Dribble is the most well-known website that is used by designers in current times. From designing ideas to team building, Dribble supports different areas for each designer. However, not everyone knows the right use of the site and how to enhance their design correctly.
Design in today’s time is all about the looks and to get ahead of the other players in the market. Most designers do not keep in mind the need of the users when they are creating their design. This is why creativity has taken a backseat in terms of innovative and successful designs.
Even a pixel-perfect design would not be able to grasp the attention of the user if it does not satisfy their goals and purpose. Along with this, you also need to focus on the goals of the business. Business goals are mostly focused on when people are involved in product design. However, this goes for all kinds of designs that are done for the success of a business product or service.
A designer has to understand both sides of the vertical, i.e., the client and the user. You cannot give importance to one more than the other. Without this, you will be unable to enhance the user experience when the audience is using your design.
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Change in Dribble Value
Great designers have always tried to bring new changes to the craft so that people are exposed to innovative ideas. The field of designing has seen significant growth in the last few years, and businesses are starting to acknowledge the importance of a good designer. However, many people are trying to sabotage the growth of this field.
(Source : https://dribbble.com)
They might not be doing so knowingly, but the sudden downfall in the standards of several designs has resulted in this. Dribble has been a consistent platform where people have been showcasing their designs. From here, you can see that many of the current designers are trying to destroy the value that the Dribble community has created for itself.
The designs have become very superficial, and most of the designs share the same tone or style. Whether you see accounting software, weather application, or social software, they would also seem similar to you. At one glance, these designs would look to be on the same tonal with rarely any difference.
Designers are not taking into consideration the needs of the business. That is why you will see that most of the designs are unfulfilling in some way or the other. There is no problem-solving urge, and most of the designs on Dribble are just wireframes. There is no context for the designs that are being made or showcased.
The work of a product or UX designer is not just to make pretty designs. That is something that an artist would do. And that is what most of the designs seem like on the platform. These low-quality designs are the work of artists who are simply practicing their art. They are not to be termed as UX or product designers in any way.
Offering something unique and really honing their craft is one way that designers can increase their value in the marketplace and their pricing for design services.
Product Design – The Need for Vision, Mission, and Architecture
When designing, the first thing that should come into the mind of any product designer is the mission and vision of the business. Based on the mission and vision, the architecture of the design would be fixed. These are the three things that the designer should focus on.
Every company has a certain mission and a vision. You might think that the ultimate mission of a company is to earn money, but that is not the case. Every business starts with a mission, which constitutes achieving something else other than money. This is what you will have to display through your design.
If you are not able to reflect the mission and vision of the company through the design, then it would be a complete failure. In case the company does not have a clear mission, then you need to motivate them to build one. Without a proper mission, you will fail to create a great design.
Once you have understood the mission and vision, you will have to think about the architecture of the product. Architecture does not mean the technical viewpoint; it means the components that would be part of the product. These components need to be related to each other and the mission which you have to determine.
Product architecture is a deep structure that defines the building blocks of a design. It holds similar importance to that of the company mission. Just like for a company mission, you require product architecture to develop a great design. This is also what a designer has to establish before you move on with a design.
Absence of Mission, Vision, and Architecture on Dribble
The majority of the designers on Dribble do not constitute these three factors in their designs. There are exceptions for sure, but that should not be the case. These three factors are very crucial and should never be missed out. The absence of three factors is what fails in the design.
Once these three things are determined, you can bring in other necessary factors. You will have to think about the users, their goals, and how they would perceive your design. An experienced designer would focus on creating rough designs keeping these factors in mind. The ultimate goal cannot be just putting up a pretty design on Dribble without any thought put into it.
The enhanced PDF or images holds lesser value as compared to the rough sketches that show the real effort put into the design.
Four Layers of a Design
Designing has many different layers, and using these layers, one by one, is very important. In simple words, there are four basic layers involved in designing. These layers are as follows –
· Outcomes
· Structure
· Interaction
· Visual
Outcomes
The first thing that you have to focus on is the outcomes of the design. You need to be clear from the initial stage what the intended outcomes. How will the design help the audience? If you are not sure of what the outcome of the design is, then the whole process would be a complete waste.
Define the positive effect that the design would have on the audience. You need to establish how the design is going to be beneficial for the user. In user experience, all the decisions that you take would be directed towards the user. Therefore, your outcome should also be user-centric.
Structure
The next layer would be the structure of the system. In a design, the structure is very important. You will have to determine the different components that would be present in the design. In this layer, you will be building a map that would connect all of the components to the previous layer, i.e., the outcome.
The second layer is very crucial as the design would fall apart if the connection is not established. There should be a connecting line that would bring a flow to the design. The user should be able to navigate through the system without any problem.
Interaction
In the third layer, you will have to set the interaction points in the design. This would consist of several details that would describe the events in the system. This is where you will be focusing on the navigate options and how people would move from one option to another in the system.
This stage requires the most changes since you will have to keep experimenting with interactions until you find the right one. In user experience design, the interactions need to be done, keeping in mind the way the customer would do it. This means that you will have to think about the customer’s shoes.
Visual
Once you have defined the last three layers in the design, you will move your focus to the visual. This is the layer where you can use different elements that can make your design look beautiful. This is the layer that most people focus on without even finishing their work on the other three layers.
(Source : Google Images)
Visual consists of the color, iconography, grids, typography, etc. You can now decide how you want your design to look so that the audience would be attracted to it. The fourth layer can be done by an artist as well, so a UI designer will have to focus on all the layers and not just the last one.
When you have resolved all three layers first, the last layer will become very easy. This is the layer where you can have all the fun you want on a strong design base. You can even get feedback from other people to see if you are successful in the fourth layer.
To Sum Up
With the continuous changes that technology is going through, designing as a profession would go oblivious. To ensure that this does not happen, emergent designers have to be more creative and understand the needs of the audience.
Designers need to know the different aspects of designing so that a strong base is created. Many tools are used by people in current times, which have made creating web pages or applications very easy.
To avoid any such decline in the profession, the designer needs to know the right process. This will help them to grow in their design and enhance their creativity so that they can find a fine-tune in their work.
