Be A Better Web Designer: Think Like An End-User

As designers, we tend to get caught up in how prettified we can make a website. It makes sense; we want to show off our skills and feel that if people don’t go, “Aaaah!” when they see our sites, we have somehow failed. But, our job as web designers, is usually (some exceptions apply) to make a website where information is readily available. Sure, sometimes we are asked to make sites that are just, hands-down, beautiful pieces of art, but that’s not typically the case.

The only way we can truly be brilliant web designers is to stop thinking like a designer and think like an end-user, a beginner, a non-expert of the internet. At the end of a project, if users cannot find what they are looking for on the website you’ve built, you haven’t been an effective enough designer.

The best way I think like an end-user is to look at a site I’m building and say, “If I were coming to this site, what would I be looking for?” and “Where would I feel like that information would be?” This is why gathering target market information from your clients before you begin a project is imperative. You need to know the type of people that are going to primarily be interacting with the site.

People always ask me what my major was in college. I actually graduated with a BA in Social Science, which was an array of Communication Studies, Psychology, and Sociology classes. I was also heavily involved in the Marketing department at college just for the fun of it. Yes, I was a nerd that took classes that didn’t even count towards anything.

But, really, all these classes have made me a better designer, even if, at first glance, they don’t seem like they would be related to graphic design. Knowing how people think and understanding their decision-making process (through a Consumer Behavior marketing class) has made me a better and more effective designer. I make sure that end-users are able to extract the necessary information from my clients’ site.

Knowing how to make information accessible and creating a bounce-rate-stopping design is true art. Knowing how to de-clutter is sometimes more important than knowing how to utilize Photoshop brushes to make a site look “designed.” Understanding this and practicing restraint with fancy fonts and brushes and pictures is what will, hands down, make you stand out.

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