Principles of design

Past few days, I am having some marathon meetings in the office. Meetings were centered about design and vision discussion of the company. It was more sort of brain-storming sessions on the overall flow of the product to enhance user engagement on the platform.

In this age of information overload, the Internet is flooded with numerous websites. Thus, there are two kinds of users. One who comes to the Internet for browsing only specific websites and other who comes to the Internet without knowing what they really wish to do. These first kind of users are most productive in their usage of the internet but they are not the early adopters.It is the second type of users who possess a high curiosity and exploration needs, who take up a product and popularize it. That is why some experts say that
a product developer should build a product keeping in mind the perspective of software developers. More specifically, when it is a universal platform. Software developers are early adopters and stress testers. If a product passes their barrier then it is bound to succeed.

A general user spends on an average 4 seconds on a new website. Thus, a product designer needs to place the content in such a manner which results in retaining maximum users. It means a website should be able to deliver important content in 4 seconds of time. Thus, where the content should be placed and what kind of content should be placed assumes great significance.

The general psychological studies reveal that a person's eyeball scan a new website in F shape. This means he begins from the left top corner and got horizontally to the 60% of the screen, then it comes back to the left top corner. Then it goes vertically down and goes horizontally for 35% of the screen and then comes back to the left midsection. Then it scans the left bottom. Therefore, a content designer should put the most important content on the left side of the screen.

There are many other design principles. For instance, Design should include structure plus experience. Design should reflect positive energy and should include the basics of the human-computer interaction.