Design Principles
My background in human factors and computer science means I use a rational, science-based approach to UX. I’ve distilled my approach into a few principles - there are others, but these give a good flavour for how I think about design.
Spend as much time understanding the business requirements as your users.
Businesses exist to deliver value to customers, and having a clear understanding of the business objectives for a product or service means that you can design in a way that helps to meet these objectives.
Everything starts with requirements.
A good business analyst is worth their weight in gold, because they provide a clear understanding of the problem (it’s why I did the BCS Business Analysis Practice Certificate). A great solution starts with a deep understanding of needs.
Shape the basic approach with an understanding of people, then refine it through
audience-specific research and testing.
We know a lot about how people think and behave from the human sciences, and good design is based on these universal principles. Research and testing help to inform and refine the design with the specific user population.
Look at design, development, and test as a whole process.
Only a design that gets built will ever add value. Build a relationship with your development and test team so you can discuss how the design can be created. If minor tweaks to a design lead to significantly easier development with little or no impact on the UX, then make those changes! If testers can create their test plans based on the prototype and design spec, that will help them to manage their workload better.
Clear copy improves every design.
Designers rightly place a lot of emphasis on the visual aspects of design, but the effective use of copy, which meets the ‘Goldilocks test’ - not too much, not too little, just right! - is just as important. Many companies rely too heavily on reams of help pages and expensive support teams, when a little more effort with the UX would both deliver happier customers and lower business costs.
Simplify.
A clear view of the requirements and processes lets you simplify all aspects of the solution as much as reasonably possible.
Every design decision should have a rationale.
Being able to talk about why a design decision has been made is what separates design from art. It invites informed discussions and helps to move a culture from one based on strength of opinion or seniority, to one based on a shared understanding of the problem and how effective different solutions might be to that.