How do you balance creativity and functionality in internet service projects?

To achieve a well balanced product design, it can be a good idea to prioritise the user experience over creative elements in the beginning of a project. Once a solid foundation for the information architecture has been established, then shift towards the creative aspects of the product. In the early stages of the creative process, it is acceptable to introduce innovative and daring concepts. My experience has shown that such bold ideas often serve as a source of inspiration for the final aesthetics of the design. Subsequently, once a creative concept has been refined, it becomes imperative to subject it to testing with individuals who align with the intended audience profile.

In my current role as a web designer at Rare Genomics, I am undertaking the enormous task of updating our homepage to meet modern-day standards. The designer before me tackled this problem head-on by jumping straight to designing different homepage versions and receiving feedback from our team on each iteration. I personally preferred to unravel this challenge by talking to the different stakeholders at our company, understanding our goals, and doing user surveys instead of creating a new version of the homepage every few weeks. This way I ensured that the homepage I was designing was meeting our company's goals and our users' needs, while also updating and beautifying the page to meet modern-day web standards.

Any ideation of the product starts only when you know your goals. Only your target audience is a true source of knowledge. It means that you need to talk to your audience to understand their needs, create a priority list, and then ideate. Not knowing what you are doing is a problem for your design process. Every product you work with needs to have clear goals that you understand. This is why communication with your target audience plays a crucial role in the design process.

Define Clear Objectives: Clearly define the project's objectives, goals, and key performance indicators (KPIs). This helps ensure that both creative and functional aspects align with the project's overall purpose.

Don't try to invent a wheel. 90% of design methods and techniques are already created and confirmed before us. I suggest to concentrate on problem-solving rather than design methods. Think about what problem will you solve first, and find the best methods and techniques for it. The best solutions are always simple.

Collaborate Effectively: Foster collaboration between designers, developers, and other team members. Regular communication and collaboration can help balance creativity and functionality by incorporating diverse perspectives

How can you be sure that your idea works for users and this is exactly what they need? Test your product. Create user scenarios with additional questions and launch your testing sessions. See the success rate of your testers and analyze the results. Write surveys and ask all questions you need to confirm your design solutions. Analyze and iterate your design process. Based on testing results, make improvements and test again. By doing so, you can be sure that your idea works.

Learning is never a never-ending price for designers. The best techniques of learning are inspiration search and collaboration. Every designer starts a design process from an inspiration search. We are looking for ideas for feature implementation, layout structure, and many other things. The best part of it is learning how other designers solve the problem you need to solve. You shouldn't copy the design, but you need to understand the methods and techniques of other designers to implement in your own design work. Collaboration is another great source of learning. If you find a designer for a common project and can work together, the design process in real-time would be a great teacher for both of you.

Balancing creativity and functionality is an ongoing process that requires flexibility and adaptability. Regularly revisit and refine your design and development decisions to ensure that your product evolves to meet both creative and functional goals while providing true value to your users.

There are so many ideas you might have for your project. But where to start and how to implement everything? Rather than ask this question, ask yourself where the top 1-2 problems can I solve for my users. The priority list is the work tool that helps you to define your design goals. Yes, you still can have many ideas, but you need to structure them. For example, your MVP will include 5 main features, your next design iteration will include the next 3, and so on. While the design process includes a lot of creativity, you need to structure your ideas and have a good plan for what to do next.