How to stress-test your design

Checklist to uphold the quality bar.

Source

Compared to making a binary decision, design can be a less straightforward and also a more subjective process. Because you often start out by framing the high-level problem, you take the big strokes first then drill down to the specifics.

What approach can we take to deliver a design that is ready and thorough? I’ve found it helpful to evaluate designs against a criteria, including asking the following questions.

• Big rocks: Does the design solve all the problems we care for?
• Understandability: Is the design clear to use?
• Usable at scale: Does the design scale across different locations, devices, and literacy?
• Craft: Are you proud of details in the design?

1. Big rocks

Make sure design nails down all the important problems.

A. Revisit the problems, and prioritize them if you haven’t done so already.
Prioritizing by identifying the big rocks is a method that fits in naturally with the design process.

B. Go down the prioritized list, and assess which problems design doesn’t solve well.

C. Determine whether these are edge cases to revisit later or important problems to solve for now.

2. Understandability

Make sure design is clear to use and requires minimum hand-holding.

• Can new users self-guide themselves through the intended design? You can find different tools and various insights already on how user testing that can help shed light here.
• Is the design requiring users to change their previous behavior? Check to make sure any kind of hand-holding adds effective reinforcements instead of adding noise.
• Does the design focus on the right elements at the right context? Avoid analysis paralysis.
• Do the icons and visual language convey a clear message? Strip away the text and see what they tell.

3. Usable at scale

Make sure design is usable with your users across the different locations, devices, and literacy level.

• Is there an opportunity to simplify the verbiage further? Language is a key part of design. Eliminate any unnecessary complexity.
• Does the design scale well across different localization? There are resourceful insights out there, including internationalzation and different use-cases.
• Does the design scale well across key device types? Aim to make it feel native and fit to the device user is on.

4. Craft

Attention to detail matters as much as the thinking behind a design. But this is also an aspect where there isn’t one right answer.

Rely on your designer gut to evaluate the level of craft in the design. Be reasonable with the constraints you are designing under, but make sure that the design is what you feel proud of.

There are different ways to uphold the quality of your designs. The big rocks, understandability, usable at scale, and craft are just a few to evaluate what you may be missing. If there are ways that have worked well for you, I would love to learn about them.

I share my reflections as writings on Medium, visual inspirations on Instagram, and bite-sized thoughts on design & work on Twitter.