Dorelvis » methods

Proper hierarchy is a foundation for excellent type

dorelvis — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:17:11 +0000

The guys at Typekit – guest blogger Frank Chimero - have written a short and sweet guide to using typography to reinforce communication. He shows how to build a design step by step, introducing new visual elements/tools to support the hierarchy.

Communicative, fine typography is of the utmost importance, and it is encouraging to think that by understanding a few simple precepts and their thoughtful application, clarity in communication is within anyone’s reach.

Client vs Designer: Is it always a battle?

dorelvis — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:24:41 +0000

Phil Edelstein and Chris Fernandez (client and designer) have written a sharp article explaining how they made their relationship work. They divide their process into stages, and I especially appreciate Chris describing how he built the relationship even before he got the project.

“Even before the project went to RFP (request for proposal), I used Twitter to maintain a connection and begin sending Phil relevant articles with ecommerce best practices and examples, understanding visual hierarchy and user interface design, and the all-important, if not terribly sexy, checkout flow design. Happily, he seemed to accept them rapturously.”

You can even do this to build credibility within your organization (if you’re an innie.) I used to send around emails to the UX team at eBay, and not only did we engage in great discussions but it helped the other teams respect my team and our opinions.

Shepherds of Design

dorelvis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:40:18 +0000

Margret Schmidt from Tivo discusses how designers can flourish by taking responsibility for their work while understanding that they are not their designs.

Some highlights:

Designers do not “own” the design
Feedback is not personal
Share early and often
This is NOT design by committee
Build your design gut
Celebrate the design that ships

Kick-off prep

dorelvis — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:47:36 +0000

Tomorrow I am kicking off a really large initiative that will be exciting, fast and possibly crazy. Everyone has an opinion, much is based on personal preferences rather than user needs. I’ve set up goals, tasks and milestones, and so far am planning lots of exploration to begin with, followed by lots of user-driven iteration. I’ve also set up checkpoints with the many levels of stakeholders, so that there is at least the appearance of consensus. Deep breath.

Ooh la la prototyping

dorelvis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:11:09 +0000

Just had a really great conversation with my team about innovation, mental models, navigation and visual hierarchy. What helped spark all this great thinking? An interactive prototype showing three slightly different versions of an idea. The designer worked with a prototyper – it took about a week to turn around, because as it was coded she began to codify the design and work through the interactions. The team topped it all off with an interesting design review where we openly discussed the various model’s successes and failures, what we might change/add, and how we might use the prototypes to sell our idea.

Now this may not seem out of the ordinary for many of you, but our development model here has been not to waste effort, and that means prototype using reusable code. For me, that just defeats the purpose, but changing how things are done is not an easy feat. I am working to sell the idea of prototyping at all levels – from designers and dev to PMs and biz folks. But its slow.

In the past, I’ve been all about prototyping – from quick and dirty paper sketches to throw-away html. Or full-color mocks linked to mimic an interactive experience. Depending on what we were trying to learn of course. We are designing interactive experiences – we need to think about those interactions, and only using mocks/wireframes doesn’t always cut it. We have to think about the entire experience.