Designing interfaces with purpose

Thoughts on why certain design elements should live on the screen.

One of the most important lessons I took from my last work experience and into the creation of AsteriskProd was designing with a purpose. Asking myself questions of what do I absolutely need on the screen? What fits around the element I created and deemed necessary? Why is this neccessary and how does this element being here help my user achieve said goal?

Asking these questions to myself has been a game changer because it has completely re-wired my brain for how I approach problems. Instead of taking the whole problem all at once, I take it all into digestable chunks.

From there, we're able to go towards a direction. There was an analogy I heard that every problem is like pushing a boulder up a hill. You can't see what's past the hill if you're still climbing up, you need to get to a point to where you can see beyond the hill.

Back to the topic, I brought that analogy up because I feel that every design is a potential solution to said problem. Not that you can't one shot a problem but there are times where the problem is so complicated that you need to start small and figure out the essentials to said interface.

The next time you go into a problem, think about those questions and ask yourself if the way you're approaching this design is a step towards addressing that user problem.