Lessons from my experiences in hi-tech
Have you seen those beautiful, incredible Product Design portfolios from even very junior designers? Do not be discouraged. Lots of them are ‘cheating’, and more experienced designers know it. I’m not talking about plagiarism, but about cutting corners and ‘misleading’ the audience. Read more so you too can identify the ‘cheating’.
A designer could do a flashy UI redesign, and make a sample screen look awesome at first glance. It will catch eyes. The uninitiated will say, WOW! The mockup will appear stunning — but will look and behave terribly when it’s actually used. It is tempting to do this. But don’t. It’s eye candy that is flavorless. It belongs in a museum behind glass, not in a portfolio.
But if you’re one of the designers who pursue the ‘cheating’ wow effect at the expense of usability, here are a few ways to ‘cheat.’ And if you are hiring a designer, you can identify these ‘cheats’ and call them out on it. The designer should at least be aware of the issue, and have an intelligent response. This is a good way to find the more thoughtful designers who have considered and accounted for these elements.
- Long description boxes? Just put a line of text and pretend users will love scrolling in small text boxes. ASK — is the textbox sized well for what is supposed to go into there? Why did they make it that size and not bigger? Not smaller?
- View vs. edit modes? Forget how it will work in edit- make it snazzy in View, though it will be impracticable for Edit. ASK — how does a user make a change to some of the data in that screen? How does she know what is editable and what is not?
- Saved blank space for multi-language use cases? Ignore it and pretend it’s English-only. ASK — is the interface only in one language? Are there plans to support multiple languages? What will have to change?
- Minimum text size requirements cramping your style? Forget those, just use size 10px to save space. ASK — what is the minimum text size? Is it legible? What about on a smaller screen? Does it support Accessibility standards? Which?
- Is indicating interactive elements creating too much visual noise for you? Ignore the distinction, make all components uniform and beautiful for first glance. ASK — how does the user know what she can click on? On mobile? On desktop? On tablet?
- Does the layout — that considers multiple use cases and finds the best fit — bother your aesthetic proclivities? Change the layout for the sake of the mockup, and put your head in the sand for the other use cases. ASK — which use cases did you consider in order to design the layout that way? What about…
Why It’s Cool to Hate on This Kind of Cheating
What all these ‘cheats’ have in common is that they ignore the complexity of real life, of usability. They ignore that a real actual human has to use the interface in order to get on with her life. It ignores use cases that need to be considered, and rejects all these for the sake of aesthetics. For the sake of a ‘wow, how pretty’. This is not a statement intended to undercut the importance of aesthetics — they are indeed important on customer satisfaction and even on usability. However, usability should not be discarded. It may work for a first-glance portfolio mockup, but will not work as a design to be used. Now if you are a designer — you know not to ‘cheat’! And if you are hiring a designer, you know how to identify some ‘cheats’ and question them.
Thanks for reading.
About this Series
This is part of a series of UX Case Studies based on my experiences.
About the Author
I’m a UX Designer turned Product Manager, with experience in startups, freelance, and agile B2B2C companies. Writing helps me reflect & continuously learn. Connect with me on Twitter.
