We all know the feeling. We go into a meeting, brainstorm, feel extremely productive and create a concept we are all proud of. Then a vital team member who wasn’t at the meeting says that they “just don’t get it”. In the UI design field, this can happen quite often and with the extra barrier of trying to make a concept visual, this can be very difficult. What is the solution? Like with any creative process, the first concept may not be the best. It is best to create, test and validate ideas before continuing along any one path. It is important not only that all your team members understand the UI design concept, but also that the concept is clear to your users. The way to do this is by showing the mockup of the UI design to test users as early as possible. This way, you will be able to see what issues they have with understanding the concept and with usability.
If you are working in a large team with members with different areas of expertise, then it is paramount that stakeholders understand what is expected of them. One easy way to do this is to create an interactive UI design that demonstrates the main interactions of the website or app that is in progress. That way, developers and interaction designers can already give feedback on what is technically possible and what is beneficial for the user. With a UI design that includes comments and detailed notes on interactions and technical requirements, team members can sign off on projects with a better understanding of what is required of themselves and of others.
