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The 22 Rules of User Experience Design - Valeria Spirovski

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#1: You admire a UX designer for their iterations

more than for their successes.

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#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as a user,

not what’s fun to do as a designer. They can be v. different.

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#3: Trying for consistency is important, but you won’t see what the user’s story

is actually about ’til you’re at the end of it. Now research.

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#4: Once upon a time there was ____. Every day, ____ so that ____.

One day ____. Because of that ____. Because of that ____. Until finally ____.

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#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine features. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing

valuable stuff but it sets you free.

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#6: What is your interaction/design good at, comfortable with?

Throw the polar opposite at it. Challenge it. How does it deal?

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#7: Come up with your product goals before you figure out your design. Seriously. Goals are hard, get yours

working up front.

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#8: Finish your prototype and let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world

you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

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#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T work. Lots of times the material to get you

unstuck will show up.

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#10: Pull apart the experiences and designs you like.

What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize that

before you can use it.

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#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it.

If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

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#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind.

And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th —  get the obvious out of the way.

Surprise yourself.

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#13: Give your personas and stories depth. Summarized versions might seem

enough to you as you design, but it’s poison to the team.

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#14: Why must you create THIS experience? What’s the belief burning within you

that your ideas feed off? That’s the heart of it.

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#15: If you were the user in this situation, how would you feel?

Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

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#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the user. What happens if they don’t succeed?

Stack the odds against.

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#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on

 — it’ll come back around to be useful later.

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#18: You have to know yourself: know the difference between doing your

best and fussing. Creating an experience is testing, not refining.

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#19: Hypotheticals to get users into trouble are great; hypotheticals to get

them out of it are cheating.

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#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of an experience you dislike.

How do you rearrange them into something you DO like?

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#21: You gotta identify with the context and users, you can’t just write ‘they’re cool’.

What would make YOU act that way?

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#22: What’s the essence of your experience? The most economical telling of it?

If you know that, you can build out from there.