By definition, Design is a method of problem solving.
\nDesign is not about creating something for your viewing pleasure. It’s about the challenge of solving a problem, something that doesn’t quite work or just feels ‘wrong’.
\nIt’s about loving that challenge. The bigger, the better. It’s a quite common perception that a designer’s work is all about how it looks, if the colour scheme matches your preferences or the typeface is your favourite.
\nBut good design is selfless. It’s aimed for the good and needs of others.
\nIt’s about communication. Sending a message and establishing a connection. One that goes directly to your brain, to trigger some kind of emotion that ultimately will lead you to do something.
\nIt’s about research. Understanding your audience and reaching out to them, in a language they comprehend and to say something they want to hear.
\nIt’s about purpose. Good design is intentional, in every step of the way. There are no random decisions and “Because it looks cool!†is not an acceptable argument.<\/p>\n
“Great products don’t spring from great designers like Athena from the skull of Zeus; instead, they were usually the result of a lot of trial and error, missteps and blind alleys, and hard work and deep thinking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There’s no secret sauce.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Great designers aren’t those with the most natural talent, or the smartest, or can draw the best. Great designers are those who’ve designed great products, period. And the only way to design those is the hard way. And while you might have a vision of how the product should be right from the start, it takes a lot of work to get it right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You have to explore. You have to prototype. You have to test. You have to see it live. You have to see someone using it. Only then do you get a refined design. No one gets it right the first time.â€<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
– Dan Saffer<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIf you focus all your efforts on making ‘pixel-perfect’ design, creating an awesome gradient on some button or grasping the perfect texture for your background, you’re shortsighted.
\nYou’re not solving the problem, just putting a whole lot of make-up on top of it. It still won’t work. It will still fail.
\nAs designers, we must spend most of our time understanding the problem we’re aiming to solve. We must follow the footsteps of those who we’re solving it for and walk on their shoes.
\nDesign is not about mastering a tool, but about mastering people.
\nYou can’t say you’ve succeeded in your design just because you got your client’s money or a tap on the back from your boss. You should witness what your users are doing with your design, how they are using it and if it made their lives easier. If it empowered them. Your work doesn’t end when it goes online as most of the learning will come from analysing the outcome of your solution.
\nIt takes time to know if your design is successful because it needs to be tested in the real world, by real people, who will use it daily in order to achieve something.
\nOnly then and only them can say if your design is good.
\nJoão Ferreira is a web designer and writer at GroupBuddies<\/a>. You can also find him on Dribbble<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By definition, Design is a method of problem solving. Design is not about creating something for your viewing pleasure. It’s about the challenge of solving a problem, something that doesn’t quite work or just feels ‘wrong’. It’s about loving that challenge. The bigger, the better. It’s a quite common perception that a designer’s work is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[781,61,782,460,703,719,776,777,778,779,780],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-13139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shop-center","tag-tip","tag-design","tag-tool","tag-ui","tag-usability","tag-ux","tag-basics","tag-decorations","tag-people","tag-principles","tag-solutions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Design Solutions, Not Decorations - Creative Market Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Design Solutions, Not Decorations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By definition, Design is a method of problem solving. Design is not about creating something for your viewing pleasure. It’s about the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Creative Market Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/crtvmrkt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-08T13:00:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-28T06:20:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jo\u00e3o Ferreira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jo\u00e3o Ferreira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/design-solutions-not-decorations\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/design-solutions-not-decorations\",\"name\":\"Design Solutions, Not Decorations - Creative Market Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-08T13:00:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-28T06:20:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/159aa2be8529c0f63bc38cabbc4e8dd2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/design-solutions-not-decorations#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/design-solutions-not-decorations\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/design-solutions-not-decorations#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Design Solutions, Not Decorations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Creative Market Blog\",\"description\":\"Creative Market Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Design Solutions, Not Decorations - Creative Market Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Design Solutions, Not Decorations","og_description":"By definition, Design is a method of problem solving. Design is not about creating something for your viewing pleasure. It’s about the","og_url":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations","og_site_name":"Creative Market Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/crtvmrkt","article_published_time":"2014-04-08T13:00:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-28T06:20:02+00:00","author":"Jo\u00e3o Ferreira","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@creativemarket","twitter_site":"@creativemarket","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jo\u00e3o Ferreira","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations","url":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations","name":"Design Solutions, Not Decorations - Creative Market Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-04-08T13:00:35+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-28T06:20:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/159aa2be8529c0f63bc38cabbc4e8dd2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-solutions-not-decorations#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Design Solutions, Not Decorations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/","name":"Creative Market Blog","description":"Creative Market Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13139"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=13139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}