Being challenged to find the design, to produce a professional product within the bounds of the clients specifications. However moving through the process rapidly does allow you to focus on how you achieve your final outcome.

One thing I have learn over the years is to never jump right into photoshop. Regardless as to whether you have used mood boards or not, generally I don’t start the design process in photoshop or the like. I take it back old school, get out the sketch pad and paper. Walk away from the workstation, often outside and go design the site with pencils and paper.

So how do I move from paper to photoshop:

1. Leveraging off the base wireframe (if I have one), I set about drawing about ten or so different design thumbnails of the pages. I use these to generate ideas very quickly, to just to see if they balance and work generally on the grid and in terms of spacial placement.
2. From here I select the designs that are going to work. These are then expanded into half page lead pencil sketches, again nothing intense, just seeing if the design works in this low-fi version.
3. Finally a few designs are drawn up in detail with aqualia coloured pencils. Again not in fine detail, just concepts, and block of colour to see if the design works.
4. After all this the design is manually rebuild for client sign off in photoshop. In some cases I do this via a rough tablet trace or a simple scan, or just by eye, all depends on the design.

There is something freeing about working with paper. Don’t get me wrong I don’t work in a vacuum of ideas, I have my reference books and library at hand and will often go looking for inspiration. But of late the inspiration has not come from the online world, but the offline.

So what is your design process? How do you start the process? Straight onto the computer or do you go old school?

During last week I got to see Jared Spool keynote at IAsummit via a streaming into Second Life. Okay its wasn’t that great, the streaming not the presentation. After reviewing the presentation later. It’s apparent to me that some people maybe missing the point of methodologies.

Jared’s core comments are summed up well by Mia Northrop and Molly from NLC Internet Marketing Blog, basically he proposes that we should be moving away from UCD and start to own up to the point that we haven’t really been practicing it anyway. Thumps up Jared.

But if you think about it, does it matter. In reality a practical modern methodology should not be a collection of reliant steps with supplementary techniques and tools that are all interdependent.

Screw the Users

Shouldn’t any design approach be aligned to the bottom line. The business direction or vision of the organisation, this in turn should be reflected in the website. Generally you’re not going to get the project surviving if it’s not inline with the goals of the organisation.

After all, to be honest, does it really matter what the user wants. Yes and no. Sure improve the process for the user, but if the user requirements are too far removed from the organisational vision is there any point. We have either the wrong audience or an organisation morphing its direction. Which if you think about it is the same thing.

Before you get all UX zealot on me. Yes, sure the user experience is important, but only at the micro level of the process, products and procedures. But on the macro level it has to come down to the organisation goal. After we have provided the goal we can then look at supplementary services for providing the user requirements.

The Process

From my experience the process in which this is done is not a standardised traditional approach. This type of methodology died with the mainframe and the old 25 volume developmental methodologies.

Now it’s just the application of a holistic toolbox of techniques, tools and short course methods or defined micro processes. Any good team will apply them as require, mixing them in and out as required, iterating the process as required.

As expect this toolbox is applied depending on the budget and scope of the project. There is a distinct difference in the delivery of a UX for a $3000 site verses a $30,000 one. But that said still very core of the UX should be presented and implemented no matter what the budget. How you do this is a topic for a future post.

Jared’s comments are amusing from my localised view point. For many organisations UCD is an unknown so it’s a little amusing to hear UCD being retired, when some aren’t even there yet.

So is Jared just stating what we have all really been doing for years or is it a little more. Is this just UX and UCD spun into one package?

The slideshare presentation is below.

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We have all had it. You know the scenario, the base concept design is due today, you have just started. Nothing is inspiring you, it’s all the old same old thing. The blank page looks back at you mockingly, laughing.

You sit there trying to visual something, anything new, all you get is nothing, an emptiness that is as vast as the canvas you are working on. The clock numbers slip by endlessly, click click. it too is laughing at you, it knows about the deadline.

There is a feeling of dread that is knotting up deep within the pit of your stomach. A spike of panic and urgency, your heart is racing, you are sweating, you must get the design done today!

The waking nightmare begins. A fifty foot wall is enclosing around you, blocking out the creativity, sapping your light, your muse. The world has become just a mundane darkening grey uncreative void. Panic!

So what do I do when the web designers block comes down:

• Stop.

  First off stop. put the blank paper, Photoshop canvas, or page aside, close it even. Review what you have in terms of input (logos, colours etc). Rotate them, invert them, flip them, color inverse them, zoom in. Look for themes, patterns or make up a colour pallet if one is not supplied.

• Getup, walk away.

  This is a simple solution. Calm down, to do this get up walk away from your desk, go outside, get a drink. go for walk down the street. Take in the sights, smells, the sounds away from your work environment. Try to mentally reset yourself, clear your head. Some of my best ideas come in checkout queues or just driving around. However, not a good solution if time is extremely short.

• Visit other web sites.

  Go have a look at some inspirational designs, maybe go look at the work of you favourite designer. Or visit some CSS galleries. Good ideas sure, but remember take only inspiration, no one likes a thief.

• Start. Just do it.

  If you have the wireframe, fine you have a starting point. Even if you don’t, start with a rough sketch. Doodle, throw a series of thumbnails together. Just get in there and put pencil to paper, draw, play. You may see something in the mess on your page that will leap frog you into the design process. It maybe a curve, a colour, an outline, a font, I don’t have a magic bullet on this one, but you will often see a way forward if you have something to look at and mentally churn over.

• Set a deadline.

  Sometimes it’s not “designer block, it’s just procrastination. So putting a deadline in place, this does help you kick start yourself. Not much good if you are already on a deadline, eh.

• Change media

  Go watch a movie, music video or play some console games. Often you will get inspiration from a different media. But my personal mega block breaker is music. Turn on any music. I find it best to try and find some music for the theme you are looking for, let the music entrance you and feel the vibe, let your imagination be inspired by the music. Different people design various themes to certain music types. This is such a detailed topic that I’m not going to cover it all here. Mind you some people tell me music only helps them work and does not inspire them.

• Mood Boards

  You are using mood boards? Well maybe not on the small jobs. But they do help on the larger ones to set the tone of the design. To set the theme, the colours, fonts and style of the visualisation. They are quick, they are dirty and they are great starting leverage point in the design process.

• Word play

  Take random words and content themes from the site, mix these up, select a few randomly, look at the emotion and design these words reflect and start from there.

• Take it to the extreme

  Okay you have a design, but it’s just lame, and boring, it just says that you have no creativity at all. Well why don’t you try and go for the extreme opposite of what you want. Make it even more boring and dull. Break the rules on the colour pallet. Make some of the elements way too big, break out of the design mold, go crazy. It may just lead you to a new concept away from the every day mundane design you already have.

• Build a Reference library

  I know these are out of favour, and so old school. But a physical collection of design inspirational books, magazines, photos can be a really godsend when you have a creative block. It gets you away from the computer, and you start to look a things on different level. Allowing your subconscious to take hold and wander aimlessly. I’ll often find just one picture or drawing that will inspire a complete web site design.

Besides the resulting burnout aspect what do you do to overcome designer block.