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I am working at a consulting company these days and I am having some issues with graphic designers I work with. Basically I have tested the graphic designers in various short projects for the following design deliverables:

  1. Icon concept generation.
  2. Icon background color gradients.
  3. Pixelated icons.
  4. Lack of understanding of typography.

The list goes on and on. I come from a HCI background myself and I'm curious if you guys know of resources a HCI person can refer to get a better understanding of the interface critique from a visual design perspective? I obviously have raised these issues but I m trying to make a comprehensive list of the parameters a person from HCI background can use to critique a interface to improve the Visual design. I'm mainly focussing on web for now.

ChrisF
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varun86
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    You'd want to read up on graphic design. Color theory, typography, fundamentals of design, etc. – DA01 Aug 16 '12 at 05:25
  • Also, what do you mean by 'tested'? And not sure what a 'Icon background color gradients' test would be. – DA01 Aug 16 '12 at 05:26
  • Recent material on information design is (I feel) a good cross-road. It should give good concrete guidance with regard to design. User interface design books seem to skimp on this and have a lot of "fait accomplis" filler and no real guidance. – Chris Aug 16 '12 at 05:45
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    Are you going to critique the designers or their work? "Lack of understanding of typography." – FrankL Aug 16 '12 at 07:17
  • A designer who just knows typography to be a technique to change font size, color, weight etc. is someone I consider not to be a graphic designer who understands typography. A designer having knowledge of expressive typography, the process of construction of new fonts etc. is someone I consider to have a good understanding of typography. – varun86 Aug 16 '12 at 07:36
  • @DA01 I m aware of those basics, so only I gave the existing critique :) I was looking for something on the lines of the following paper. .http://www.dagstuhl.de/Materials/Files/08/08292/08292.BertelsenOlav.Paper.pdf – varun86 Aug 16 '12 at 07:41
  • I probably shouldn't have used the word testing, anyways I meant that I found the following problem as a recurring trend. An icon in itself has various layers( the symbol, background color and the enclosing shape for all the elements). Background gradient was making it look like the symbol has just been thrown on top of background colors. – varun86 Aug 16 '12 at 07:49
  • No offense,but do you know enough about graphic and visual design to offer critique ? You said you come from a HCI background so your line of thinking might be different from them – Mervin Aug 16 '12 at 08:47
  • Although I did take couple of classes in graphic design but I would not call myself a expert. Do I know enough to critique graphic and visual design? This question has 2 answer's: 1. I understand the basics of graphic design so I feel I can tell a graphic designer when a graphical element needs improvement. 2. I can't tell the graphic designer how to get that desired improvement in terms of the tools or the process he has to follow to get the final target. I know the process myself but I don't want them to feel that they are working to satisfy me but rather it is a team effort. – varun86 Aug 16 '12 at 12:52
  • One useful reference that has a lot of dos and don'ts and parameters, to use your word, is Universal Principles of Design - http://www.amazon.ca/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Lidwell/dp/1592530079 – ted.strauss Aug 16 '12 at 19:52
  • Thank you for the recommendation @ted.strauss. I m surely considering buying this book in near future. – varun86 Aug 21 '12 at 02:37

1 Answers1

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(I decided to turn my comment into an answer)

Get them to tell you a story.

The story of how they developed the piece, what the key elements are and why that is important.

Through the process of introspection and explanation both you and the designer could come to some valuable realisations. If the answer is something like "umm...because it just is". Then you might have cause for concern.

Design is storytelling. Design has purpose.

What is the design for? What personality should it have?

If you know what the design is trying to communicate and to which type of users it needs to relate, this should provide a frame of reference. Is it bold and loud? Professional? Caring? Does the design communicate these traits?

Do you want the icon to stand out in a crowded app store? Does it shape the customer perception in the desired way?

If you keep the discussion about business and user goals you reduce the risk of it sounding like a personal attack.

Designers can be their own harshest critic

Many good designers have found a way to be constructively critical of themselves. They needed to in order to improve their skills. To be at the top of their game.

The designer should present their work. Explaining how they arrived at the solution and how this meets the stated goals. Others can then ask questions or provide their views within this context.

If a designer can't elicit and work with feedback in a healthy way their value is limited. You will just be having the same battles over again.

Managers: If you hired a designer for their design expertise and the business and customer goals have been central to how you work, then you should place some trust in the designer. Ultimately, this can be backed up with data - test early and often.

Jay
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  • +1, not because it answers the topic, but it's a nice summary on design. Wish I could make my previous emp's UX department think this way, instead of "You have an SE degree, managers have SE or MBA degrees, neither of you understand design, neither of you understand users, don't criticize our work, it's perfect, it's just you can't see it" - that went on until I started to be a UX designer for my department............ – Aadaam Aug 16 '12 at 11:28
  • Thanks. I was cautious in listing parameters to critique a design because I don't think this is the best approach. Its when the elements of design combine to form a story to addresses the goals that any meaningful judgements occur. A designer might describe elements such as line, shape, shade etc. But these are given meaning by a story. – Jay Aug 16 '12 at 13:33
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    Oh, don't worry... they presented a set of wireframes with imperative statements on how things should behave, without any backdrop on why, so, it's not just about visuals. Once I wrote this on the cover of a UX recommendation /wireframe presentation: Elegance is minimalism in beauty: An elegant solution is nothing more, nor less, than the perfect counterpart of the problem it addresses. Design is, by definition, the journey to reach that solution. (and then it continued with problem statements and answers to each, building up a complete UI at the end) – Aadaam Aug 16 '12 at 13:54
  • Thanks for the answer Jay. I agree with most of what you said, however in my experience users mental model and expectations are greatly influenced by their past experiences using other technology tools( websites, apps etc.). Therefore if a designer should rely on testing with users only to meet a level of expectation user has based on other tools they have used (heuristics, task analysis etc.) If a designer wants to create the "wow" factor in the designs and surprise end users then testing is not very helpful. Hope that makes sense. Thanks again. – varun86 Aug 21 '12 at 02:37
  • @varun86 But how do you know if the wow factor has been achieved? Testing doesn't have to mean asking the customer about their expectation. I use it to mean anything that can build your understanding of the context within which you are designing. – Jay Aug 21 '12 at 07:51
  • Testing is done for various parameters like visual design, conceptual design, interaction design, usability, content etc. If any of these parameters already have a well known design solution then yeah I agree testing in 30 min can give a quick feedback, however if there is a interaction or any aspect of design is never heard of and the designer has a good rationale behind something innovative then testing it over 30-40 min usability test will not give the true user feedback. However if the company is willing to invest in a long term study then testing of this new design might give feedback. – varun86 Aug 22 '12 at 13:26
  • Although it might not sound user centric but the learning curve associated with a new design is not something usability testing are geared towards. Coming to your question of how wow factor success is measured, I feel a long term study with a very high fidelity fully functional prototype is the way to go. It sounds risky from a business perspective but I think designers have to be willing to take chances and believe in their ability :) – varun86 Aug 22 '12 at 13:32
  • Great list. I would add: "What is the problem your design solves?" – Raydot Jun 05 '15 at 19:03