Simplicity and The Design Hierarchy of Needs

Yesterday I was revisitng a nice article by Smashing Magazine, titled Designing for a Hierarchy of Needs. Steven has done a great job applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to design. I personally agree with this model but I won't be talking about this today.

What I wanted to talk about is how simplicity can help you cover some of these needs. Specifically it can help you achieve the needs of Functionality and Usability.

Functionality
Functionality is one of the core elements when using simplicity in our design process. Before anything else, our design needs to include the needed functions. Not only that but through a simplification process we can identify and decide what functionality is really needed. The result is a design that provides the most needed functions while doing away with any functions that would complicate the user experience.

Usability
Usability is another core element when using simplicity in our design process. What we are designing must be functional and very usable. Through multiple revisions the aim is to make it so usable that it feels natural, familiar and doesn't need any explanations. The user is key in this process and depending on who you are designing for you need to make certain decisions. Since knowledge can make something easier to use, the target audience is a determining factor in the simplification process.

Just covering these two needs can really help you design better and create a better user experience. Design is not just about how things look but how they work. Covering these basic needs is essential and simplicity can help you do that. 

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Design Matters

Design has an important problem. Good design is usually invisible and most people can't perceive it's value. The truth is that everything that we interact with has been designed either by someone or nature.

Good design can make all the difference, whether you are creating a product or service. Design deals not only with the perceivable beauty of things but more importantly with the minute features that make or break something. Take a minute and think of small things that have been specifically designed to enhance your experience that you rarely think about. The locking sound of an iPhone, the groove underneath your kitchen's work-tops, unobtrusive notifications in web apps. Everything has been carefully designed to make your experience better.

The most important of the above is the experience. Good design works to create a good and more natural experience for your customers/users. To get the benefits you need to embrace design and introduce it into your culture. How you do this is up to you, but the best choice is to start learning and bring designers in your team.

Don't overlook the power of design, embrace it and create things that are usable, beautiful and "natural".

Posted by Helen Amygdalaki // Lelou 

Fashion Loves Simplicity

If you are into fashion, or if you just browse websites of fashion designers and retailers, you will notice one thing: Fashion Loves Simplicity.

The reason behind this is simple, the design needs to be simple so that you focus on what's important, the apparel! The design and colour palette are usually minimal to allow for more space for the photos of the garments and accessories.

It doesn't matter if you are in the fashion industry, you too should focus on what's important. Highlight on your website what's important about what you do and remove complexity and jargon.

Here's a collection of fashion sites for you to get inspired.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Get Your Portfolios Ready for 2nd July! @ArtsmartLondon

If you are starting out or working in the creative industries, here is your chance to get a portfolio review during the artsmart. event.

Artsmart. is a two-day event organised by University of the Arts London, and takes place on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd July. We will be part of the interviewing team for the Consurgo Nightlight Portfolio Reviews (which this time interestingly are during the day) which take place on Saturday 2nd July, 10am-12pm.

The event will take place at Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground,16 John Islip Street, London, SW1P 4JU (next door to Tate Britain).

Artsmart. is open to anyone in the creative industry (not only UoA students), so go get your tickets now, and see you there!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Prototype

As designers, we consider prototyping to be part of our process on any project. It doesn't matter if we are designing a new identity, a website, a product or anything else. Once we have an idea that we are working on, we will move as soon as possible to the prototype phase.

I won't go into a lot of details about what a prototype is as you can get that on wikipedia. For those of you who don't know how prototyping works reading through this wikipedia entry will give you a good intro. In essence, prototyping allows you to build an initial "model" which will help you experience the idea you are working on, and bring something from the drawing board to real life.

You don't have to be a designer to benefit from the advantages of prototyping. It can be applied in different forms to everything that you do. If you are starting a new company and trying a new concept, you can do a prototype before starting up to gather feedback. If you are an IT manager, instead of planning a massive roll out of a new product, prototype the solution with a small team. No matter what you do, I'm sure that prototyping can be advantageous to you. For prototyping to succeed, you also need to make it itterative. Start with your idea, move as soon as you can to a prototype and then start itterations. Test the parts you want to test, fix any problems and create the next prototype. This itterative process will allow you to quickly solve any problems and create something that is useful and functional. 

Whatever project you are involved in, stop drawing and start making. It will help you realise how viable the idea is and help you solve all those little problems you are having. Create your prototype, let people use it, gather feedback, gain insight and then repeat.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Good Design is Cheap

The value of good design is often not calculated correctly. By definition, something that is cheap is "worth more than its cost". So if we take into account how transformative good design can be, then its value increases.

Sadly the value of design is often measured as a pure cost without taking into account any other variables. That's why some people tend to go for the cheapest cost, and not what is trully cheaper.

Let me give an example to put this into perspective. If company XYZ is looking for the design of their entire identity (logo, business cards, website, the whole shebang) they usually have two options. The first is to cut as many corners as possible, do things themselves, outsource some smaller pieces, get freelancers, crowdsource and anything else that will keep the expense as close to zero as possible. The second option is to trust the project to professionals, who will work on it for days using their knowledge and experience in order to create the best result.

The big difference between the two options above is that if you go with the first, the end result will be something less polished, probably looking a lot like the competition and doesn't give any advantages. On the other hand if you have chosen the second option and found a good studio/agency to work on it, you will end up with an image that helps you stand out, communicate what you do, show that you are professional and that you care about what you do.

The differences don't stop there. If you now look at how good design affects your business you will find that a company that has the right image and looks professional will probably perform better that its competitors. If we look at it from a revenue perspective, the design that cost you close to 0 but didn't help you get business is much more expensive than the design that cost you several thousands but brought you new clients and increased your revenue.

When measuring the effectiveness of something, don't just look at its monetary cost. Think about its effects and if those make the initial investment worthwhile.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Lost Art of Presentation Design

If you ask most people, they will say that business presentations are boring, and they are right. The use of software like PowerPoint, default templates and bullet points has led to mundane presentations delivered in a mundane way.

The good news are that there is hope. Any presentation can be redesigned to communicate information effectively and help the speaker engage with the audience. One of the most valuable tools when redesigning a presentation is simplification.

The first thing you need to do when redesigning your presentation, is to identify your core message. You need to gather all the thoughts and ideas that are in your slides and then simplify to understand what the core message is. Once you have it, this needs to be used as the theme for your presentation and you need to keep coming back to it.

When it comes to changing your slides, remember that simplicity is king. Having a lot of information on a slide confuses and forces people to read instead of listen and engage. You need to keep your words to a minimum, use graphics and images whenever possible and never EVER use bullet points.

If you just apply the second part and change your slides to be clean and with less information, you will already have made a great progress. It's important to understand that the audience has come to listen to you and not read a few slides. If it was for the latter, you could have sent them as a PDF and not do the presentation at all. Using simplicity will help you deliver your message effectively and engage with your audience.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Dieter Rams: Less and More

via Gestalten on vimeo

An amazing interview of Dieter Rams about design and simplicity. Great mid-week inspiration for the rest of the week and weekend.

Make sure to watch after 4:34 for his design principles.

Enjoy!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Simplicity in Branding: Your Identity #SimplicityTuesdays

In addition to your logo, your entire brand identity needs to be clear, memorable and timeless. Information needs to be always available and well presented, so people can start building trust with you.

Your brand's identity includes your logo, business cards, letterhead, invoice, leaflets, brochures (to name a few part) and now also your website. As a lot of these parts are your first interaction with your audience, you need to make a good first impression. Following are some guidelines on what to try and do for each item:

• Business Cards Your information needs to be clearly presented. Avoid using more than two fonts and more than two colours. Always look at the card from the clients view, is it easy to quickly get the needed information?
• Letterhead & Invoice You must include all the necessary business information (this depends on the country you operate in). Your logo needs to stand out and contact information needs to be clearly stated.
• Brochures, Leaflets & Posters Avoid clutter and hiding crucial information. Think of what information your audience is interested in and present it in a clear way.
• Website We will look at how to apply simplicity on a website in a different post as it will need more clarification

You also need to build your brand's guidelines, so that everyone that works on your brand can produce work that fits within your brand's image and doesn't confuse the audience. Review your entire brand's identity from a client's point of view and make sure that your message is communicated clearly.

Remember to be always consistent and simplify the image. This will help you create a memorable identity that your audience will trust.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

There is no Finish Line #BrandingThursdays

Your brand is always evolving and every interaction with your audience counts. There is no finish line so you need to be always meeting your clients needs and delivering to your promise.

By every interaction, we don't just mean the aesthetics of your brand (e.g. your image, identity and your website), that's only the introduction. Your brand is represented by all elements of your company and most of all by the experience you offer to your audience.

To give you a bad example that I experienced first hand two days ago for the second time at the same store. We were out shopping for a baby gift and went into a well known store that has amazing products and very nice communication. A lot of thought has been put into the design of the products and the store. The brand values and promise are visible everywhere. After choosing our gift, we went to the till to pay and that's when the problems started. We were served by a rude sales assistant, told that our sales item was not on sale (even though it had a big red sticker with the sale price on it) and spent 10 mins waiting for the assistant to complete the transaction. The people at the till next to us, had to be stopped at the exit because the security tags were not removed from the items they bought, which also happened to us upon exiting. The result, a very bad experience that makes me think twice before entering one of their stores. It didn't matter how much thought had been put into their brand and products, I left with a bitter feeling and frustrated for the second time.

Remember that EVERY interaction needs to communicate your values, meet your promise, and your client needs to be satisfied from the experience.

Note: Originally we had planned to post a rebranding case study today but since everyone will be getting ready for the Christmas weekend we decided  to move this post to the first week of January :)

Posted by Harry Mylonadis