Identifying conflicts in a UI design →
“When I’m working on a UI design I look for things that are wrong. I have to do that because there’s no checklist of things that are ‘right’ that make a perfect product. You can’t check a requirements list and say “Yep, everything’s there!” and conclude that you made a good design. You have to look at the design itself and hunt around for problems: things that cause friction, things that aren’t clear, things that take too long, things that break expectations.
These conflicts are the heart of design. If we could just pile features one on top of the other, we wouldn’t have to do design. Design is what you do when piling elements onto each other doesn’t work. It’s the process of identifying and resolving conflicts.
There are three main areas of conflict that I look for when I’m working on a design.”
- Ryan Singer, designer at 37signals
