Business

Tech

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="461" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Database-migration-1st-image-1024x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-111964" srcset="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Database-migration-1st-image-1024x461.jpeg 1024w, https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Database-migration-1st-image-300x135.jpeg 300w, https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Database-migration-1st-image-768x346.jpeg 768w, https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Database-migration-1st-image.jpeg 1100w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption><a href="https://progressive.in/database-migration-made-easy-with-aws-dms">image source</a></figcaption></figure>



When you’re mopping the floor, you need to remember to start in a corner opposite the door. Tons of work can be put into something only to find that there is no clear way to move forward because the work that’s been done so far has severely limited possible options. Like mopping yourself into a corner! When designing a website or app, you might want to jump right in to what it will look like, but this is about the same as mopping right at the doorway. Starting from the outside in is often downright inefficient, especially if you are creating an individual template for each page. Here’s why Crafted Labs approaches every design process from the inside out—and what that means for efficiency and quality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Designing a Database that Supports Your Visions</h2>



Database architecture is the process of designing and implementing software that stores and organizes information. When building a complex app or website, the team needs to spend time strategizing the architecture before they even start thinking about appearance. Thinking about how the homepage is going to look is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things because it doesn’t affect how the website will work. On the back end, it’s essential to have a larger perspective on how each piece is going to work together. This is because it can be difficult to alter the structure of the database after it’s complete. Nobody can tell the future, but you do need to look ahead to what the app or website might need to become in a year or two. It’s vital to account for inevitable change from an architecture perspective. The more the database is scalable and adaptable, the better. that’s often much easier said than done. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Starting Your Application Design Process </h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/hal-gatewood-tZc3vjPCk-Q-unsplash-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-111885"/></figure>



One of the&nbsp; best things you can do to enhance the design and development process is to &nbsp; create a<a href="https://craftedup.com/blog/design-systems-according-to-a-designer/"> design system</a>. This is a library of components that have been pre-designed and approved to build your application.&nbsp;Keep in mind that a design system isn’t only about creating a unified design. It’s about creating a process for design and construction that is hardwired into your team’s mindset. <a href="https://medium.com/eightshapes-llc/team-models-for-scaling-a-design-system-2cf9d03be6a0">This can take many shapes</a> and the more the team uses a design system, the quicker it will become second nature. &nbsp; 



After creating a design system for your application, functionality will be ready to be implemented extremely efficiently across your entire code base. The real cherry on top is that a design system can built into your codebase so that once you update something in your library, the live components will update automatically–no muss with very little fuss. This makes design changes automatic and uniform across the board, so you don’t have to change things one at a time.



Database design and visual design are both critical aspects of building scalable, resilient apps. Investing in your backend architecture makes your design scalable from both data and user interface perspectives. This scalability means you have design and development processes that are reusable, resilient to change, updatable, and well documented. By designing from the inside out, your website or app will have a long shelf life and look great in the process.

So, you have a great idea for a website or app and it’s going to change the world. This might seem like a fateful beginning, but it is also just the start. First you need to figure out what features your app or website needs to have up front so that it will be both useful for your audience while being easily maintained by your team. Basically this means you need to start the process with a minimum viable product (MVP). 



The ultimate goal of building an MVP is to ship features that are essential to your products core functionality and essential to your company’s value proposition. Due to differences in budget and complexity across the different types of products, defining your MVP is an imprecise process, but there are some general steps to take to manage your risk, and ship the right features in your first release. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. User Experience Research</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/action-plan-brainstorming-complex-212286-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="A person looking at a board of cutout, written and printed papers" class="wp-image-111888"/></figure>



A user experience (UX) team is your ace in the hole for getting a start on your minimum viable product. The first step is to do research to find out who their target audience is going to be.&nbsp; Then, they head out and start having conversations with that audience about what the product is intended to do or solve. Before any journey begins you need to figure out where you’re going. To identify your MVP’s end destination, the UX designer will construct personas of the people who are most likely to use your app. This is to design the app with a target demographic in mind. This step helps you find out whether your idea has a good product/market fit. For example, if your app is supposed to help people learn English, should it be geared towards children who need help reading, or adult English Language Learners? This is important to define based on the feedback of your target demographic which is based on research as well as interview feedback, which is why a UX expert is essential. This part of the development process is also where they will learn which features and functionality, like a login page, GPS connectivity, or voice recognition, are needed to support the user’s experience in order to have a successful MVP. Now that you have a solid jumping off point and an idea of the app’s final destination this is where the UI team jumps in and works with the UX team to get the project on its feet.&nbsp; 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Prioritize List of Features for an MVP </h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/image2-1024x678.png" alt="A wall with three rows of three sticky note each with someone placing the final sticky note. " class="wp-image-111889"/></figure>



The “P” in MVP doesn’t stand for prioritize, but maybe it should. Your next step is to take a hard look at your list of features and ideas discussed during the research process. Now, do a risk ranking from most important to least essential. Deciding what the app needs for launch helps give it shape so you can also start thinking about design. This is about balancing what can be done efficiently in order to get your MVP tested and launched without blowing your budget (the minimum part). Also in the balance is making sure it helps your user along their journey (the viable part) so you will get good feedback to develop future features.



Ranking features is a pretty straightforward process. If a feature is part of the core value proposition for the app, then it probably needs to go in the MVP. For instance, in the language learning app, students will need to create a login and sign up in order to use it. At first, you probably won’t have a ton of users, so maybe full functionality of the profile system isn’t the most important aspect of your launch. 



By asking users to send a sign-up email and creating profiles for them, you can build out more important features for your MVP. Then when you have the resources, after launch, you can go back and set up a more efficient (and complicated) automated system for registration.



It’s important to note, you won’t always know everything about your target user base, which is one reason not spending tons of time and a big percentage of your budget on and MVP is important. For example, imagine a team working on a new social media app for retail workers. Their research tells them that direct, one-on-one messaging will be the most used feature in their app. However, after the release of the MVP, it’s found that the less fully-developed and lower priority group messaging feature is more popular. This is where being open-minded and accepting of user feedback is key. Now the team has the insight to develop that feature more, so this kind of incident isn’t really a failure. But it is an example of why you don’t want to invest too much in any one part of an MVP.&nbsp; 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. Remember: A Solid MVP is a Solid Foundation </h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/adult-app-blur-1440722-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="Person using an iPhone to scroll through a photo app" class="wp-image-111887"/></figure>



An MVP feels finished in itself, but it’s just the first iteration. It serves to build momentum for your idea and garner the feedback you need to make it truly great. Your users will probably have a lot of input for how you can improve it by adding features that will set it apart from any other product in the field. Take this feedback as constructive criticism that will make your investment in an MVP pay off in a second or third iteration and beyond.&nbsp; 



A good MVP wears many hats. Like any other web-based project it will probably change as new design trends come along and new technology enables new features that you may have never dreamt of before. By investing in an MVP, in many cases, you are also signing up for a continued education in the technological innovations that will help keep your app or website fresh, useful, and indispensable for your users who rely on it everyday.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/amy-hirschi-uwpo02K55zw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-111898"/></figure>



Feedback can be a tricky thing to navigate, because sometimes, it’s way too early or too emotional for everyone involved to think objectively. This is a problem. And worse &#8211; If key stakeholders aren’t all on board with the product, it won’t succeed. This is why handling feedback properly is essential to any act of creation. Here are some things we’ve learned to keep in mind while taking early-stage feedback on a project.&nbsp; 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">First Impressions Aren’t the Most Important</h2>



While many people find satisfaction in diving into a project headfirst and working until it’s done, there are a few drawbacks to this style of work. Chiefly, one might lose sight of how others might perceive their work. In other words, the way you do your work makes sense to you&#8211;so that’s just how it needs to be done. Working day and night on a project like an app, flaws might go unseen, or be accepted, or fixing them gets put off until later. However, other people with a stake in the app might only see the flaws, or maybe your focus on one area wasn’t what they were expecting. Regardless, they will see the work you’ve been doing differently than you do when it’s unveiled to them for the first time.&nbsp; Positive or negative that initial reaction will skew the outlook on the project from then on.&nbsp;



If the feedback is positive, sure, It’s nice to hear good things about your work. But mistakes that are then overlooked through rose-colored glasses <a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/risks-and-rewards-of-making-project-decisions-based-on-gut-feelings/">could manifest into larger problems in the future</a>. If the feedback is negative, it may be because they were expecting a product to turn out exactly how they envisioned it or would have done it, and that’s never reality. Their immediate reaction is born from juxtaposition between what they expected and what they see. This means that even if what they see is objectively better than how they envisioned it, they will never like it. 



Many scientists agree that relying on gut reactions in business situations <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40575508/why-go-with-your-gut-is-terrible-advice">isn’t the best idea</a>.The negative reaction might make developers or designers hesitant to share future iterations with the audience or owner. That ultimately leads to a worse final product. 



If feedback is based on a quick glance take it with a grain of salt. If they love it, there may eventually become reasons they don’t. If they don’t like it, that doesn’t mean it’s bad, just far from their individual concept. Either way, these quick reactions don’t provide much value.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://wordpress.craftedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/jon-tyson-82ZEOTntP8g-unsplash-768x1024.jpg" alt="sign on street: aarow pointing to right with the heading &quot;awesome&quot;, aarow pointing to the left with the heading &quot;less awesome&quot;" class="wp-image-111896"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"> How to Get Better Creative Feedback&nbsp;</h2>



When trying to get constructive feedback, it’s important to remember that context is king.First of all, present the design, MVP, or other critical deliverables yourself to the stakeholders, either over the phone or in person. Otherwise, an uninformed intermediary might run their opinion up the chain and influence reactions. This presentation will help provide them context of your decision making and choices about the product or project. This might mean explaining risks you took, innovations you discovered, or unexpected limitations that you’re still trying to work around.&nbsp; 



During this presentation, though, there shouldn’t be any big reveals. You should also be in touch with stakeholders throughout the process any time there’s a big change or deviation from the original direction. This will help to head off negative gut reactions at the pass and allow the client to look at the product with grounded expectations.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to Take Creative Feedback Better</h2>



It&#8217;s important to remember not to take feedback personally. There is no crying in baseball, business, or the feedback process. Try to remain objective and listen so that there is no appearance of defensiveness, which could be interpreted as an unwillingness to collaborate. However, at the same time, don’t be shy about explaining your reasoning or how you ended up in what someone else sees as “the weeds.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Taking feedback better gets easier the more you practice, so our best advice for designers and developers is to expose yourselves to feedback more often, more early. Part of the issues that come up with gut reactions could be avoided if stakeholders saw the design or product earlier in development. Yes, that’s scary, because they might not like it. You might fear they don’t have expertise and perspective to appreciate a work in progress. But you’re also limiting your ability to be objective about the work by keeping it close to the chest and thinking of it as “your own.”&nbsp;



When it comes to feedback, be an open book, but don’t absorb every critic’s reaction at face value. Good or bad, take the time to parse out useful input and put the emotional gut reactions behind you. Your project isn’t an oil painting that can be ruined by one mistake, so don’t be afraid to justify your decision making and talk through the next steps that make sense from all sides. In this way, feedback plays its true role in the creative process, and isn’t a trap to success.

Contents

Is your business
ready for structured content?

Designing Apps from the Inside Out

Contents

Is your business ready for structured content?

Designing Apps from the Inside Out

Is your business
ready for structured content?