Julie Hicks

@juhic

Businesses often overcomplicate their product strategy and end up navigating through a maze of competing objectives and needless requirements.

Product managers in any industry can implement a simple and adaptable framework to streamline their product process.

At the beginning of 2013, Chrome was yet to become the default Browser on Android, it didn’t have a tablet version and has just been release on iOS. 

Mobile became the primary focus in the years separating the beginning of 2013 and the Chrome Android material design revamp of 2015. 

We started seeing the desktop/laptop landscape shift into a state where touchscreen were no longer the exclusive attribute of mobile but also the one of more productive platforms such as laptops.

HCD is “a design and management framework that develops solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.” (Wikipedia)

But people are not the centre of the universe even if we carry on as if we are. We have a lot of problems to solve, but humans don't live in isolation. We are just one piece in a very large puzzle. When we view problems that impact people, our solutions are often developed in isolation while we often ignore the broader impacts of our human-centred solutions.

• Myth #1: To get our message to break through, we need to gain conscious attention. Attention works at different levels, not just the conscious.
• Myth #2: For marketing to work, it must be remembered. Wwhen we remember something, we reconstruct it in the moment.
• Myth #3: We need to elicit emotions to build an emotional connection. You can create emotional connections through the tone and personality of your brand’s communications. 
• Myth #4: Consumers can tell you what they want. Take what consumers say with a very large grain of salt.
• Myth #5: Consumers make rational decisions.

Language is a way that people communicate concepts to one another. Visual design is a visual language. And learning visual design is no different from learning a new language.

Good visual designs aren’t born. They are made. The key to becoming a better visual designer is rigor. You will only improve as a visual designer if you make a conscious effort.