Designers and builders face a dilemma: trying to predict what users want. Build first, ask questions later is a great way to get started, to get moving. Move fast and break things. Great. Keep doing that. But what happens when you step back, and you are unhappy with what you see? When what lies in front of you doesn’t match the vision you have, deep down inside that you know exists?
It is very very common to invest months into building a feature or product, only to discover that people glaze over when you show them… It doesn’t resonate. Users don’t recognise how it relates to them. It doesn’t address user problems. Even the best ideas can fall flat in execution without a fundamental understanding of the people they’re meant to serve.
If you are creating something new, you have to BE THE USER. Build something YOU need and want. That YOU would use!
What if I told you there is a world where users’ eyes light up when they see your app and say “oh my god I want this!”
A lack of opinion, or too many opinions will give you magnolia
In our world, the biggest risk is producing a megalith of banality. Where everyone has their say and a bland, watered down beige screen that doesn’t offer much beyond a spreadsheet lies before you. Eurgh. Where everyone has added a button for the feature they want and no-one stops to thing what happens when everyone adds a button. Huge navigation menus? Maybe you don’t understand your user and you hedge your bets with different options. You lose hierarchy, purpose.
But what’s wrong with a spreadsheet you might ask? Why even have an interface? Well… The whole point of building something outside of a spreadsheet is to give users the speed, interaction and design they have come to love and expect of other apps they use in their daily lives, e.g. social media and iPhone apps. Traversing ways of interaction and speed that a spreadsheet cannot cross.
The good news? Design offers opinion: a blend of art and process to empathise with users before investing in development, taking a stand. A chance to make something really cool. A chance to take a leap of faith in the creation of something interesting. That users will truly want. Something different. Something opinionated.
Creativity as a Process
Is interface design an art or a science? Are these mutually exclusive? What if good interface design is a blend of the two? I propose it’s a blend – there is scientific method to it, with creative hypotheses to make leaps of (educated) faith. It helps if the people making the leaps know what they are talking about.
As a science, the double diamond design process is a structured approach that empowers designers to focus on understanding user needs and delivering solutions that truly resonate. It consists of four phases:
- Discover: Begin by exploring the problem space, gathering insights, and identifying user needs.
- Define: Narrow down to a clear, actionable problem statement based on your findings.
- Develop: Ideate, prototype, and test solutions iteratively to ensure alignment with user needs.
- Deliver: Implement the refined solution, confident in its ability to address the identified problem.
As early as possible, you need to make a hypothesis. You need to have an idea to go on. A hunch, otherwise you will either get stuck in the quagmire of discovery, or start to design banal sheets of tables for your users. Or you will find patterns in the random data you collect.
Teams can shift their focus to proving hypotheses with evidence, reducing wasted effort and ensuring that their work hits the mark. This is done with experimentation. Iteration. Trying things in the arena.
Maximizing Usability and Aesthetic Appeal
The artist in you knows that good design isn’t just about solving problems – it’s about creating experiences that are both functional and look good. Research underscores the profound impact of design aesthetics on usability. In a study by Sonderegger and Sauer (2009), participants rated visually appealing interfaces as more usable, and their performance improved with those designs:
“The results showed that participants using the highly appealing [interface] rated their appliance as being more usable than participants operating the unappealing model. Furthermore, the visual appearance of the [interface] had a positive effect on performance, leading to reduced task completion times for the attractive model.”
This highlights a critical insight: perceived usability – how usable something feels – is as important as actual usability. The way a product looks can influence how intuitive and effective it seems, driving user satisfaction and loyalty.
You will never create a great product if it does not look and feel great.
Why We Design
At its core, design is about creating something from nothing. Building the things in your head. But to create something that people want needs empathy and understanding. It’s about creating something good. Creating something people need. Something the Creator is proud of and will stand next to. We integrate user-centered design practices like the double diamond to bridge the gap between what we (think we) know and what we don’t know. What users need and what we deliver. A good hypothesis will get us from zero to one.
Ultimately, design is the key to building products that people want. They resonate, delight, and make a meaningful impact and people love to use.
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