How Collaboration Makes us Better Designers | Better UX

The concept of the solitary creative Better UX genius is a myth. When I initially started as a fashioner. I felt like my structures must be finished before I could demonstrate them to anybody. I think this defenselessness originates from an inclination that we as originators need to thoroughly consider each component before we can call a structured total. As a result, it can be tempting to withdraw — fully embrace the solitary designer stereotype — and assume the problems we’re facing are uniquely our own. But here’s the thing: usually, another person on your team has dealt with similar challenges.

It can be nerve-wracking, vulnerable, and challenging at times. But getting out of our heads and incorporating collaboration into our design processes can make us all better designers. Over the years, I’ve come to learn that designing collaboratively means putting your egos aside to make something that transcends the sum of its creators.

Here are six ways you can be more collaborative based on our process at Constructive:

Start a Conversation

I go through the greater part of my days freely considering cooperation ideas and visual executions with models, wires, portrays (bunches of portrayals). and .jpgs, .pdfs, and a few .sketch records. At the point when I arrive at a spot where I feel great that most chips have arrived in around the correct spots. I normally first connect with my kindred architects to get fast beginning responses, counsel on the best way to raise the work. and general tips on what’s working and so forth.

Better UX For Embrace Internal Reviews:

We always review internally before presenting designs to a client. It gives other designers on our team the chance to comment on the work. Talking through a design system with another person can be like a sieve for your ideas. What’s working? What’s an outlier? What are ways we can extend the system? Usually, after we talk through a problem. I reassure how to go forward because I know how other people have interacted with the prototype. It’s easy to justify a system’s flaws in your head when you’re the only person who’s seen the Better UX design. so it’s critical to get a second or third, or fifth opinion on design so we can make certain the system works and is helpful for everyone.

A live shot from one of our internal reviews.

It’s also good practice to test your ideas in presentation mode before having a formal client presentation. What sort of language am I using to describe the design? Is it intuitive enough. or do I have to explain my rationale for someone to understand the intention? If the latter is true, it’s a good indication that I might need to work through the design to get it to a place where it can exist without explaining how the user should interact with it.

Incorporate Prototype Testing For Better UX: A prototype can be anything. It can be a piece of paper, an interactive InVision board. a card sorting sitemap, or a general experience that’s used to test how a typical user engages with a product. When I’m uncertain about an assumption I have about a design, it helps to do some informal user testing with the Better UX design team and other colleagues. Testing with your team members is a good exercise for thinking through basic user experience patterns because everyone brings a unique understanding of web accessibility standards and how to improve usability. I did several rounds of user-testing on colleagues early on in developing the Better UX for Air Quality Life Index before doing around with target audience members to streamline controls and make sure there was a base understanding of how it functioned. Schedule Weekly Design Huddles And it’s important to come together as a group like this because it creates a forum for bringing up issues and opportunities that we’re experiencing as individual designers. A Constructive design huddle in action!

Share Inspiration:

Browsing the internet is primarily an individualized activity — unless, of course. you’re forcing everyone around you to watch videos of thirsty pets. We try to share and keep an organized record of all the things we see online that inspire us. We do this by using slack channels and Dropmark to categorize links to sites we like. It is an important practice because it makes browsing the internet a more collaborative activity. It allows us to understand each other’s reference points. And since we’re continuously learning from new experiences. it’s important to share what speaks to us in creative, professional, or personal ways. It’s also a good way to analyze what your competitors are doing and what techniques or trends shift the industry to new and exciting places. It also helps us align as a design practice through having a shared knowledge base about our creative inspiration and aspirations.

A screenshot of our Drop-mark. The web service we use to organize websites we dig here.

Collaborate on Larger Projects:

Bigger tasks request considerably more coordinated effort between fashioners. A portion of our ongoing group ventures have been re-propelling our site and structuring the Communication Network’s diary Change Agent. These ventures have permitted us to set our consciences aside and participate in important discussions about what’s best for the general task. It has been trying to give useful analysis on an associate’s work; however. when something is disturbing one individual, it’s normally irritating all the more as well. Giving each other criticism constrains us to have intense discussions about what we’re attempting to pass on with our structures and comprehend if something isn’t as comprehensive or open as it could be.

Conclusion:

Progressing in the direction of one brought together thought additionally permits us to learn aggregate procedures and information. I didn’t have the foggiest idea about that much about creation work before re-trying the Constructive site. So I thought hard for a while making sense of advancing pictures for the web (see future knowledge). It was just when different fashioners began assisting with a creation that we gained from one another to make a procedure that worked based on the entirety of our mutual information. Technique and procedure cement when they happen ordinarily with various individuals after some time.

Final Thoughts:

Why am I telling you this? The obvious answer is that any team needs to collaborate to work successfully. That holds a nugget of truth. but the real answer goes much further. No matter your discipline — design, development, content, or strategy — I believe we get better each day as individuals by engaging in challenging conversations with each other. It, in turn, creates a much stronger, more powerful team.

So if you take anything from this, it’s that:

1. We all strive to create excellent work that conveys truth and value.
2. Our differences make us stronger together.
3. We’ll never recommend using Helvetica as your brand typeface.