Design Pro Tips
These are my personal “design and business” experience..
Tip #01 — Align left
It also creates dynamism in your compositions. Remember, less is more. Aligning left reduces the number of edges to one, improving readibility.
Tip #02 — Be useful
I constantly need to remind myself this. I’m not working for myself, or for my portfolio: I’m working to serve the client and be useful, and sometimes what we think is useful might not be. So the best way is to ask: would this be useful? Or, how can I help?
Tip #03 — Forget the grid
Composing a layout is very much like laying stuff on a table and ordering them. Turn off the grid for a moment, and once you laid the elements, turn it on to make the necessary, small adjustments.
Tip #04 — Don’t abuse tracking
Tracking is the space between a group of characters. As a rule of thumb, you want to avoid characters overlapping.
Tip #05 — CTA
Use only one primary CTA (call to action).
Tip #06 — Make it direct
When possible, try to avoid taking the user to an edit page. It’s much better to allow the user to edit inline, because by maintaining context it’s easier for people to process the change. This simulates what happens when we change something in real life.
Tip #07 — Make it flow
A smooth rag (the shape of the vertical margin of a block of text) flows smoothly like the tides. A stormy rag has an irregular shape. When possible, make sure that the rag of your paragraphs flows smoothly.
Tip #08 — Isolation can be good
When it comes to typography. Sometimes it’s not necessary to change typeface, size, color, weight, or any other variable to differentiate the title and give it hierarchy. Sometimes just changing the position and giving it white space around it, is more than enough. Remember: “less is more”.
Tip #09 — You’re not an artist
And your job is not to express yourself, but help the client express themselves. I used to believe my work was serving my portfolio, but I’ve learned that my work should serve the client, and solve their problem. I now believe that good design is servanthood. That’s why we call it a “service”, right?
Tip #10 — Don’t fear white space
Don’t feel the urge to fill the canvas with elements. White space is an element in itself, and we use it to give hierarchy to the content, guide the users eye to it, and reduce cognitive load.
Tip #11 — Make it “affordable”
According to Donald A. Norman, “an affordance is the design aspect of an object which suggests how the object should be used; a visual clue to its function and use”. Buttons should show they are clickable by their appearance.
Tip #12 — Be imperative
Choose imperative verbs for your CTAs, that describe what the user will accomplish by clicking there. You’ll get better odds of the user actually clicking.
Tip #13 — To have more, become more
There’s few things more frustrating than wanting an extraordinary life without becoming an extraordinary person. This applies not only to your economic income, but to every area of your life.
Tip #14 — Prepare for the worst
Everything works perfectly with fake content. But an interface well designed is the one that is prepared for scalability. Always define constraints and consider the edge cases in your design. This tip is broad, so I might develop it more with more examples.
Tip #15 — Ask more questions
Amateurs give advice, experts ask questions. Wether in a meeting with a client, or with your peers, or even with your friends, learn to hear others before you give them your opinion. You need to meet people right where they are, before you can help them move forward.
Tip #16 — Ask better questions
The quality of the questions you ask, determines your level of expertise. The more you learn, the better the questions you’ll ask.
Tip #17 — Learn to listen
It’s not enough to ask questions. It’s also necessary to listen well. To do this well you need to come to the table empty. Discard assumptions.
Tip #18 — Become a lifelong student
Most people strive to graduate so they don’t have to study anymore. But here’s what I’ve learned: formal education will earn you a living, which is okay. But self education will earn you fortunes (monetary, emotional, spiritual, etc), which is more than ok 😊 Three key areas of life to study: yourself, others, and the environment.
Tip #19 — Learn to say “no”
Don’t let your mouth overload your back. I used to fear that if I said “no”, people might get offended or would reject me. Now I’ve learned that’s something I don’t have the right to control.
Tip #20 — Read books
It’s the cheapest, most effective way to get inside the mind of someone you admire, and learn from people who already walked the path you’re on. We all learn from mistakes: be smart and learn from the mistakes of others.
5 Bonus Tips:
Tip #1 — Prove it and they’ll make it rain
People will only hire you to do the work you show you can do. So a key to getting a full-time job, or new freelance leads, is to show the type of work you would like to get hired for.
Tip #2 — Do more..
Do more than what you’re paid for, as an investment in yourself and others. Generosity will take you to places you couldn’t imagine.
Tip #3 — Think outside the box
Typography can be used like text, or like shape. When you scale it up so that it goes out of the canvas, the eye starts to recognize it as a shape, adding a level of depth to your design.
Tip #4 — “Sift”
I believe you don’t need a 1000 typefaces. Just because you write “dog”, the typography doesn’t need to bark. Like Massimo Vignelli taught, you can go with just a handful of typographies and reduce the visual pollution created by the use of thousands of badly designed typefaces. This is Massimo Vignelli’s safe list: Helvetica, Bodoni, Garamond, Century Expanded, Futura, Times New Roman, Caslon, Optima, Univers and Baskerville.
Tip #5 — Be forgiving
In the words of Donald Norman, error is often thought of as something to be avoided or something done by unskilled or unmotivated people. But the truth is that designers should take error into account when designing. That’s why the “trash can” was invented. This is specially important for actions like deleting or editing. Give users the chance to undo an error: assume they will make mistakes. This is what we call “forgiveness”.
Bonus “business” Tips:
- The most important thing when forging client relationships is trust
- The client has to have firm belief that you have the ability to solve the problem that they have
- The client is not the enemy, it is not an us vs. them mentality
- Create mutually beneficial relationships. Win-Win situations
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