Design Inspiration

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 / John Bryan

This post is simply going to be a collection of some places that I go for Design inspiration. As a designer for mobile and web, sometimes its hard to come up with original work that also adheres to best practices. It’s a fine line that we have to walk. On the one hand there is a ton of user research that will tell you the best placement for information and UI elements and even the best colors to use. And on the other hand you want to create something original and new, or at the very least express yourself in some way.

These are thetop 3 sites that I turn to for inspiration. But rather than just list them, I’m going to explain why I like these sites specifically over the many other options out there.

Dribbble

I know this site is probably already on every designers favourite list. I just cant get away from this website, it is an amazing collection of all types of design work from mobile UI to flyers. If this website isn’t on your list – it needs to be. SICK – that’s the only way to describe what Dribbble has created.

Chrome Experiments

At first glance you are probably thinking ‘WebGL and Facial Recognition for inspiration?’. The answer is – yes, this site has some of the smartest people pushing the boundaries. Chrome Experiments is really great because it showcases hardware accelerated graphics that use nothing other than the Chrome browser. The main reason I like this site is because it shows me just how powerful the browser is – the browser that we design for daily.

We can do some amazing things with HTML/CSS/Javascript and it is easy to get stuck in the swing of mundane, simple, and basic. I like to push myself to really think – ‘What can I do that is difficult, cutting edge? How can I push the limits of my own work with the latest CSS3 tech or Javascript?’.

Designspiration

At first I didn’t really like this site. It reminds me of Pinterest and I hate Pinterest. While you might be a fan of the popular pin board – infinite scroll bombardment of death – I’m not super fond of mindless scrolling. What I found that I like about this site is that there is a lot of artwork and design work that is in completely different design fields. Architecture, fashion, sculpture, image manipulation, there is a wealth of really cool stuff here.

I am a big fan of looking to other fields for inspiration. After all, a well designed website is a bit like a beautifully designed building or a perfectly decorated living room, when you see it you just know ‘wow, this is amazing’.

The Front End Developer/Designer/UI/UX Guy

April 30, 2015April 30, 2015 / John Bryan

In a perfect world it works a bit like this: Some idea for a product is born, yay!

A user experience guy spends hours and hours researching current/potential users, their history, patterns, likes, dislikes, what flavor of kool-aid they drink, how often they go to the bathroom, etc. Then this guy works with a designer to come up with a beautiful solution. Next, the designer works with a front end developer to write the code to get the new products user interface built. Sometimes an SEO dude will also come in and do his thing (if the product is a website).

After some back and forth, there it is: a masterfully crafted piece of art that solves the bane of someones existence, or allows them to check email faster. Whatever the product, at this point it is ready to be handed off to other developers who hook it up with real data.

Wait a minute, I do all of that. Everything you just described is all me. Whats going on here? Am I being bamboozled? Yes my friend. Yes you are. But, it’s ok! This is the place where many designers and front end developers are finding themselves. Being responsible for so much can be daunting. It might not be the best for a product or a company but for you the person, finding yourself in this position is awesome!

Front End Developers are sometimes responsible for the users experience, designing the user interface, and building out that experience. That is a lot of pressure. Fortunately, it is also a great opportunity to build out your skill set and open some doors.

There are hundreds of job listings that use the terms ‘Front End Developer’, ‘UI Designer’, or ‘Web Designer’. They all have different criteria based on that companies specific needs – or their interpretation of the job title. Sometimes you will be the designer and developer, sometimes you will just be a designer who does some research, other times you will not design at all, “just write the code you code monkey!”. The point here is that there is opportunity to master a lot of different skills and chase after the one you enjoy the most. Becoming good at user experience, user interface design, web design, seo, front end, etc. will allow you to be a very flexible and desirable professional.

I know what some UX experts and position purists out there will tell you. “This will only hurt the product and the user and there’s no way one person could master all of these things or do them all in one job.” And they are correct. There is no way to completely master each one of these and be the best of the best in everything. You can, however, become very good at them all and learn to use the right tool at the right time and make a positive impact.

To all my fellow Front End/Designer/UI/UX professionals out there who juggle multiple skills. You are not alone and you are becoming valuable!

User Experience: How we put our users first

February 13, 2015 / John Bryan

Imagine two scenarios. In the one, you are using a brand new app on your smart phone to help you order a sweet bacon pizza. You open the app and find no instructions. There is just a list of options, none of which make sense! You are eventually able to order your pizza, but are not quite sure where its coming from, or how to pay. The experience is awful (And you REALLY want your bacon pizza)! In the other, using a different app, you are walked through your pizza creation process, put in touch with a local pizza business(organic even! you like that!), had your payment taken, and even received a 15 minute delivery guarantee message. How about that? Hot dog! Or since were talking about pizza, Hot pizza!

Pizza is a serious, delicious subject indeed, but I am going to be talking about something monumentally important to almost any and every business/product that exists. User Experience. Before you rush on reading the rest of this oven baked, hand-tossed article, stop and think about it. User. Experience. Our lives are dictated by our experiences, we can be up or down, happy or sad, down or out on a moments notice because of one experience! An experience will excite us to the brim of fantastical explosion! -or- It will drag us down into the dumpy doldrums of mediocre, flat, boring every day life (Yuck).

Here at Century Interactive(CI) our design team is always thinking about the user because we like our users and want to delight them *gasp*. I know, its crazy, I’ll explain. We think of our users from product conception at a high level all the way through to that one tiny line of text at the bottom of a page. In order to create a user experience that really delivers boatloads of pepperoni – I mean – delightfulness, you have got to think big and think small. You have to think about the entire system on a high level in order to create an experience. You also have to think small – the tiniest detail can throw the whole thing off. Think about the last time you tried to find a contact number on a company website and you spent 10 minutes digging around for one. One small thing can send users running to the hills of delightfulness that exist somewhere besides your company!

An experience will excite us to the brim of fantastical explosion! -or- It will drag us down into the dumpy doldrums of mediocre, flat, boring every day life (Yuck).

In our pursuit of creating a delightful user experience we have had to develop and cultivate empathy for our users. We put ourselves in our users shoes and evaluate everything. Every detail and feature needs to be put in the brick oven and toasted – tested. Will it be beneficial to the user or will it hinder them? How does this specific feature help the user, and when do we present it to them as an option? We might not be making them a mouth-watering, tummy-satisfying pizza, but we are creating a delightful user experience for them (because we love them)!

So how did we apply these concepts to a practical project here at CI? In our newest product, Service Hook, we put the user first at every stage of design and development. Our design team was brought in at the very beginning when Service Hook was an idea on a post-it. We brainstormed about how to get users on the product – freemium. We removed all barriers that would hinder the user from signing up – that’s not a novel thing, but it was a very important decision for us as a company. Next, we looked at hundreds of ways other companies and products “onboard” their users, then we designed our own process. We get the user, in three steps, from sign up to being smack in the middle of Service Hook.

Great, they are in the product, now what? More brainstorming. How do we get the user oriented quickly and functionally productive in our product? Our solution was to design a help wizard, yes we used a literal wizard (Gandalf would be proud!), to walk the user through a few basic things. We didn’t just stop here though, our thinking of the users experience cant end right now. We watch what they do and how often they use features, then we reach out to them to ensure they are having an amazing experience. We have a consultant team that welcomes them, provides suggestions on how to grow their business, and shows them how to really utilize Service Hook. Do we stop here? No. Because our users journey is still not over. They are our users for life.

One small thing can send users running to the hills of delightfulness that exist somewhere besides your company!

Thinking big picture about the entire user experience in the beginning enabled us to better design the details. We are able to tie in details (like buttons, text, and even the website) to the look and feel of the overall experience. Our aim was and will remain high – to delight our users with a great experience. Now go forth, and order that bacon pizza!