Everyone has an opinion. Especially when it comes to the arts. I have worked as a graphic designer for over 20 years. I have been a book designer, advertising designer, web designer, print designer and now I focus on the visual design of user interfaces for enterprise software.
In my current position as Staff Visual Designer (that's just a corporate name for Creative Director) at Informatica Corp., I am often up against opinion and it is primarily my job to mold opinion into constructive criticism. I also consistently advise that we don't make final design decisions on being subjective, especially in user experience design. The ultimate goal of product visual design is to allow the visual design to enhance the user interface design. We never want the visual design to get in the way of user productivity.
This of course seems obvious, but the best way to control subjectivity in design and design reviews is to focus on the objective aspects of design and those aspects can be defined in visual design goals. Does the design meet said goals? Great. Could the designs meet them in a different way? Even better. You say you just don't like yellow because it reminds you of butter? Oh well. I usually spend some time at the beginning of every project identifying the goals of the visual design.
Some Common Visual Design Goals
Although design goals help to produce design and provide a context for the reviewers, there is a bigger aspect that provides context for visual design and that is Design Principles. I work within the R&D department at Informatica in the UX Team. I currently am the only visual designer but I work with researchers and UI designers and together we are the UX Team. We have a set of overriding Design Principles we use for all our designs.
Some of our Design Principles
Using visual design goals on a project basis and using design principles in all your work, you can achieve design results which are engaging, enhance usability, solve problems and hopefully pleases everyone (fingers crossed).
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In my current position as Staff Visual Designer (that's just a corporate name for Creative Director) at Informatica Corp., I am often up against opinion and it is primarily my job to mold opinion into constructive criticism. I also consistently advise that we don't make final design decisions on being subjective, especially in user experience design. The ultimate goal of product visual design is to allow the visual design to enhance the user interface design. We never want the visual design to get in the way of user productivity.
This of course seems obvious, but the best way to control subjectivity in design and design reviews is to focus on the objective aspects of design and those aspects can be defined in visual design goals. Does the design meet said goals? Great. Could the designs meet them in a different way? Even better. You say you just don't like yellow because it reminds you of butter? Oh well. I usually spend some time at the beginning of every project identifying the goals of the visual design.
Some Common Visual Design Goals
- Follow the font and color specs from the corporate brand guidelines.
- Follow corporate logo guidelines.
- Don't use extra graphics/colors or elements that don't provide a use or context.
- Bring the data to the forefront (our users read data, let them read the data).
- Create visualizations of data that enhance the users understanding of the data.
Although design goals help to produce design and provide a context for the reviewers, there is a bigger aspect that provides context for visual design and that is Design Principles. I work within the R&D department at Informatica in the UX Team. I currently am the only visual designer but I work with researchers and UI designers and together we are the UX Team. We have a set of overriding Design Principles we use for all our designs.
Some of our Design Principles
- Help Users Maximize their Productivity
- Design Based on Real-world Needs
- Mind the Details
- Work to Simplify
- Strive for Aesthetic Quality
Using visual design goals on a project basis and using design principles in all your work, you can achieve design results which are engaging, enhance usability, solve problems and hopefully pleases everyone (fingers crossed).
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