In the previous article, I highlighted communication and problem solving as some key attributes a designer should be constantly striving to improve. In this continuation I will continue to explore the often overlooked skills which form the foundations for a solid and successful designer.
Understand what is, and what isn’t, possible
Developing a close working relationship with a developer (yes, I know how hard that can be!) is one of the most beneficial strengths a designer can have. I disagree with the statement that all web designers should be able to code, but I do agree with the sentiment behind it. It is not necessarily the code we have to understand; it is the capabilities and limitations of code that we must be aware of.
Not everyone needs to know how to code, but it is important to understand how code works and understand if what you are asking the developer to achieve is actually possible. Asking a developer to do a fully animated website in HTML and CSS is comparable to a client asking you to design and build their website using only paper and crayons.
It is important for anybody designing for the web, to read and learn as much as possible about the restrictions that are in place. It is imperative to bear this in mind right from the outset of a design. Yes, you might have seen examples of this JQuery technique and that JQuery technique, but you need to understand why applying 87 JQuery animations on one page is not a good idea.
If you don’t have a developer who you can bug with your questions, search the web, join discussion forums and read tutorials to discover what is possible. Then it is up to you to take that technique and make it work in the best manner to solve your problem.
Be pixel perfect
Being a perfectionist, through attention to detail, is also an extremely valuable attribute to have when it comes to being a successful designer. You can present fifty amazing JPGs to a client, however I can almost guarantee that the first thing they are going to comment on is a mistake.
Admittedly, a lot of the time a client won’t notice the minor inconsistencies in a design, but it is the job of a good designer to ensure there are no inconsistencies at all and avoid any awkward “cover-up” situations.
It may be an annoying habit, however a lot of designers take great pride in being able to notice if a line is one pixel out of alignment, so the sooner you can beat them to noticing these things the better!
Misalignment of elements and jumping pixels shows the client that you are complacent and you don’t care enough about their project to ensure everything you deliver is one hundred percent perfect. Where possible, you should set up a “template” PSD of all global elements (navigation etc.) at the beginning of the project and make use of the “Duplicate” function in Photoshop to ensure you have consistent placement of these elements across all files. Taking the time to prepare your files properly at the start of the project will save you a huge amount of time and stress at the end of the project!
Set yourself deadlines and work out what you need to do in order to meet them
Working with Project Managers can be a godsend and make your job one hundred times easier, or it can make your job one hundred times harder and leave you feeling pressured and frustrated.
In order to work “with” a PM effectively, it is important to realise that it is a two-way street. Communication is extremely important and, as a designer, you need to be able to understand the PM’s role in the same manner as the PM is expected to understand your role.
No matter how big or small a project is, and regardless of whether or not you are involved in the quoting stage, it is a valuable lesson to start estimating required timeframes as much as possible. If you have been asked to deliver a five page brochure site, work out how long you predict this is going to take you as well as how much of a buffer zone you would require to allow for any “incidentals” which may pop up along the way. Track your time spent throughout the project and upon completion of the project review your actual time spent against the initial predicted time.
The more often you do this, the sooner you will understand how long particular tasks take you. You will also gain an understanding of the possible “sticking points” or “hotspots” of these tasks.
Being able to accurately allocate timeframes to tasks is crucial when it comes to quoting on projects for clients. No-one likes to quote on a project and then spend four times the quoted budget on it because they didn’t think about the possible problem areas (and in turn they are working for a quarter of their actual value).
Time estimation is also a key skill in establishing a good working relationship with PM’s. Being able to identify that not enough time has been allocated to a project from the outset is a problem that is a lot easier to solve than getting to the deadline and only having half the delivery ready.
Estimate how long you think a task will take > Measure how long you spend on the task > Compare and review > Repeat.
Understand human nature and what people expect from your design (offline behaviours)
This is where Paul Boag’s advice of studying Psychology comes into play. In order to effectively design for humans, we need to understand (to some extent) how the human brain works and certain expectation levels a user has. It is one thing to aimlessly flick through psychology books, looking for nothing in particular however I find the best, most relevant, information comes from Case Studies. These Case Studies can be from a wide range of industries, but I find it particularly interesting to study the results of multi-variate and other forms of user testing.
Reading the results of an actual user-test offers a far greater insight than just reading a “theory”. The expectations we, as designers, have of the web are extremely different from the average thirty year old mother, and we have to ensure we are designing for our target audience rather than for just those with a “designer’s mindset”.
A fitting example, which springs to mind, is a user test conducted by Razorfish Germany and Sire Valuse.
As designers we presume that navigation should appear either at the top of the page or aligned to the left. However, after conducting user testing on behalf of Audi, Razorfish and Sire Valuse found that placing the navigation on the right hand side of the page didn’t have any detrimental effect on the user’s experience at all. (http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/challenging_the_status_quo_audi_redesigned)
So what does this tell us? Through understanding what does and what doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the user’s expectations we have the opportunity to break away from the traditional approaches to what were considered constants in design and delve into a whole new realm of possibilities.
