gillgill.co.uk

I was listening to the awesome Boagworld podcast the other day and the Five Second Test website was mentioned, this is a great site where you can do the most simple but effective usability test available to test your website.

For anyone that doesn’t know what a five second test is, it is where you show a design for five seconds to someone who hasn’t seen the site before and get the person to answer questions about it. This could be asking what the most prominent feature was on the design, or the three things they remember most clearly. My first experience of this sort of usability test is from a usability course I attended several years ago where everyone on the course were shown the ESPN website for a minute and then afterwards we were asked to sketch out the website layout. Not a single person in the room could picture what was on the right hand column but we could all remember where the navigation and key promotions were placed. I was stunned that we consistently missed the same information and my obsession with usability started from there.

I have gone on to use that test myself and it always proves to be useful. I know my site inside out, I was involved in the requirements, wireframing and design so of course I know where to look for the key elements but having a service where a site can be tested with random users is a great way to get real honest feedback on a design.

Obviously the downside is you can’t control who is taking the test, it might not be your target audience, and the chances are it will be pretty web savvy people taking the test so not your average Joe but at the same time it is a useful tool to get quick feed back on your site. And its most basic set up is free so there are no complaints from me and now there are no excuse not to user test your design!

http://fivesecondtest.com

It would be fair to say that recently my job role has changed significantly and I now find myself managing a team of designers doing creative work as well as doing this work myself. Redweb’s training has always been great and they are very aware of throwing people into leadership roles when they aren’t ready but I still think that when it comes to managing creative work there is no way of teaching this skill.

Obviously as a designer I am told about a project and I instantly start to form an idea in my head about how I would personally design that website and usually I get quite excited about this design. But then what happens when its not me scheduled to work on the concept and I have to oversee a junior doing that design instead?

I have seen a few examples (and have been at the wrong end of them too) when a Lead Designer gets an idea in their head and they won’t let it go. It doesn’t matter what you do on the screen, how perfect you think your design is for the client it just isn’t what that person overseeing your work wants. In some cases, I have even designed something in my way and it has gone through rounds and rounds of iterations until I have pretty much designed what is in my overseers head - and this is before the client has even seen it! In the overseers eyes its perfect but in mine its not what I wanted to do and feels messy and wrong.

So what is the right way to manage a designer? Firstly, I think it is important for everyone to have a ‘vision’ in their heads. Leads and Junior designers and even Account Execs and Project Managers too can all have an opinion but its important to let the designer who is doing the concept do it their way. If brainstormings, wireframes, mood boards, research and sketches are all done initially then hopefully everyone involved in the project has a clear idea of where the concept is going.

Its important that people then let go of the control of the design and let the designer get on with it, obviously its vital to get regular feedback but thinking back to my experience I think i did the best work when I felt like I had been trusted to do the design and as someone in a Junior role nothing does more for your confidence than thinking that someone trusts you to do a good job.

So in conclusion, let go! Its difficult to trust someone with your designs but actually the times I have sat back and watched a team get on with it they have produced some fantastic work. I hope that my input and guidance helped but ultimately I trusted them and they produced the goods so everyone is a winner!

I recently realised that some of best creative ideas, whether that is for designs, iPhone apps or flash games, have occurred to me when I am least expecting them, I might be on the treadmill at the gym or taking a walk along the beach and a great idea pops into my head! I am guessing that everyone has their own ways of getting inspired and creative, and maybe sitting at your computer staring at a blank Photoshop file is not the best place to start with coming up with ground breaking ideas. So what is it that helps people come up with creative and ingenious ideas and how can we get that working in our jobs?

Let your mind wander
Don’t think I am suggesting that you spend all your time daydreaming, but letting your mind wander for a little personally really helps me think about different ideas that I might not have come up with if I was more focussed and thinking clearly about the task in hand. Like I said my shower is the main place I come up with ideas, I came up with my idea of the Redweb iGoogle skin in the shower! I think this works because mostly because I am relaxed and I have got no mobile, Twitter, Facebook, email or general office chatter to distract me. I can simply relax and think.

Question everything
Someone once told me to look for solutions to everyday problems, and all I could think was that I don’t have every day problems! But just because things seem to work ok doesn’t mean to say that can’t be improved and just getting in the habit of thinking how can this be improved helps with brainstorming generally. This also goes for design, when looking at other peoples designs question why designs have been done in certain ways, why that layout, those fonts, that style… it all helps when coming up with inspiration for your own work.

Look at other peoples points of view
I recently heard about a technique of brainstorming called Kaleidoscope brainstorming, which in simple terms means is coming up with ideas, not just your own but maybe an idea which each other member of the brainstorming team would like. this helps you think about not just what you like but what other people like and can help with creativity and innovation.

Discuss
I am lucky to have the best brainstorming buddy, he listens to ideas, he never (ok, very rarely) laughs at my suggestions but approaches them with positivity, he questions them and really makes you think about what I am saying. Our conversations quite often take a few tangents along the way but we are pretty good at just having fun with our ideas too. I am certain that these conversations are the reason I wake up some mornings with my genius idea, it must be playing on my mind.

Look for inspiration
This can be looking at web design galleries, flicking through magazines (Computer Arts is a personal favourite), or just wondering around town looking at logos, posters for events… you get the idea. Research what is already out there and question why it has been designed, built like it has. This will help you question your designs or ideas and really think them through compared to real-world stuff that is already out there. That being said…

Don’t be tied down by what is already out there or what is expected
For my blog and portfolio site I felt under pressure to do a really glossy design that many of my peers have produced, but I wanted to do something different to show that I can do different types of work and generally I get good feedback on my design and I like to think that is because it is slightly different to what people expect from a portfolio site without being too ‘out there’.

So that is a few pointers that I use when I am trying to think of innovative or creative ideas, I have found that the more I do follow these points the better I get at coming up with ideas and thinking on the spot when questioned by clients and colleagues and hopefully you will find these tips useful too.