Andrew Smyk (@andrewsmyk) discusses how he iterates on his web designs. There’s a strong focus on getting ideas out of his head and onto paper as quickly as possible, which is excellent. I enjoy how he cuts up his sketches to play with the component pieces:
One of my favorite techniques is to photocopy some of my sketches, cut them up into the base components, as described in Brad Frost’s Atomic Design, and then begin fleshing out the design concept by grouping and reshuffling components.
I find that by physically moving the pieces of paper around, it allows me to identify patterns and think about how the user will interact with the design solution and interpret my messaging.
It reminds me of what Jeremy and Charlotte recently discussed to get clients on board with a pattern-based design and development process. I like this trend.
I also really enjoyed Andrew’s post as it hits at one of the key challenges of designing with lorem ipsum text, especially in static design tools.
Lorem ipsum will give you a false sense of security and lead to unrealistic assumptions about your design work. You will design to an ideal amount of copy or content, neither of which occurs in the real world. Make design decisions that support the content.
Now, for the record I’m not necessarily a lorem ipsum hater, but I’m totally on board with the kind of thing Andrew warns about. It’s imperative for designs to reflect reality and the dynamic nature of the Web. I wrote about how Pattern Lab helps designers better design with dynamic content to ensure the design systems we create are robust, resilient, and realistic.