Which UI is better? The importance of contextual design

Creating functional and delightful experiences while maintaining proper context

Vasudha Mamtani
UX Collective
Published in
3 min readJan 19, 2022

Like most people who think about it, this piece about contextual design was triggered by a ‘Which UI is better’ post on LinkedIn.

I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. The standard template of the post which has a snippet of two interfaces and a polling option along with a question that asks the audience to choose which interface is “better”.

Sample LinkedIn UI poll with sky high engagement
Sample LinkedIn UI poll with sky high engagement

That’s it. That’s the entire post. There is no background, no explanation, nothing. Just look at the images and vote.

Apart from reach and engagement, I’m not sure what these posts are meant to achieve. I have seen comments and even counter posts that explain the problem with these polling questions.

Related:

So, what is contextual design?

A couple of days ago, I came across a thread on Reddit where a designer asked this question –

If I have 80 columns in a table, is horizontal scrolling the only way to design the experience?

Here is a snippet of the response I found most apt –

Several people in this thread have had a knee-jerk reaction along the lines of, “80 columns! That’s so many columns! Way too many!”. Sometimes it really is the right thing to do. Sometimes a horizontal-scroll mega-table is just what people want.

This is what contextual design is.

Design that is created to fit the requirements of the target users, no matter how un-aesthetic it might be. As designers, it is up to us to understand and gauge what our users want and create solutions that are usable and delightful; usable first, delightful after.

A piece of design that is absolutely perfect for one user might be completely unusable for another.

How do I design contextually?

Designing contextually comes naturally to most designers. We’re trained to create experiences that fit our users’ needs. So the points listed below are the crux of any design process –

1. Understand the requirements

Yes! That’s how simple it is. All we need to do is gather requirements from users and stakeholders are making them our focal point while creating a solution. Setting the context at the very beginning of the design process sets a tone for the design solutions that are drafted along the journey.

2. Concept testing with users

User testing is not a concept that is unheard of. While it seems standard practice to test out a solution with the target audience before its launch, there are a lot of times this step gets omitted. While requirement gathering sets the beginning of the design process, testing concepts or even a single final solution seals the end successfully. It brings back the context and allows us to gain confidence in the solution before shipping it.

Importance of context-setting Design Critique

Critiquing is a collaborative exercise where designers gather feedback about their designs. Getting a fresh set of eyes on the designs offers them new perspective.
Setting context for the audience before a critique session begins is of utmost importance. Without getting information about why a design was created a certain way, the audience will never be able to provide relevant critique.

To receive pointers or ideas that might be usable for the success of a product, it is important that the people who are critiquing it get relevant information about the unseen nuances of the experience.

Here’s some great reads about design critique that specify how important it is for the presenter to set context at the very beginning.

So next time before you judge or critique a design, try to get some more context about it. And for the love of everything, please stop creating OR responding to the “Which UI is better” posts.

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