Design@SAIF - Issue #15

July 18, 2016

Have you ever caught yourself saying:"Our experience is inconsistentOur visual system is staleOur marketing feels disconnected from our product"

All too often, I have heard this echoed across startups, from the youngest designer to the seasoned CEO. These words though, comes from senior designer in Pinterest, despite the product having a fairly cohesive (and oft copied) experience. For those who came in late, in Issue09 we had featured Asana Redesign. Redesign is hard, especially when a company begins to scale and has not yet put their design libraries in some order. And this is not just about visual design, but recognising and classifying all sorts of 'components' and the experience patterns too. If you are scaling (or have scaled and looking for redesign) here's some inspiration. And don't forget to check out the competition.

"As it turns out, it’s damn hard to design consistent and beautiful things at scale." But Pinterest pulled off an inspiring, but not overwhelming redesign (remember Goldilocks effect?). Wired magazine called it reinvention, don't miss the Wired article which balances design with voices from business and tech. A reinvention that blends tech and design; speed, scalability and regional sensitivity.

"In addition to designing great experiences for their products, UX designers have the added pressure of staying up to date on the latest trends in design and functionality". So here's a quick guide to "understanding one of the basic skills of market researchers: the competitive analysis."

Scott Berkun suggests ways "to bend the brains of your coworkers and clients". Get some good advice on "educating, inspiring, and leading people who don’t understand what you do to begin with, and who don’t necessarily prioritize great design and user experience."

Events

Wed, 20th July | Cyber City, Gurgaon | Paid | An informal meetup of Interaction Designers in NCR area. Good food, great wine: the perfect setting for some good Designer-to-Designer conversations. Come by to meet other UX, UI, Ix, Service (or other emerging disciplines) Designers in a casual setting. Supported by IxDA and #DesignForStartups

Until next week,

@JDallcaps @SAIFpartners