Presented by Samantha Warren.

Princess Bride was my Star Wars.

  • Design is problem-solving. Create according to a plan. This is why we should design systems, not pages.
  • Think about content and context. How are people consuming the content?
  • Jayna Wallace’s moodboards

Style tiles…

  • Separate style from structure.
  • Isolate the risk in subjectivity.
  • Is device-width agnostic.
  • Serve as a cornerstone that an entire team can rally around.

Defined: A design deliverable consisting of fonts, color, and interface elements.

How to use Style Tiles

Listen

  • Hold a design kickoff meeting with all stakelholders.
  • Ask as many questions as you can. Do less talking and more listening.
  • Ask what the top three user goals are. The top three business goals?
  • Generate a definition of success that is separate from taste.
  • Who is the audience? Who are your competitors?
  • Ask degree questions: “On a scale from 1 to 5…”

Interpret

  • Narrow down survey results and question responses.
  • Aggregate adjectives from the answers and group into several buckets (e.g. Same, Middle, and Different relative to current design).
  • Break down the big ideas into smaller pieces.
  • Humans make subconscious assumptions based on subtle visual cues.
  • The Science of Sex Appeal

Define A Visual Language

Iterate

  • Iterating on a style is more efficient than iterating on an entire comp.

“The role of the designer is that of a good host anticipating the needs of their guest.” — Charles Eames

  • First step to designing a good site is to ask, “Why?” to everything.

It takes a village to design a responsive website.