How to create great 1st design for your startup

How to create great 1st design for your startup. Paulius Papreckis, Sr. UI designer at Seriously Inc.

II Design

III Build

IV Promote

I Explore

Education program cycle

You know that sound that Humpback Whales make? That’s what the logo should look like. * Actual quote from a client.

“

Avoid design by committee. * Even if your Mom thinks that red color would fit here.

1

Source: theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Hours of useless meetings and endless debates could be replaced with just a couple hours of testing to see

what users are really doing.

Quick tutorial. How to create good design for you startup.

I spent only 20 min. It looks good [as a teaser], but it’s far from great design.

Your job is to be unique. * The last thing the world needs is another startup. (Teehan-Lax)

2

Back in old days when myspace.com was still dominating…

Be prepared to change your mind. * Just because you did something one way yesterday does not mean it’s the right way to do something tomorrow. (Teehan-Lax)

3

dragdis.com

teehanlax.com

Wireframes? First user stories. * You don't tend to start wireframes until you've done the work of understanding your target users, what their goals are…

4

Three main questions to answer: Who? What? Why? * describes what your customer will do and get while using your application.

Think about visual hierarchy. * Great hierarchy isn’t always achieved by eliminating complexity, but by managing it (goodgreater).

5

Fit to scale: responsive. * Web is not fixed width. Means rethinking content creation. Create once, publish everywhere.

6

Smarthpones expected worldwide in 2013:

1.82 billion. * every day more Android phones are activated than babies are born in world

mediaqueri.es

Responsive Web Design  

•  Use the flexible (fluid) grid.

•  Think about content hierarchy

•  Break up with pixel-perfection.

•  Learn by doing.

© Dave Rupert

Web fonts are important. * As web typography improves, web designers want the same level of control print designers have.

7

Arial Verdana Georgia

Comic Sans

Colors are important as well. * designers must understand the meaning of colors in order to convey certain messages.

8

kuler.adobe.com

call to action

Learn to say no. * You can’t be great at everything, so pick what you are great at and say no to everything else. (Teehan-Lax)

9

design as process

design as outcome

The job of a designer is not self-expression,

it’s problem-solving.

Thank you. Questions? @PauliusP

paulius.papreckis@gmail.com