Critical Analysis 4
You never get away from that thing in your hometown that it has over you. You don’t outgrow where you come from.
Brian Fallon
User Interface Design – Fall 2019
Critical Analysis 4
In what ways is design effective in improving the online and mobile experience?
- Smashing Magazine’s 10 Principles of Effective Web Design
- Dieter Rams’ 10 principles of good web design
- 16 killer design tips for creating mobile apps
- 7 Tips to create awesome mobile apps
Clearly the online and mobile experience improves over time for the sake of its users, when design is centered around the user. The more we learn about good UX and good UI, and continue to improve it, and continue to create ideas that enhance the overall experience, the better and better our interactions will be. We have already seen this in the first couple “versions” of the internet. Being in the 3.0 version, we have some perspective of where we’ve been and where we’d like to go. We are not in a time when the majority of the population has never even heard of the internet.
I can’t help but notice, though, how busy these particular articles are in design. They are about good website design, but I am especially frustrated when they all emphasize things like simplicity and good use of white space, and clear objectives. I don’t think they are necessarily following what they are preaching with so many ads and large moving graphics surrounding their words. I understand everyone’s got to make money through advertising, but it was actually hard to wrap my brain around these concepts when there was so much of the exact opposite in concept and essentially noise on the screen filling my eyes.
However, one particular quote from Dieter Rams’ 10 principles of good web design actually shone through the noise and made its way into my head:
One of the most important ideas to retain from these principles is that we design for humans. They are the ultimate goal of our website, we always have to keep this in mind when creating a new project. Like Rams said, “The designer is the user’s advocate within the company”…
Specifically the idea of the designer being the advocate of the user was poignant and clear to me. I understand and agree whole heartedly with this philosophy.
There are so many details of design to remember. But I think I can always remember that I myself am a user, and my own devices can help remind me of best user interface design choices. Or make me painfully aware of the not so good design choices out there. In 7 Tips to create awesome mobile apps I was happy to see a reminder of a design choice that I’ve witnessed many of my guy friends find frustrating – designs that don’t cater to having large fingers. I was beginning to wonder when I would encounter this design point in a user interface design class. Found it!
I also need to share this funny tidbit: When your hometown shows up as an example in a User Interface Design Article for your UI Design Class talking about making users “feel at home”… you might be from Silicon Valley.
designs-by-day.com 