I recently read a piece in UX Collective about “the one true way to design”. This week, I want to provide some thoughts on it, and how to read the variable nature of agencies’ design processes.
Yes, every design agency has its own method. We do, too Agencies do this in order to compete effectively, to make clients feel like they are buying something specific to them. And in doing so, we need to play off like our process is better than all of the other processes.
But they are all pretty similar on face! Something unites them. I was a math major, so I often think about first principles – the axioms that we take for granted before creating a body of work. I think design agencies work from a handful of first principles that feel more-or-less uncontroversial:
- Design is creative work in the service of business goals.
- Design should focus on uniting customer needs with business goals.
- Design fundamentally involves talking to those who will use it, so they can have a seat at the table.
In practice, we can maybe go one level deeper and think of design as a broad-stroke framework of the following activities:
- Research/discovery
- Prototyping/ideation
- Creation/refinement
And then beyond that, it all goes to hell as every designer has their own opinion about what this all involves. Fine! Fine. We got somewhere. This is because design takes many forms. Design is contingent on how you want to practice it. But the instant you move away from those axioms or that broad-stroke process, then you’ve lost the plot. That still gives you a lot of leeway – and constraints are a good thing!
If design were a delivery network, each individual process would be the equivalent of the last mile problem. Every single delivery is going to look different. But the hubs & spokes will look rather the same everywhere. Think about that the next time you get super prescriptive about what design is.
This week, for paid members
- This week’s lesson is a deep dive into GA4’s reports & explorations, showing new ways to analyze conversion issues.
- Our design of the week covers an interesting masthead layout, and lays out some contexts where it might work well.
- And finally, our fortnightly teardown is for new sunscreen brand Vacation.
Want in? Join us now – named one of the best ecommerce communities going on the web.
Links
- Please accept these terms & conditions.
- This long piece on generating iterative feedback rules. Research should be short and reactive to prior knowledge. That way, you aren’t bogged down in an 8-week discovery project where you realize you have to course correct two weeks in. (I have no idea how to perform discovery in that much time.)
- What is “product sense,” and how can it be cultivated? What is the role of taste in design decision-making?
- A list of interaction design books. Hey, I know one of those…
- Baymard’s latest is all about collection pages. Per usual, it is an essential read.