I’ve been subscribing to a really great Design newsletter for a while now.If I may be permitted to advertise it, it is named BrandNew and is part of UnderConsideration .I love the fact that this newsletter and their current curators take the time to select projects, evaluate them, and justify their opinions in a coherent & consistent manner.Their process is quite different from say, Behance , whose curatorial process is obscure, and typically yields less than stellar results.
The Behance curatorial team, in particular the ones who specialize in Product Design and UI/UX topics, typically highlight projects with a great presentational layer, even if the content they’re showcasing isn’t actually representative of a real product, or for that matter, of a Design Thinking process or something that can be implemented.
And yes, there is room for this type of vision and concept work, and thankfully there are Designers who pursue it furiously — however, and for all their good intentions, this simply isn’t Product Design, since a big component of that discipline is in fact its implementation and ability to be executed, something that many of the products listed on Behance fail to objectively clarify (in all honesty, on my daily rummage through their content, these presentational projects invariably look fairly similar to each other, since they are all concepts built around very thinly defined requirements, which most of the times fail to represent the complexity of problems Designers have to solve for in reality).
Here’s what ProductPlan states about “Product Design as a discipline: “The key to successful product design is understanding the end-user customer, the person for whom the product is being created.Product designers attempt to solve real problems for real people by using empathy and knowledge of their prospective customers’ habits, behaviors, frustrations, needs, and wants”, whereas Wikipedia states “Product design process: the set of strategic and tactical activities, from idea generation to commercialization, used to create a product design”.
All this to say, concept work is needed, and has its importance and place, but should be identified as such, and not showcased as an example of a completed product, and not curated as part of a discipline that is all about solving actual problems.These considerations aside, one particular item that unifies both the experience of consuming BrandNew and Behance, is how invariably they both highlight projects that demonstrate an exhausting repetition of the latest trends in Visual/UI and sometimes Interactive patterns (remember a few years back when Parallax was all over, these days the trend is still the Brutalist Design movement, now married with a certain type of illustration and Serif font, which you can check aplenty on siteinspire and even awwwwards ).This article has been simmering for some time in my list of topics, since I’ve worked on products where the adoption of Trends without a clear strategy on why to do so, invariably produced results that were not optimal, eventually causing much avoidable friction and considerable costs.
Trends.Merriam-Webster defines “Trends” as “the general movement over time of a statistically detectable change”, whereas Trends in Design, well that topic in particular, the moment you place it in your search box in google, you get millions and millions of results.Every year, there are countless articles which assess and comment on the trends of a particular year that has gone by, in parallel with a slew of articles focused on upcoming trends that are at times very randomly generated (and on occasion frequently repeated from year to year).Trends can be observed in everything that surrounds us in society, be it culturally (in entertainment for instance, where superhero films have been a trend for over 20 years now, going back for instance to Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” which made its debut in 2000), financially (the constant back and forth surrounding crypto currencies), fashion, real estate, and the list goes on and on.The point is, trends are impactful across multiple levels in our lives, including what, why and how we consume.
They range from the trivial, to the massively macro-influential aspects, including for instance Global Warming.All this to say, Design in general and Product Design in particular, isn’t oblivious to the trends that come and go.
And trends do have a role to play, since users and consumers become accustomed to what these trends represent, which can have both its good and bad points.
As Product Designers go through their exercise in crafting product solutions with their peers and partners on that journey, identifying Trends and Market Analysis, is a fundamental component of what they need to perform, in order to also understand what users have come to expect and behaviors these same trends have shaped or even modified.This understanding can further potentiate the reach and the resonance of product solutions, since much like Jacob’s Law ( laws of UX ) defines, most users spend their time on other products, therefore when they use a novel solution, or product, they come to expect behaviors and patterns to be somewhat identical.And while that may be true, particularly when it comes to patterns, it’s important that Designers and their teams don’t lose track of what they’re trying to solve, and who are they solving it for.Also and equally important, it’s fundamental to keep in mind principles of Design such as Innovation, Honesty, Thoroughness, Clarity, Long Lasting, all qualities that very much transcend some Trends that frequently have an expiration date.
The point is: the goal is not to replicate a Trend just because it’s a movement or a style that is pervasive and prevailing.The goal is crafting solutions that resonate with the users/clients, but also fulfill business goals, and are sensical with what the brand stands for.Many products and many organizations that go through rebranding exercises, end up with concepts that are a sheer demonstration of a trend, which bear no relationship with what they are and what they stand for.A brand that is 150 years old doesn’t become youthful just for adopting a particular font or illustration style, the same way a particular software package doesn’t become more usable because it changes its colors: whatever drives changes, those motivations should be part of a complex equation, where other factors also come into play, and help guide a solution that should be coherent and consistent with what the brand and product experience is trying to say, as opposed to being a gratuitous and vacuous exercise that soon runs out of relevance, once another trend comes along.
Investigate and Deliberate.The power of a Trend and of a solid pitch can’t be denied.
I’ve worked in both B2B and B2C products in my career.I’ve also worked in products where decisions were made on implementation strategies without much consideration on Product Design Principles/Process and Usability itself.Typically when situations such as the one I just described occurs, one can’t help but wonder why Design and its practitioners aren’t brought in to the discussion, since these decisions have a profound impact on how the solution is crafted and how users ultimately experience it.
Take for instance one of the experiences I worked on, where a platform for implementation was chosen, without a clear understanding of how that relationship between implementation & platform would translate into an experience to the user/client.The Design Process was crafted with an eclectic array of participants, including Product, Development, Internal Stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts, and Partners in the ecosystem, not forgetting of course, clients.The solution was iterated and tested profusely, with every phase of the process documented aplenty.However, when the implementation phase begun, the issues and limitations with the platform started popping up like mushrooms in a humid environment.The eternal expression “Anything can be done with enough time and money” never really happens when it comes to Product Design, and it shouldn’t.The goal isn’t to embark on a perfectionist journey (though the film has since been reevaluated, we’re not building “Heaven’s Gate” ), but to create a product that resonates, that solves issues and that can be embraced and hopefully mature alongside its users (and their habits).In this particular example, we soon realized that the experience that had been crafted, had to be substantially molded in order to adjust itself to the platform of choice.
And while adaptability and flexibility are staples of any Product Design journey, the usability and what is uncovered during the Design process itself, is what informs the relevance of what the product should be.
The point to this experience ultimately is: no matter how nicely crafted or pitched a Trend is, always remember that there are implications to it, positive and negative.Balancing these two aspects and assessing their impact on the user/client is fundamental on the journey that the teams are embarking on.
Mixing it Up.While working with a Startup, I had an opportunity to build a Product Design strategy, alongside Development, Business and Partnership peers, across a multi-channel type of engagement.This strategy was crafted with the purpose of better clarifying the stance of the Organization itself and what the product delivered to its clients.The process involved leveraging considerations that had been done surrounding product experience, but also branding, and potential expansion of the ecosystem itself in which this application existed.We collectively analyzed trends on the market, and they informed some of the decision making process, particularly when it came time to prioritize items to focus on for MVP.
We were able to build artifacts to be distributed and shared across multiple platforms, including social media, all with the goal to help create momentum and visibility to the Organization and Product itself.This is an example where Trends were a powerful ally in further potentiating the outreach we were vying for, as opposed to being a dictatorial element.They helped establish a communication gateway between our clients and the brand itself, while also potentiating it for continuous growth.
Reality Check.Trends have the power to bring awareness, while also can become obsolete and irrelevant, at times quite rapidly.They also can expose strategies that are very shallow, and ultimately not rooted in what a brand and product experience are about (and need).For Designers in general, it has become a yearly (or dare I say it, monthly? daily?) exercise to analyze the trends that come and go, at times advocating for the emergence of new ones, while simultaneously advocating for the demise of others (remember skeuomorphism and material design discussions, which still occur to this day).
One thing to remember is that while trends can indeed make product experiences far better and at times more resonant with users, they’re not a typical cut and paste type of engagement.
Product Experiences, Brand experiences, should be the convergence of Longevity & Maturity / User & Client Relationships and a Deliberate stance in terms of what the brand is all about (its philosophy and its principles).
I’ll conclude with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson on the topic of carving a sound path:
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Impact without Consideration (a reflection on Trends) was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story..
