select a project owner who can create a plan for outlining and adhering to your design principles. This should include everything from creating a hierarchy of company values to selecting the principles to keep them in plain sight (such as on vision boards throughout the office, on interoffice communication, etc.). 

Encourage Collaboration on Strategic Design Implementation

Your organization’s strategic design principles will be much more effective if you develop and implement them in a collaborative way. Invite all team members to participate in the process. It also helps ensure that they are effectively implemented into UX design. Individual team members will have more motivation to use design principles on a project when they have a role in creating the principles. This is also a great way to get team members from across the company to brainstorm ideas on what is necessary for good design. The collaborative process serves to give the principles more meaning to your team on a personal level. 

Have Regular Reviews

Another essential part of implementing strategic design into your UX is to have regular check-ins. Your strategy should be a constant work-in-progress. Planning tasks and milestones will help you assess the elements of the strategy and make sure each principle is supporting the core objectives of UX design. As you finish tasks during the design process, schedule team meetings and ask strategic questions. These check-ins will help you reassess the effectiveness of your principles and make sure each one is directing you toward your intended goals. 

Practice Good Communication

Applying strategic design to enhanced UX is also directly related to how competently designers can communicate. Even the most proficient and talented designers can’t succeed without being able to communicate ideas, processes, and principles effectively. Clearly articulating design strategy and decisions to stakeholders ensures that everyone understands and agrees on the principles and how to apply them to UX design. Asking for input, listening to feedback, practicing empathy, and communicating in a practical manner are all essential for applying strategic design to your projects. 

Conclusion

Implementing strategic design principles to UX requires a tactical thinking approach. This kind of mindset gives us a more useful and effective perspective on building a new product or experience. If you need help developing a design strategy or revising your existing principles, contact us. UXPIN can help your team easily plan, collaborate, and implement strategic design principles that are better aligned with your business objectives.