Everything Design … Questions for Design Review

The design is everything. Everything is design. We are all designers.

Fifteen years ago companies competed on price. Now it is quality. Tomorrow it is design. In the years to come, we will need to think about design in ALL our business processes.

How do we define design in this context?

The design is the planning that lays the basis for the making of every object or system. A much more global and all-encompassing definition and perspective, don’t you think?

We’ve been thinking more about how to review a design — both our own and those of our clients. So over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been writing down all questions during design reviews.

These are in no particular order, and most don’t get asked on every design review.

Useful and Usable?

• Where’s the idea?
• Would this be better as words or an image?
• Why would someone leave at this point?
• How does this make you feel?
• Would it matter if someone missed that?

Desirable?

• What’s the take away after 8 seconds?
• Why would someone leave at this point?
• Why is that worth a click or a scroll?
• What’s the simpler version of this?

Message?

• What does it say?
• What does it mean?
• What’s the payoff?
• Is what it says and what it means the same thing?
• Do we want that?
• If you stopped reading here, what’s the message?
• How else can we say this?
• How does this change someone’s mind?

What is the Big Picture?

• Who needs to know or see that?
• How does that change behavior?
• How can we make this more obvious?
• How does this change someone’s mind?
• What would happen if we got rid of that?
• Are we assuming too much?
• Why are we saying this twice?

Is it Social?

• What’s memorable about this?
• What makes this a must-have?
• What’s missing?
• What does someone know now that they didn’t know before?
• Will people want to share this?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.