Title: Think Outside the Box, but Don’t Forget the Box Exists
Context: Different is not always better. But sometimes it is. You just need to be able to tell when.
Synopsis: You know that problem you are sitting at your desk trying to solve right now? No, not the one about how to afford the flight to Paris on a Toledo budget, that other one. The user experience one for that client with all those users who you have to design that thing for. Right, that one. Well odds are that someone, somewhere else at sometime was faced with that very same problem. And they came up with a solution. Was it the correct solution? Who knows? But the fact remains that not every problem in the world is a wheel just begging to be reinvented. Sure it’s fun to solve problems from scratch but our users – those people who will wind up working with and on these things we are building – may already be quite happy with their existing wheel, and we need to acknowledge and respect that. Now, I’m not saying that you don’t improve a system when and where it can be, what I’m saying is that you need to understand what a user’s expectations are, and will be, when you step in and introduce your “improvements”.
Best Bit: “Through the usage of graphic design fundamentals such as colors, type, shapes, layouts, and grids, designers may elect to use the macro approach, the micro approach, or a combination of the two, in order to achieve consistency.”
via uxmag.com
Leave a Reply