Designers often use intuition to create. There's nothing wrong with that, or our user-centered process that finds inspiration in the problems for people we're trying to solve. But sometimes our decisions need more support than instinct or even analytics. You have to look externally for validation and market trends.
When we've presented wireframes to clients in the past, they haven't always agreed with our decisions. We've had to justify our reasoning with research. That's why we need data at our fingertips. It was this need that inspired our latest addition to the Expo library: Design Quips.
The Growing Need for Design Data
Design Quips is both a reference and learning tool for product designers to use in their workflow. It's a great new resource that lets you find quality evidence to support your design decisions with empirical evidence.
We didn't want to copy what's come before. Our friend and advisor Luke W, for example, writes regular blog posts with statistics called Data Monday that are packed with interesting factoids. But no one's presented a running collection of stats about design in an ongoing, searchable format.
Quips began as an experiment to fill an internal need. Design Quips is a tool for designers at ZURB to better explain design concepts to clients. It's a reference and learning tool for product designers to use in their workflow. Also, data is fun for nerds, like us. We like to know about things. Now we're sharing what we know with you.
Here are a few examples:
How Can You Use It?
We believe you can use this reference to become a more well-informed designer by citing individual quips for your design process Notable, presenting mockups in Influence, or referencing best practice for feedback in Forrst or sharing quips with others. You can justify design decisions to your clients and your teammates. And while Design Quips isn't a finished product, we plan to add new factoids frequently and work to improve how we present them.