Designing and developing anything of consequence is incredibly challenging. – Jonny Ive
The great paradigm in design is that it involves a variety of disciplines which are ever-changing based on the task you want to accomplish. In the digital world, we have typically broken these disciplines into two categories: user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
UI is simple the visual aesthetic that’s been created to define a product, service, site or idea. And UX is a more emotional object that works with UI to decide how a user interacts with this product, service, site or idea.
At PIXL, our workflow combines both UI and UX into a single spectrum to help us deliver the best design experience possible. This focus benefits clients and users but can slow the entire process down to ensure a higher level of attention to detail. It can also be hard for the designer or developer to make sure both disciplines are covered in the right ways.
But the reward is beautiful.
We believe design is more than an interface, but rather it’s a way of thinking about solving problems in the world. It considers both the visual aesthetic, the experience, and it also helps paint a story of why. The why can be different for each project. Maybe it’s why the problem exists in the first place or why this particular solution is the best one available. Or maybe it’s simple why bother?
Steve Jobs once told a story about helping his dad create solid wood cabinets. His dad shared the reason they didn’t use a veneer in the back wasn’t because a user would know, but because he would know. And attention to detail like that mattered if you wanted to stay true to yourself and deliver the best product possible.
In our experience, this story is completely true. And it’s why our focus on UI/UX is simply following a trend. But it’s so much bigger than that. The visual design is as important as the design and structure of our code. The user experience is as important as the server setup or content on a page.
We’ll be sharing specifics soon about how our team structures our workflow, our code, our prototypes and more. But to begin the path of design-thinking, you have to start with world changing. It’s the things that seem so insignificant that anyone could do them, that often are the most significant in being successful.
