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UI/UX First Principles: Reasoning
One of the most important things you can learn about UX design is not the design itself, but its underlying rationale.
Overview
Many times UX design has become synonymous with making a UI “look & feel good,” but that is hardly the only purpose of good user experience methodologies.
Today, we are going to dive into the first principles of UX reasoning, pick them apart, and discover some cognitive tools that can help you take your UX design processes to the next level.
The power of not knowing
Beyond any trends or current design patterns that you see emerging before you, there is a tried and true principle which separates good and bad design, and that is the principle of not knowing.
It is far safer to assume that you don’t know when you think you do, than to assume that you know when you probably don’t.
Yes, that all-powerful thing that you are supposed to be able to do in every facet of your life, as beaten into you from cradle to grave; but the trouble is that you don’t know because you can’t know.
In the words of the immortal Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
Where did these trends come from?
What users asked for them? When? Why? In what context, and for what purpose?
These are the big questions that require real thought and a commitment to truly understand your users.
Gather data about your users, sort it, categorize, analyze it, and draw a sensible conclusion from it that is testable. Do not assume and tell people that you know what’s best because, trust me on this one, you don’t know your users half as well as you think you do.
