Stop developing in the dark. Use design-thinking methods to illuminate the path to better products. Whether you’re on a team that works closely with designers or you work alone, using a design-first approach can help you save time and resources in your development process. In this session, we’ll discuss basic design principles including design thinking, user experience, visual design, designer-developer communication, and design critique.

1. Design Methods for Better
Product Development
Andrew Hemans

2. Overview
• Design Thinking
• Visual Design
• Color
• Layout
• Design Communication
• Critique
• The handoff
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3. Design. Develop. Test.
• Plan
• Research
• Talk to users
• Identify a problem
• Prototype
• Sketch multiple solutions
• Refine
• Critique
• Share with your team
• Show to potential users
A closer look at Design.

4. Design Thinking

5. Design Thinking Concepts
• Empathize – with your users
• Define – your users’ needs, their problem, and your insights
• Ideate – creating ideas for innovative solutions
• Prototype – to start creating solutions
• Test – validate solutions

6. Research, or try before you buy.

7. Research Methods
• Define a need or problem
• How have others attempted to solve this problem
• Define a target persona
• Conduct interviews
• Observe user behavior

8. Sketch, Critique, Repeat.

9. Quantity Over Quality.
• Talk is cheap, so is sketching
• Development can get expensive
• Pen and Paper
• Balsamiq
• Sketch/Photoshop
• Sencha Stencils
A Drawing is Worth 1000 words

10. Visual Design

11. Four Principals of Design
• Contrast
• Repetition
• Alignment
• Proximity

12. Color Associations
• Red
• Green
• Blue
• Pink

13. Layout
• Develop a grid system!
• Plan ahead
• Be thoughtful of where you place elements
• Be empathetic to your user

14. The Hand-off

15. Style Guides
• All good maps have a key!
• Include colors, fonts, sizing, etc.
• You can be more specific if needed.

16. It’s Dangerous to go Alone!
• Include team members from the beginning of your project.
• Check in early and check in often for critique.
• Keep an open mind.
• Everyone cares.