Why do people struggle to judge designs? Many non designers may lack confidence in their ability to judge a design. Consequently they feel shy to give their own honest feedback to experienced professionals in design meetings. They may find it difficult to explain in detail what is wrong and how to improve the design. Also they hold back from saying anything in design meetings due to lack of creative confidence. Because they feel that the professional designers have the monopoly on creativity and design understanding. Who pays the bills of the designer? It is true to say that most non designers are the people who judge designs on a daily basis. They make up 99% of the population who are buying the designs. Also they can understand when things don’t look aesthetically pleasing or have a great user experience. However they often lack the ability to pinpoint exactly why the design isn’t working out well. The rules of design Many say that design preferences are subjective, like art. But this is not true because graphic and product design must generally follow rules in order to be effective. And one can only truly judge a design’s effectiveness if we know what was the original brief. What were the creative problems which the design has to solve? If there is no clear brief, then we can only judge a design on aesthetics. We cannot judge its ability to communicate a message clearly in this situation. How to Judge a Design What is a good design? Here are some points to help non designers to be confident when they judge a design. We want to help people to analyse better why some designs don’t seem to work: Does the design fix the problem which it set out to resolve? If it doesn’t do this then it’s best to go back to the drawing board and not go any further. Can we say that it is appropriate for the target audience? Does it set the right tone and does it give the right image to position the brand correctly? Are all the graphical elements and fonts all communicating the same image and message or are they conflicting? Does the text have easy to read text? No point having a beautiful design with text you can’t read it properly. Is the focal point of the design clear or do you find your eye is looking in two conflicting directions? Is the product appropriate for the market in which it is going to be shown? Cultural considerations can be important for design. Does it look attractive? This is the area where most non designers might struggle most to articulate themselves. The key elements to help you judge a design are as follows : Layout – are the elements within the layout having balance and harmony? Sometimes a designer might deliberately put design elements in unusual positions in a design to disrupt and avoid predictability. However it still achieves an overall harmonious composition. Is there a clear focal point hierarchy of design to show what is the most important information? Colors – did the designer use the appropriate colors to communicate the emotion you wanted. Will this appeal to the required audience? Don’t forget cultural differences for colors here and that different colors appeal to different age groups. Style – are the fonts and other graphical elements consistently communicating the same style appropriate to the target audience? Are these elements solving the problem set out in the client brief? Spacing and positioning. Sometimes changing the spacing between elements can have a dramatic effect. Fonts – how many fonts did they use and do they contrast well and work in harmony? When we judge a design we generally say that 2 to three fonts maximum work best. More than this creates confusion. Industry norms – certain design norms exist in some industries, We must judge a design based on these norms to see if the design will fit in. Is the product recognizable as a product within a certain product and price sector and, if it differs greatly, is there a good reason for it to break out of the norms? Was this the requirement of the client brief? For some ideas on design norms in some industries you can check out websites like thedieline.com. Understanding is key to judging a design… Non designers – don’t be afraid to speak out when you don’t agree with a creative concept. But also don’t forget to think about what the design brief was and which problems it is trying to solve. You must try to judge a design on whether they have managed to do this in a clear and appropriate way. If people understand what the design communicates, then the design has done its job, even if you don’t like it. If you liked this article, you might enjoy reading our article ‘Same, same but different’ . In this article we discusses the subject of whether we should be ‘inspired’ by other perfume designs. […]
How to judge a design as a non designer
