Design Standards for Product Design

Differentiators in the era of design thinking

The biggest differentiators driving products forward today is their ability to focus on delivering two things: the expert-level quality applied to the end to end experience someone has when using your product, and the fine-grain details of delight that is craftfully sprinkled into the touchpoints along the way.

The biggest thing holding teams back from delivering on those two key differentiators is that design organizations are not equipped with the standards and practices that enable such exploration and expertise to thrive.

A design team cannot efficiently attain peak velocity if they don't have repeatable and achievable processes that enable it. Velocity is one of the most important factors in achieving success as a company. Without having a good handle on how your design teams deliver, you will have trouble leading or keeping pace with your competition.

To get a leg up, you have to get your house in order...

Design's Messy Relationship with Operations

When you look at product teams, it's easy to see the chaotic and messy relationship between design and operations. Development is often given the time and resources to set up a well-defined devops process. It's common to see teams that have linting, automated testing, release processes and standard workflows that are clearly defined and heavily leveraged by the organization.

Design is often left in the dust, with little to no resources or guidance on how to define their own process or standards. While there are some advancements being made in this area with design systems and design ops, it still feels like a lot of organizations are playing catch up or simply not taking it seriously.

This lack of attention means that not only do designers have to navigate a much more chaotic landscape than their development counterparts, but they often lack the tools or guidance needed to facilitate velocity at scale. This leads to an environment where designs are either over-engineered or pushed through without enough consideration for quality assurance, making it difficult for product teams to move quickly without sacrificing quality.

Taking Inspiration from DevOps

The good news is that we can learn a lot from our development counterparts when it comes to designing our own design processes and standards. Taking cues from devops can help us create repeatable processes with repeatable outcomes, measure the success of those outcomes, and fine-tune our model as needed over time.

Establish a Common Language

The first step in creating a successful design process is to establish a common language for discussing high-level objectives. This helps teams communicate effectively and quickly come to an understanding about what needs to be done.

For example, instead of saying, "we need to make sure our designs look good," you could say, "we need to make sure our designs are accessible, responsive, and visually appealing." This creates a much more actionable goal that everyone on the team can understand and work towards.

Give Concise and Measurable Objectives

Once you have established a common language for discussing objectives, the next step is to give concise and measurable objectives. This is key in ensuring that everyone on the team is working towards the same goal. For example, instead of saying "make sure all designs are responsive," you could say "all designs must be tested across at least three different screen sizes." Having this level of specificity ensures that everyone is on the same page and that there are no surprises when it comes time to review the work.

Repeatability

The key to achieving velocity is repeatability. This means creating standard workflows that can be used over and over again with minimal effort. It also means having standard formats for reviews and handoffs so everyone knows what to expect when it comes time for feedback or sign-off.

Removing Friction Through Tooling and Templates

Another way to facilitate velocity is to remove friction through tooling and templates. This means taking advantage of linting tools, checklists, and standard workflows.

Linting tools can be used to ensure that designs are consistent and adhere to best practices. Checklists can be used for things like accessibility or design readiness. Standard workflows can be used for things like asset production or review cycles. All of these tools and templates make it easier for teams to move quickly without sacrificing quality.

Repeatable Processes Tailored to Facilitate Specific Outcomes

Finally, it's important to create repeatable processes that are tailored to facilitate specific outcomes. This means creating systems and processes that enable teams to easily achieve their desired results without having to reinvent the wheel every time. For example, if you know you need a certain type of design system or icon set, you should create a process that enables designers to quickly produce those assets without having to start from scratch every time.

Levels of Maturity Facilitate Adoption

When it comes to designing the design process, it's important to recognize that different teams have different levels of maturity when it comes to process design. It's important not to try and force the entire organization into one unified system overnight, as this will only lead frustration and resistance from teams who are unfamiliar with the new standards.

Instead, focus on creating frameworks that enable teams of varying levels of experience to produce consistent, high-quality results.

Design standards should always be established to ensure that the product design process is as efficient and effective as possible. These standards should provide guidance on how to create a consistent user experience, how design elements should be implemented, how to manage the development process, and how to ensure quality throughout the entire lifecycle of the product.

When creating a standard for product design, it is important to consider the target audience and their needs. This includes understanding user requirements, researching market trends and customer feedback, and developing a well-defined user experience strategy. Additionally, it is important to create a unified visual language that unifies all aspects of a product’s design. This includes defining colors, typography, icons and graphics, layout patterns, and other visual elements that will help create a consistent look and feel across all products in the same family.

When developing a standard for product design, there must be clear parameters for decision making within the team. This includes setting expectations on when decisions need to be made and who is responsible for making them. It also requires establishing guidelines for quality assurance processes so that all designs are thoroughly tested before going live.

Furthermore, it is important for teams to have access to design resources such as templates or libraries of components so they can rapidly build new designs without having to start from scratch each time.

By establishing clear standards for product design teams can ensure that all products are created with consistency in mind while also meeting customer expectations in terms of usability and performance. Having these standards in place will help teams quickly develop high-quality products while staying within budget constraints.

Creating the Framework

Once you have established a common language for discussing objectives, given concise and measurable objectives, and created repeatable processes tailored to facilitate specific outcomes, the next step is to create the framework. This includes developing templates and checklists, setting up linting tools, automating processes where applicable and necessary, and creating standard formats for reviews and handoffs.

The goal is to create a system that enables designers to quickly produce consistent results with minimal effort. Once the framework is in place, it's important to get feedback from the team so you can make adjustments as needed until everyone is comfortable with it.

Implementation and Refinement

Finally, once the framework is created, it's important to implement it consistently across teams. This means making sure that everyone is familiar with the process and that they are held accountable when it comes time for reviews or sign-offs. It also requires regularly revisiting the process in order to identify areas of improvement or opportunities for automation. Doing this will help ensure that teams are able to move quickly without sacrificing quality or missing deadlines.

Design standards are essential for product teams who want to achieve peak velocity while still delivering high-quality experiences. By establishing a common language, giving concise and measurable objectives, creating repeatable processes tailored to facilitate specific outcomes, removing friction through tooling and templates, and implementing these practices consistently across teams you can set your organization up for success in an ever-evolving landscape of design.