The detail, the quality
The designer is dead and is being buried by the new designers. This reflection has many more edges, but they are diffuse ideas that I have been developing over the last few years.
We have professionalized ourselves in areas of product design that forsake the passion for the final result. A wall of post-its sells more than a coherent end product. Design, strategy, and business are not subjects up for debate; they are established facts. Undervaluing parts of the process based on these pillars indicates an unwillingness to acknowledge potential shortcomings as professionals.
Quality extends beyond a good process; it encompasses everything surrounding it. Your product doesn't improve by reducing interactions. We must reassess the journey in creating these interactions. Which do you prefer: enjoying a kilometer-long stroll through a pleasant forest or a 500-meter walk down a straight, urban, gray, emotionless street? There may be intermediate points, but the key is to make the path straightforward, not plain. Sometimes, this means prioritizing the product over the customer. It's a challenging sacrifice when we rely solely on manipulated or misinterpreted data.
In many designers' meetings, we dream of examples like Apple, but we often lose ourselves in our processes. Failing to value the end result from the outset condemns us to a final product with few options for retrospection and rethinking fundamental aspects.
We all aspire to higher quality, but we must be committed from the outset. We must reengage with all our design skills, not just focus on the post-it.
It's becoming increasingly challenging because the market has led us to create designer profiles with significant deficiencies in design, or what we once knew as design. While workshops and PowerPoint presentations abound, there's limited capacity to materialize things with a minimum level of quality or final vision.
Indeed, it's the attention to detail that renders a product unique, beautiful, and memorable. Furthermore, considering additional perspectives such as branding and marketing helps us close the loop.
Apple can market this functionality across all its channels because it has carefully considered how, aside from being useful, it's engaging and exciting for the customer.
Having worked in a bank, I understand that such an approach is difficult, if not impossible. Yet, everyone aspires to emulate Apple. It's curious.
Any post-it designer would create this Airbnb filter with a radio button; it's the right approach, defining the design system. I would test both this version and the one with radio buttons, likely opting for the radio button option as it's clearer and faster.
Airbnb utilized this screen-animation to promote its new version and captivate diverse audiences.
With these two examples, I want to emphasize that we must think beyond the structures we impose on ourselves. We must add the final touch to the product, making it special, unique, and, above all, considering the customer's journey. The experience should be savored and remembered. I apologize if this deviates from the design system, but the product transcends that. It's more than a flow. Quality begins when we embrace these aspects of design.
“Design is not just about solving functional problems, but also about creating emotional experiences.” – Don norman
I would love to hear your thoughts on this short reflexion.
Thank you!