At Imulus, we are very open minded and are always excited to see a new design ready for critique. Our critique methods vary with each project. We mostly prefer them in-person, but sometimes we have to rely on other methods as well.
When the critique meeting is scheduled, designers and front-end developers are at the table. We also love cross-disciplinary critiques where we’ll also invite project managers, programmers, etc.

How do we critique?

Step #1 – Provide positive feedback first
When the design is shown, we like to offer our positive feedback first to start off the conversation on a positive note. In this step, we talk about what works in the design. We go over the goals of the design brief. We question whether the design meets the main objectives and its audience. We also look at layout, choice of typography, color, hierarchy, contrast and so on.

Step #2 – Follow with recommendations and reasoning

If something doesn’t work…this is where you are allowed to be critical. At Imulus, everyone is open minded. We’re not afraid to say if something doesn’t look that great, but you have to follow with reasoning. It’s not a negative critique of the design, but rather a way of recommending things that could make the design that much better.

What methods do we use?

Checking-In

What we prefer to do more is for a designer to check in with other designers and developers during the design process. This helps a designer be on track with project goals and any potential development issues a developer might foresee.

We usually slide chairs next to each other for quick critiques. We bounce around ideas and reiterate until final outcome has been reached.

In-person

Once the designer has a final complete design, we find that meeting in-person works best for us. It’s much easier to sit across from each other and comment on the design. Although much preferred, this is also the hardest one to accomplish. Some of us work remotely at least one day a week, some are in meetings, and some are too busy at the moment.

Email

We rely on email when meeting in-person is not possible. After several check-ins with other designers and developers during the design process, a designer will usually send an email with their final comps and then receive lots of great feedback. If email takes too long to compose with feedback, we usually just slide a chair next to the designer and share our thoughts.

To conclude, in order for great work to surface, we prefer to…

1. Provide positive feedback and criticize with reasoning,
2. Check-in throughout the design process,
3. Edit comps based on check-in comments,
4. Meet in-person/email for a critique,
5. Edit comps based on a previous step,
6. And finalize for a client presentation.

Why?
During our wireframe presentations we noticed that wireframes can cause a lot of confusion. Wireframes that expressed creative layouts were declined by the client because they would have difficulty visualizing the design once fully designed and functional. We’re humans. We have a better understanding of something that we see rather than trying to visualize something that’s shown to us in grey boxes. Because of this, clients approved wireframes that made most sense to them — the one with a very traditional layout.

Traditional wireframe layout

Wireframes are more about content structure — what goes where within the layout. They lack the ability to convey brand-specific features and how contrast impacts content hierarchy.

Wireframes can hurt the project due to the following reasons…

1. They are static — Sure, design is static too, but has a bigger impact to the client than wireframes. Clients want to see the design.
2. They can’t express dynamic interaction — Trying to explain dynamic interaction through wireframes confuses the client even more. In some instances, we’ll prototype specific dynamic features.
3. They can be misinterpreted – Clients can change their mind once they see the design. What they understood in the wireframe can look different to them in the design.
4. They can waste a lot of time – Designers can be stuck in “revision land” for a while. This also affects Project Managers as time is wasted on back and forth with a client.

Our plan here at Imulus is to only do this for website design projects and so far it has been very successful. Web and mobile applications will require wireframe approvals by the client. These projects are complex in context and we want to make sure that the flow of user interaction is ironed out at the wireframing stage.

2. Which aspects of programming do you find most challenging to you?
I think the most challenging thing about programming is working with other people’s code, or old uncommented code. Programs can be designed a multitude of different ways, and unless the person is sitting right beside you it can take quite awhile to figure out the architecture or hardcoded secrets tucked away in some random class.

3. How do you keep up on track with the industry? Do you read blogs, network, magazines, etc?
I read news aggregators, blogs and search for particular things I am interested in. I have yet to find a really good single site that applies to my interests, so you might say I wander around online looking for things that apply to me.

4. What programming solutions do you like to work most on?
I get the most enjoyment out of design and architecture. I am always trying to find better ways of doing things, and a good architecture will separate functionality and add clarity to your code, while allowing it to be reusable. Its like you are building your own swiss army knife of code, and if you ever need to use that tool again you just open it up and use it, no more rewrites.

5. Since you spend most of your day coding, do you dream about it too?
Rarely. When I do, I usually only dream about a problem that is difficult or complex to solve, but occasionally I will dream about mundane blocks of code.

6. How would you describe Imulus?
Hmmm, I am not really sure how I would describe us in a few concise sentences. The phrase “The best job I will ever have” comes to mind. I love the work and the people even more. We are a flat organization who is constantly changing and getting better. It’s the whole package. I talk a lot about Imulus to my friends, and every single one of them is jealous of me and wants to work here.

7. What’s the best perk you enjoy at Imulus?
Can I do two? I would have to say xbox on the flat screens and beer in the fridge..

8. If you were about to travel the world, where would you go first and why?
Hmmm. That is a tough one – I want to go a lot of places but right now I am itching to go scuba diving again. So I would probably start someplace with awesome beaches, snorkeling and scuba diving. So I would probably say someplace like Belize or Bonaire, or maybe back to Hawaii.

9. How do you like to spend your personal time?
Doing just about everything under the sun. My favorite is sleep. When I am not doing that, I enjoy my weekly Krav Maga sessions, ice hockey, working out, snowboarding, mountain biking, camping, shooting, hiking, fishing. Just about anything outdoors puts a smile on my face. I love a good fiction book, enjoy (to varying degrees) movies and like two different types of video games – the online ones that are pure competition, and the role playing ones that tell a story.

10. What’s the last book you read and how did you like it?

I read Ender’s Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game) just last weekend. It was really good – it was thought provoking and entertaining with good character development of the main character (Ender). I am planning on reading a few of the sequels.

Wireframes are an essential tool of communication that provide a rough guide to website structure. Their purpose is to give guidence to general layout, navigational elements, and content structure to designers, developers and clients. The stage of wireframing is achieved after the process of sitemaps has been approved. At this time, you should have in your hands a site structure in a hierarchical style. Here at Imulus, we take time at a wireframe stage in order to run the design and developing stage smoothly. Only an educated client will understand this process if explained. Sure, all clients would like to see their website redesigned in 24 hours…that would require a lot of java. We take time to explain to our clients why this stage is important to us and to them as well. They will understand.

Our designers will work through the wireframe stage to completion and then will sit down with our developers to discuss the many possibilities. This opens different perspectives which are always handy to get everything on track. For example, when it comes to talking about some special functionality feature for the site, it is a good thing that developers know this ahead of time and see what’s expected. They can see what problems they can run into and how to solve them ahead of time. It is too late if this got avoided when the design is already in development. As for the designers, it is easier to have a wireframe in hand. You get the idea where things are supposed to be, and start to visualize the design. Try to have some fun with wireframes. OK, sure, they can get boring sometimes especially when it comes to some revisions but that’s all because you’re anxious to start the designing and developing. Also, you don’t have to adhere strictly to what the wireframe is showing. We have run across many times where the wireframe was showing one thing, but in the design stage we have changed it. It’s all right to change the wireframe in the design stage as long as the purpose and direction is not lost. My advice is to spend whatever time necessary to complete the wireframing stage; it will make your job easier in the design stage, and will save headaches to developers, as well as to clients.

A book recommendation to follow on a wireframing stage: Web Redesign 2.0 | Workflow That Works by Kelly Goto & Emily Cotler

Fluid

Fluid, is an app for Mac that lets you grab a URL from pages you frequently visit, such as Google Docs, Facebook, and Gmail, and turn each one into a separate desktop application that you can add to your dock for easy access. The proces is supposed to help you deal with tabs and treat everything as your desktop application. I find this so far helpful because I haved added Google Docs where I write my thougths and blogs and I don’t have to worry about closing tabs in a browser and losing information.

Think

Think is an app also for Mac that helps you keep focus on a single applicaton by dimming out the rest. I find it that I do not use this application if I’m multitasking between emails, web browsing, and my calendars. But,when I am concentrating on just design, then I use Think and it really does help me with just concentrating on one thing at a time. Receiving emails can sometimes be distracting so I keep my Mail on my laptop screen and I design on the big screen.
Withouth Think, my head always turns the minute I realize that a new message popped into my mailbox. With Think, Mail app is illuminated on my laptop screen but gives me enough visibility so I can glance at times to see if I have receieved any messages from clients.

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse.” - Paul Rand, author, graphic designer, teacher

Enjoy reading our articles that flow in at random times from our creative team of people at Imulus. In the meantime we will ramble about design and coding goodness and sip on caffeine to get our creative juices flowing. Please stay tuned or should I say blogged.

Looking for an easy way to instantly share files with family and clients? Now you can with BoxCloud. BoxCloud is a simple solution for sharing files cross platform without the wait of long upload times because your files stay local. Your contacts are notified by email of the files you want to share and they can open the source in the browser for a preview of the files to download.

ConceptShare seems like a great communicator tool between designers and their clients. Most designers prefer to meet with their clients in physical space when presenting visual designs, but there are times when that communication needs to happen over the phone or e-mail. This could lead to potential confusion and time loss. ConceptShare solves this problem by allowing designers to import multiple desings and chat with multiple clients at the same time. Each design sample can have multiple comments and drawings on top of visuals that are well organized.

ConceptShare works well not only for designers in their professional field, but also for students taking e-learning classes. Although you have to send your e-mail and wait for a registration request, it’s still worth the wait-time to try out this web application.

I found one a few days ago called Color Combos. When in the section called ComboTester, you can add columns and pick color combinations with the color picker, similar to the one in Photoshop. There is also a library of color combinations if you are too lazy to pick colors.

It would be nice if Color Combos added a login feature where you can pick your colors and save them in organized folders.