Reinforce your design with reason and evidence
The Playbook #9: How to investigate the rationale of your design.
This post is part of the design playbook, a collection of practical tactics, approaches, and mindsets about design by Thomas Budiman.
Design is hard. Design with reason is harder. But reasons can make your notion stronger.
When there is no right or wrong, all the options seem promising.
How do you make a judgment? How can you help your team to decide? Understanding the WHY is the only way for you to pick a side.
Everyone can have their version of solution. People can say, "In my own opinion."
Design is subjective. And can be very subjective if you, as the designer, don't believe design can be objective.
Start by explaining to others why you design such a thing—telling them why that section has to be that way, don’t just stop at appealing, enticing, and interesting.
Build your design upon reason, and it should always be your foundation.
Here's a simple framework, not a panacea, to help you investigate the rationale of your design.
Map your rationale with these components: CRE.
CLAIM: A claim states your position about a case on your design. You demand to make a particular element bigger than the others. You add a particular section in a certain area. You choose a component over the others. Use prompt: I (use/choose/make/add/prioritize) __________
REASONS: A reason lays the ground for your claim. It explains logically why your claim is valid. Make your reason practical and relevant. Use prompt: Because ___________
EVIDENCE: Evidence give weight to your reason. It could be from analytics, insights from your field research, principles, etc. Use prompt: Based on ________
Put them together in a sentence:
I use/choose/make/add/prioritize ____(claim)____. Because ____(reason)____. Based on ____(evidence)____
Feel free to rephrase the prompts.
For example:
I prioritize these menu items because they are the most visited based on data analytics (present the data).
I used a circular progress bar instead of the horizontal linear one because they match the overall key visuals based on our visual guide and principles (show it).
It looks easy, but in fact, it's not. You have to think hard about crafting the reason and looking for support. Tip: Write the three components down, which makes investigating each other’s relationship easier.
Next, after you compose the claim, reason, and evidence, Test it. Does this rationale make sense? Will others understand this rationale? For example:
I used a circular progress bar instead of the horizontal linear one because they match the overall key visuals based on the visual guide and principles (show it).
Does that mean every time I design a progress bar will be circular? Or just only for this case? If only for this case, then why?
Would that mean using a horizontal linear bar off-brand?
Peel the layers. Ask yourself more questions to test the rationale. Good luck!
Other posts from The Playbook: