Asking the right questions when it comes to low and high fidelity prototyping
From interacting with perceived users to translating research insights into visuals, the Design Thinking framework helps to distill insights from end-users and experts to the realised product. We’ve learned that for a successful product design cycle, it is crucial to validate your assumptions and hypothesis early on in the process. This is where prototyping has come to our aid.
At BRND, Prototyping has often helped us answer crucial questions like ‘Is there a need for this intervention?’ or ‘Is the solution usable?’. We leverage it as an instrument to validate our work’s usability. But often a question we have to…
Pros, Cons & Tools
We’ve found through experience that sometimes, ideas or concepts that our designers are the most excited about, go unnoticed by our users and stakeholders. For us, this has made the case for prototyping early on even stronger, and it has become an indispensable part of the designer’s tool kit at BRND.
Prototyping is a tool which helps in communicating ideas and concepts in a relatively inexpensive and tangible way. It encourages a dialogue in which designers can align their goals with that of the users and stakeholders.
We’ve realised that young designers have a somewhat distorted interpretation of prototyping techniques…
‘Mo Personas, ‘Mo Problems
Personas should get off the paper and get into the minds of the stakeholders and teams. Personas should be naturally and organically referenced in every discussion and decision made.
So don’t just create personas; unveil them too!
Not everyone knows why they are useful or how to use them. It is upto the UX Researcher to educate the team, illustrate their effectiveness and solidify their use on the projects. Lead on by example, continue to bring them into meetings, don’t let the personas fizzle out. (after all having personas and believing in them provides 90% of their value)
“ Design…
“Every great design begins with an even better story”
Last week we discussed what a user persona is and the role it plays in UX design. This week, we’re writing about how to make personas, sharing our experiences, tips and learnings, as we navigated different people, industries, requirements and of course deadlines and pandemics!
Many times we hear, “Personas? Why do we need to make them? It’s a waste of time”, from clients. But without a buy-in from the stakeholders, it’s hard to even get started. While it’s true that many people know a lot about their customers, sometimes when the knowledge and assumptions are not aligned, the lack…
New User Persona, who dis?
Have you ever gone out shopping…only to feel out of place? The good news is, it has nothing to do with you. The bad news is, the new, hidden establishment you just stumbled upon may not have taken you into account. (Of course, if you were looking for a McDonald’s and ended up at a Fine Dining Restaurant…that seems like it has more to do with your geographic skills, than the actual establishment).
Products, services, stores, websites are (usually) carefully curated to meet the expectations and needs of choice clientele while designing customer facing experiences like displays, product ranges, store…
Last week, we explored Screen Metrics that affect the design decisions for responsiveness. This week, we’re looking at the layouts and tools used in designing a responsive UI.
Tools for Fluidity
A Layout is the skeletal structure of all the visual elements and spaces in your design. A fluid layout that adjusts itself to the available screen real estate is the most fundamental idea behind responsiveness.
How does it work?
To make a layout adjust to the screen size, we have to first know the width of the device. Responsive designs respond to changes in width by adjusting the placement of design elements…
Responsive Design Series
How Screen Metrics ensure your UI flows smoothly across devices
Last week we introduced you to Responsive Design and the impact it has had on our — let’s face it — daily time spent with devices. Since then, we found out that the ‘Your Activity’ feature on Instagram that tells you how much time you spent on the app, is only a mobile feature. Because of Responsive Design, this means, you can use the web application on your laptop, have a similar ‘stalking’ experience and not feel bad about the time you spent! Yes, this is the wrong lesson we just took away from responsive design, but hello! Game changer!
…
In the late 2000s, studies indicated that users browsing the internet would soon migrate to smartphones over desktops or laptops. Sure enough, over the years more and more companies and website owners started approaching designers for extra layouts of their websites, that would fit the smaller viewports of iPhone and Android devices.
The question naturally arose — would different layouts need to be made with the release of each new device? If not, could the approach used to build a website…be used to build an app?
In 2010, Ethan Marcotte — an independent web designer from Boston, USA — wrote…
In the early days of Apple, Steve Jobs was frustrated that the Apple symbol was being overused across applications. Upset, he instructed his Design Team to start finding alternatives. It was this mandate that led to the inclusion of one of the most significant symbols on the keyboard— one users have come to so clearly associate with the MacBook.
Discovery
Susan Kare was a Graphic Designer working at Apple Computers at the time. Kare is known to have famously created some of the most iconic icons that still exist on the Apple interface today like the pail of paint, paintbrush, lasso…
One man named Alphonse Chapanis.
Last week, we wrote about the mystery of the B17 Bombers that could survive air raids, but could not seem to land. That is, until the intervention of not one, but two Psychologists — Paul Fitts and Alphonse Chapanis.
Now designers may have heard of Fitts from a little thing known as ‘Fitts’ Law’. For the non-designers reading this, Fitts’ Law states that the time it takes a user to move a pointer from A to B, is a function of the distance between A and B and the size of B. In simpler terms…
BRND Studio
BRND Studio uses an integrated framework of Design Thinking and Human-Centred Design to build innovative solutions and solve complex, ambiguous problems.
