Case study: laying down the building blocks
By: Nikin Nagewadia
Tags: Design Principles, User Experience, Design Systems, Startup, Case Study

Design principles

From the company’s inception in 2016, all design decisions for Studio were made by front-end developers, the chief product officer, and A Million Ads’ founder/chief executive officer. Even though everyone’s contribution helped launch a business, it did so at a cost. Throughout Studio design inconsistencies exist due to conflicting design decisions. In order to ensure alignment from everyone Studio needed a clear set of design principles. “Design principles are a set of considerations that form the basis of any good product.” (Design Principles) Most importantly, Design Principles can help teams make decisions.

Working closely with both Mohan Taylor, A Million Ads’ Chief Product Officer, and Richard Taylor, the organization’s Senior Design Engineer, we began laying down a list of design principles we believed were in-sync to the way design was being approached within the product/engineering team and the organization as a whole. We had generated up to ten principles during those sessions.

Bob Baxley

One morning on my way to the office I was listening to the Design Better podcast episode, What it takes to build a connected workflow, featuring Bob Baxley. A Silicon Valley icon, Bob worked at Yahoo!, Apple, Pinterest, and is currently the Senior Vice President of Design and Experience at ThoughtSpot. Bob’s story inspired me to reach out to him. We connected over a Zoom call where we talked for over an hour about our journey into this field, as well as design leadership. Just before our conversation was coming to a close I asked if he had any advice with regards to establishing a set of design principles for a software application. Bob had bestowed three key points:

Your design principles need to reflect your organization’s own principles. In many ways, they need to be an extension of that. These principles are the de facto rules/constraints that nobody in the team can argue with. Once it’s set, that’s it. Finally, your design principles need to be easy to remember. Hence, these principles need to be ingrained in the heads of everyone that is involved in building the product.

Studio’s design principles

The following day I revisited the list of proposed design principles and cross-referenced them with A Million Ads’ own principles:

An audience-first, creative-led approach will make our product and work stand out. We can use technology to enhance human interaction, not replace or undermine it. We have a responsibility to people and the planet by treating both with respect.

After some adjustments, and suggestions from Mohan and Richard, we had devised four design principles:

1.) The WOW factor!

“There are three responses to a piece of design — yes, no, and WOW! WOW is the one to aim for.” — Milton Glaser

A Million Ads aims to stand-out from the rest of the ad-tech community since its focus is on personalizing the advertising experience by making it dynamic. As a result, Studio should reflect that from its functionality all the way to its micro-interactions. The goal is WOWing its users by demonstrating how Studio differs from any software used in the ad space.

2.) Consistency

“A consistent experience is a better experience.” — Mark Eberman

From the use of language to the specifics of styling, consistent design patterns employ familiar mental models in order for Studio’s users to navigate with ease. Without consistency, Studio can appear daunting and confusing; hence, causing a detrimental hit towards the usability of the web application.

3.) Progressive disclosure

“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.” — Paul Rand

To ensure that Studio doesn’t overwhelm its users of its many possible options, only the most relevant functionality is featured initially. Examples of progressive disclosure can be found throughout Studio revealing the many ways users could include further dynamic features to an ad that would align with their client’s needs.

4.) Design with the end user in mind

“Want your users to fall in love with your design? Fall in love with your users.” — Dana Chisnell

Studio was designed with its users in mind. They are made up of creative professionals who are familiar with a suite of software that allows them to create digital audio-based and/or video-based advertisements. Without 1.) the WOW factor, 2.) consistency and 3.) progressive disclosure working in unison, the overarching design principle, 4.) design with the end user in mind, would not be realized.

The culmination of these four design principles went beyond defining the look and feel of Studio, but was also how the product/engineering team would devise solutions for the business. With the design principles set in stone, it was a good opportunity to lay down the groundwork for Studio’s design system.