Often, design choices aren’t really about design.
Should you make that CTA bigger? Well, it depends.
From time to time, companies I work with reach out to get some quick design feedback on something else they’re working on.
They’re often asking me questions on the visible/interaction end of the design spectrum — some recent ones I got were things like:
- Is that image ok? Or should we show the product?
- When the user arrives on the page, should that chatbox be open or closed?
- Should the call to action button be more visible, or tuned down?
- Where/how should we push for membership registration?
The (disappointing) answer I tend to give is: well, it depends.
In some rare cases, the discussion really is about that one UI element.
Maybe it can improve in usability, understanding, and aesthetics. In this case, my go-to answer is: don’t reinvent the wheel, unless you really have to.
Digital design is a decades-old discipline, and there are ways to design digital interactions people are used to, and that will just work. So unless you’re trying to redefine basic digital interaction patterns, I highly suggest following best practices. The Nielsen Norman Group just published a great resource for that.
You can also build your product by borrowing existing libraries like Material design and iOS human interface guidelines.
But more often than not, what sounds like design choices, actually aren’t.
They’re product choices. Strategy choices. The tactical question regarding the UI element can only be answered after digging through some more fundamental ones.
Something along the lines of:
- What’s the user goal?
- What’s the main (business) objective?
- What change are you trying to make in the world?
- What’s your brand personality?
- etc.
These are open questions that don’t have right or wrong answers. It’s all about trade-offs. If the answer is X rather than Y, then the UI should reflect it. That simple.
Say your objective is conversion, and the user goal is to make a purchase as quickly as possible, then yes, make that CTA shine bright. But if your objective is to build trust, and that aligns with your user goal, you might want to tune down the CTA and emphasize other elements on your screen that can boost reassurance.
Design is a mirror for strategy.
If the UI choice feels uncomfortable or unsatisfying, it’s most likely because the strategy isn’t clear.
And it’s ok.
Most strategic choices are hard to envision until they are translated into tangible artifacts you can see with your own eyes. Or rather, you didn’t know you had a strategic choice to make until you were forced to deliberate on a tangible artifact…
That’s why designing/building as quickly as possible, is never a bad idea.
