Understanding Design Tasks

We are JetStyle: a full-scale digital studio with 9+ years of expertise in design. We have 50+ inhouse designers with various backgrounds: from motion and graphic design to UX/UI, VR, font, industrial, and web design. 

At JetStyle, we create interaction design, because we believe human interaction is the core of any digital product. We believe design is not a tool for self-expression, but rather an art of engineering. When we assess the quality of design, we ask one main question: does this design solve the communication task? 

In this long read, we share our vision on how designers at JetStyle understand design tasks and process clients’ briefs. The way designers understand the brief impacts how the interface will work. To truly grasp a design task, a designer should follow five key steps. Let’s break down each one: 

How Designers Understand Clients’ Briefs 

A designer should be able to identify:

• The business goal
  
  
• Changes in customer behavior patterns
  
  
• The desired event on the website
  
  
• Customers’ barriers and problems
  
  
• The solution to the problems
  

In simple terms, every time we design something, our goal is to remove existing barriers and issues with visual tools. As a result, the right event should occur on the website. This event indicates that the user's behavior has shifted in the desired direction, and our client has achieved the business goal. If we lose track of the business goal at any point, something has gone wrong.

Now, let’s dive into each step in more detail.

1. The business goal should specify the task. We recommend not using “increased profit” as the goal: this is a general objective in 95% of cases. Instead, focus on something more specific, like increasing upsell or improving LTV (Customer Lifetime Value).
   
   
2. A designer must be able to describe how a person currently behaves and how they should behave when they encounter the new interface. The key is the difference between the old and new behaviors. For example, right now, a person enters the kitchen, sits down at the table, and doesn’t eat their oats, but the goal is for them to start eating them.
   
   
3. To evaluate whether the interface solves user problems, you need to know which event on the website will indicate that the problem is solved.
   
   
4. Problems and barriers are best described via a user story: “When I’m in a certain role and do something, I want X. Here’s what’s preventing me from getting it.”
   
   
5. Solutions to problems are the decisions the designer will make for the interface. Should this banner be bigger? Where should the "Buy" button go? Should the user options be presented as a grid or a list? But before making these decisions, you need to go through the previous four steps.

We recommend working through all five steps, and you’ll be surprised at how much clearer the task becomes and how much easier it is to solve.

If you need skilled designers, just describe your task to us at orders@jet.style.