Visual Design Variations
Explore multiple ideas and come up with the best solution for a problem
Probably on a daily basis, you face multiple situations that require you to make decisions, but in each case, you have to decide between different alternatives to know how to make the best use of a particular situation. Design is not different, a project comes with challenges that give design problems, for we have to explore and create different ways of solving it and to make a decision for a better solution. In visual design, we call them Visual Design Variations.
It is a common and important statement in design, that the first idea is not always the best solution. A Neurologist David Eagleman defines this behavior to the fact that our brains are lazy by nature and that idea is probably the easiest solution to the problem that you might think. But in the craft of design, the best solution is probably not the easiest.
One of the main objectives of design is innovation, and the chances that the first idea that comes to our mind is unique are very low. On the other hand, how could you know if that solution is the best one if you don’t have any other to compare, that’s why design is an iterative process, where we explore multiple solutions to get the best result.
Visual design is not an exception and iteration takes place throughout the process, but it is important to point out that not everything is needed to have variations. A variation needs to have a problem statement to support that effort.
It is important to know that variation does not mean the changing colours, size or arrangement of the design elements because of an aesthetic purpose. a variation should have a concept or process of thinking behind it that solves a visual challenge or problem in a different way than your current approach, you can have multiple variations but each of them should solve the visual challenge in a different way. In order to do this, a good practice is to have a proper process to create, evaluate and define the best solution for visual challenges.
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Below are the ideal steps one needs to follow to reach to effective variations
1. Define Visual Challenges
In visual design, we identify visual challenges at different stages of the process that requires different types of variations:
Early beginning: Any project has an early understanding of the expected outcome, in this stage we as visual designers start to ideate and define concepts for the visual treatment of the entire product based on requirements that most probably you could find in the design brief. This is a challenge that for sure every visual designer faces.
After wireframes sign off: You may face multiple challenges in terms of framework, layout, components, patterns, etc. after receiving the final wireframes. Here, it is important to identify the main challenges that require a thought process beyond applying style to the component already implemented in the wireframe. As visual designers, our job is to take wireframes to the next level. Applying colors and styles is an easy solution but remember that it’s not a design work then, rather it would just be a coloring work. Let’s take an analogy of human skeleton, here skeleton acts like a wireframe and now the next challenge is to create a well functional body around it. A designer won’t just paint the skeleton but they will explore various aspects like how much muscle portions should be designed for a particular part, and so on. A visual designer’s challenge is very much similar.
During Visual Execution: The project is always open to changes and reviews, in these situations it is likely that a pattern, or a layout, among many other things, would not work properly or require some change, are also challenges for which we need to create variations.
After Visual Execution: In visual design it is important to have usability testing that allows us to identify what is working and what is not. Mostly these tests throw insights that derive new visual challenges which take us to iterate and create new variations on the things that are not working.
A visual challenge must allow you to ideate on the problem, here setting the solution as a visual challenge is a common mistake, for example “how to use a card to group information” is wrong due that the problem is proposing a solution already, instead the visual challenge could be “How to group related information effectively”, in this way you can find a bigger spectrum of variations.
Once you have identified and prioritized your challenges, you may be able to group them into categories that allow you to better organize your process.
2. Ideate
Ideation is always important and could be done alone as well as could be a team job. It is recommended that you do it in a team because that will expose you to a wider spectrum or perspective of ideas. Since you’ve already identified and prioritized your challenges or concepts, think each one at a time, always consider the requirements and behaviors of your users, if you find yourself stuck in one, start with another and come back later.
As a good practice, begin with a blank paper and annotate every idea that comes to your mind, then compare it with your team to see the uniqueness and opportunities. To enhance your knowledge on ideation, visit our ideation topic [Link].
3. Find Inspiration
This step could be done parallelly to the process of ideation, but it is recommended at least to do the first round of ideation without looking at inspirations so as not to get biased to create unique solutions.
*Example of an inspiration board of how a leadboard of users could be shown?
The collection of inspirations could be in different levels, Direct Level Inspirations look at solutions from other designs directly related to your project, Cross-Industry Level Inspirations look at solutions from other industries that are not directly related to your current project but can bring uniqueness to the solution, and Concept Level Inspirations where inspirations could come from anywhere, from the tangible or intangible world, these inspirations tend to create the most unique solutions but are the hardest to find. The challenge defines the kind of inspiration and the solution for it as well, to know more about inspirations, check out our inspirations topic.
Once you have your inspirations and ideas, evaluate them with pros and cons and define the possible solutions for each of your visual challenges, define at least 2 final solutions per visual challenge and not more than 3.
4. Create and Document
Once you’ve got your final ideas, it’s time to design, put your ideas into your design, match the solutions to your visual challenges and document the intent and how the design solves them.
5. Evaluate, Define and Apply
After putting together the challenges and solutions, evaluate them with your team and if possible with your possible users, define the pros and cons for each solution and discard any solution that does not work.
If you find that all the solutions are not fulfilling, go back and do another round of thinking and inspiration gathering.
Now that the best solution is defined, apply across the design.
Tips / Best Practices
- Ideate in a team as it allows you a bigger spectrum of possible solutions.
- Test your possible solutions defining pros and cons.
- Ideate on first variation without inspiration, it can give you better chances of unique solutions.
- Document all the process from ideation to the final solutions.
- Iterate as many times as necessary, some solutions do not come in just one round.
Checklist
- Understand the intent of your design.
- Gather visual challenges in any stage of the process.
- Gather ideas and inspirations
- Document pros and cons of each of the possible solutions
- Filter the best solutions that solve better the challenge
- Design your solutions and evaluate them with your team and possible users.
- Identify the best solution and implement across your design
Related Topic
Quick Question
While designing variations how can you evaluate them?
- Testing them with real users.
- Documenting Pros and Cons.
- Discussing with the design team.
- None of the above.
Leave your answer in the comments section below!
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