While Margaret Gould Stewart in this TED Talk speaks about designing for Facebook, Google and Youtube, the lessons are just as valid for those of us designing for audiences in the thousands.
She speaks particularly well on the humility of a great design. That designs come and go. You have to put yourself into the position of the intended audience and ignore how much you understand of browsers and websites. Much as we joke about Internet Explorer being broken beyond salvage, many of the users of the websites we design use IE as their main browser. We have to make sure our designs give them a great experience.
When you think about it, responsive design fits this model perfectly. A fixed design says “anyone who doesn’t use this website on the browsers I designate will be punished with a bad experience”. Whereas responsive design caters to every screen size, no matter how unexpected.
And in case you haven’t watched the video yet, the “22 billion views per day” is a reference to the average amount of times the Facebook Like button is seen. Every. Single. Day.
Go forth and design with humility.
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