Code Crash Course

Design Basics

Design Basics

Here you’ll find an outline of a very simplified design process:

  1. Jot down overarching goals of product
  2. Sketch out screens with paper and pencil
  3. High level mock-up (using Illustrator or SketchApp)
  4. Begin coding

Today you will take a deeper look at what I’ve identified as the first step in the process, Jot down overarching goals of product.

Before starting any project, ask yourself these questions:

  • What is my end goal of this product?

  • What do I want my product to “feel” like?

Write your answers down somewhere you’ll see often! You’ll come back to those first questions again and again throughout the development of your product. The goal may change, or it may stay the same. But it is important to have an overall goal that brings you back to your user that you reference frequently. This helps you to not lose focus as you create, and keep what is the most important at the center of your product: USERS.

:whitecheckmark: Do the following:

  • Think of 2-3 apps that you use frequently or are familiar with
  • Write them down
  • Jot down adjectives that come to mind about these apps, in separate lists

When you finish making your lists, do the following:

  • Open the apps on your phone and explore them
  • Identify what design elements were used specifically that made you choose the adjectives on your lists
  • Write down those design elements

The importance of this activity is to help you realize that design is INTENTIONAL. The apps we use on a daily basis have an effect on us, positive or negative. Good design is intentional, not accidental. Good designers know what they want their users to feel as they experience their product, and they know how to make them feel that way.

:whitecheckmark: Do the following:

  • Start paying attention (!!!) to all the apps, websites, commercials, billboards, and any type of advertisement you have contact with. Your homework is to appreciate them, critique them, write elements down that surprise you, that you hate, that you love. Start noticing how design is part of your day to day life. Because it is everywhere, and we can learn from it. It’ll make your product better.

  • Subscribe to Sidebar

  • Check out 52 Weeks of UX