Pre-Designed Templates Make the Design Process Easier
Many of us take for granted the fact that most companies, brands, and even governmental agencies have a design team behind them. It is quite rare that we come across a brand or product that is not design-led. Design is at the core of everything an organization does, whether it's a small business or agency; it is in every aspect of their life. Design is a verb as well as a noun, it is not just the work that is done by a design team but it is their approach to everything they do in life.
Why design?
Design thinking and methodologies have changed the way we look at product development. It used to be that you would need to have a finished product in order to know if you had actually produced something useful or innovative. Design allows you to test your ideas and concepts as you go along, whether it's a smartphone app or a new type of drill. This is a big deal, because it means we can have groundbreaking ideas and concepts that are still being tested and improved upon. Design gives us the ability to constantly refine and adjust our designs, improving productivity and decreasing waste.
The design process
The design process can look very different from project to project, but most design processes involve some iteration and multiple steps. The first step in any design process is to define the problem you are trying to solve. The next step is to establish user personas and use cases for your design. Only then can you start to map out an approach to solve the problem. You will need to test this approach and refine it until you reach a point where you can prove to your client or boss that this is the solution they are looking for. It is only at this point that you can start detailed design. Detailed design is often when you get to put your logo on the product and make it real.
What is user experience?
User experience is everything about the way a product or service feels and how easy it is to use. In software development, user experience is often mistaken for user interface design, which is the visual look and feel of the application or website. While user experience includes both, software interface design focuses more on the visual appearance of the product whereas user experience focuses on the entire interaction between the user and the product.
The truth is that good user experience doesn't always result in a great user interface, and vice versa. Even though software interface design and user experience are both important, it is always best to have both. A good example of this is Google Analytics. While it has an ugly duckling interface, it does a lot behind the scenes to ensure you have a good experience using the product.
Why UX&UI Design?
Whether you are designing a mobile app or a website, user experience and user interface design is an important factor to consider. UX and UI design is a combination of the words user experience and user interface. UX design focuses on the way content and product are presented to the user, while UI design focuses on the look and feel of the product itself.
Many brands confuse UX and UI design, thinking that one is more important than the other. While it is true that you cannot have good UX without a good UI, it is not the other way around. A good UI cannot make up for a poor UX, and vice versa. It is always best to have excellent UX and UI design together because neither one is complete without the other. You cannot have one without the other and neither one is more important than the other. It is a complete package.
Where do I start?
Whether you are just starting out or you have been in the field for a while, there are several places you can start when designing an application or a website. First, you should look at the competition, what is the state of the art? How do I stack up against the best? Once you have an idea of the quality of your work, you can move on to the next step.
Next, you should familiarize yourself with the client's needs and desires. This includes understanding what they want, how they want it and why they want it. A lot of times, clients will give you an idea of what they want without ever really thinking it through. In this case, it is up to you to ask the right questions and dig deeper into their needs and desires. Once you know what the client wants, you can map out an approach to get it.
The Designer's Toolbox
As a designer, you will need a toolbox full of various items to create quality work. It is important to have a balanced toolbox, containing both software and hardware. Having only software in your toolbox will limit the quality of your work, and vice versa. Having only hardware in your toolbox will limit your productivity.
A good, quality set of software tools will help you to iterate designs quickly and efficiently. There are several good, free fonts that can be used for text, logos and icons. Design applications like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop allow you to create highly professional-looking items with ease. Preferably, you should aim to have a mixture of both.
Hardware tools are important too, and there are several high-quality ones available that can be used to make prototyping fast and easy. 3D printers allow you to quickly make physical models of your ideas, and laser cutters allow you to quickly cut plastic and cardboard to make accurate mock-ups. There are also plenty of online tools that can be used, like InVision or Figma, to collaboratively design products and interfaces.
Creating a design brief
Every 디자인출원 comes with a brief, which is a document that contains all the relevant information about the project. Most design applications also have an excellent library of pre-designed templates that can be used to speed up the design process. Using pre-designed items allows you to focus more on the design itself and less on the little details. Pre-designed items also make the design process more consistent because you are not reinventing the wheel every time you start a new project. Having all the information in one place, using a proven design, can make a big difference in the quality of your work.
Prototyping & Testing
Once you have a working version of your design, you can test it out with users to see how intuitive and easy it is to use. Whether you are using paper prototypes or software prototypes, testing is an important part of the design process.
Paper prototypes are simply a quick and easy way to test your ideas and see how they work in practice. They can be made using paper, cardboard or plastic. Using a digital drawing software like Balsamiq or Mockplus allows you to do this quicker and more efficiently.
Software prototypes are a bit more advanced and allow you to test not just one idea but many ideas at once. Prototypes are often used to test the functionality and usability of an app or website. They can be created in different ways, but usually, a front-end developer will create the underlying code while a designer will create the look and feel of the product. Prototypes require a bit more work but can give you a much better idea of how a finished product will look and feel.
Revising your approach
In order to create a quality product, whether it is an app or a website, you will need to go through several revisions. Designing a product is not an exact science and it is usually a combination of luck, timing and a lot of trial and error. A lot of times, a working version of the product will be so close to the final one that there is no going back. Having multiple revisions allows you to take out all the mistakes you made along the way. Even though you cannot always go back and redo a thing, you can always learn from your mistakes and make changes where needed.
The Importance of Collaboration
Whether you are working in a team or alone, at times, it is important to bring in the other parties that are needed in order to make a project work. Design is a very interactive process and, often, a lot of communication is needed in order to come up with a well-thought-out solution. Several tools exist to help designers work together efficiently and effectively, whether it's InVision or Slack for teams, or Google Docs for individuals. If you want to become a better designer, it is important to find a tool that helps you work faster while still maintaining high quality.
It is also important to remember that no matter what tool you use, design is still design. No matter what software you use, whether it's Adobe Photoshop or CorelDRAW, whether you use templates or you design everything from scratch, you are designing a product and you will need to follow certain rules and guidelines in order to create a quality product.