Are we adding value or just pixels?

We designers have affinity for details and love to dig deep to make pixel-perfect designs. We spend hours on those tiny details that usually go unnoticed by the target audience. Only our fellow designers and sometimes a few design obsessed clients notice those details. I’ve no doubt that details matter and must be taken care of, but what matters more is the overall User Experience.

Being independent (freelance) designers, we must make sure that we are adding value for our clients and their customers, and not just pixels. From my own experience, I recommend that independent designers should also learn about Usability, UX, IA, and not just HTML/CSS and Visual design.

For a limited budget project we should wisely divide our time between 1. making things beautiful, and 2. enhance usability and improve UX. Rather we should think about Function first (before moving to Aesthetics). Design shouldn’t be ignored but decoration can be ommitted. We should also know how that added value in form of improved usability, enhanced UX and better IA can help our clients achieve better results plus help their customers meet their aims.

In a recent project the client approached me with Balsamiq sketches and design directions. I could have moved straight to design as sketches were already there. But I felt the importance of reviewing everything again before starting and we ended up making some vital changes in workflow and wireframes. This happened even before we talked about the visual design.

Similarly every designer can take a step further and give his/her best input to make websites better. Eventually, we must maintain balance between function and aesthetics, beauty and usability. Aesthetics in absence of function may impress for a couple of times but at the end it’s the value that matters and not just pixels.

5 Comments

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• 
  # Karl Francisco Fernandes
  says on December 16

  Interesting article, Amrinder. But do “adding value” and “adding pixels” always have to be mutually exclusive?

• 
  # Amrinder
  says on December 16

  @Karl: No. Like I mentioned, value should have priority. Things can be good without pixels but not without value.

• 
  # Karl Francisco Fernandes
  says on December 17

  I agree that value should have priority and function should come before the eye-candy, but I also think an equal balance between aesthetic design and functional design is what is most needed today.

  Your post is titled “Are We Adding Value Or Just Pixels?”, by which you seem to suggest that aesthetics (“pixels”) do not add value to the user experience. This is incorrect, as aesthetics and visual design are indeed a integral part of UX.

  Creating websites that are usable, accessible and functional should be the bare minimum that any web designer delivers. But it is aesthetics and visual design that separate these bare-minimal sites from the truly fantastic and engaging user experiences.

• 
  # Amrinder
  says on December 17

  @Karl:

  I think you missed the last para:

  … we must maintain balance between function and aesthetics, beauty and usability. Aesthetics in absence of function may impress for a couple of times but at the end it’s the value that matters and not just pixels.

  So I want to say is pixels alone doesn’t add value unless they are supporting content and/or context, just like Zeldman said:

  Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration

• 
  # Business Catalyst
  says on January 24

  As a business online, we know how important it is to have the right design. Your website is the first thing that people see. So I prefer both by adding value and a pixels.