do you get design expert opinion / review?

[lifestudent]

Fellow entrepreneurs:

I am in the process of building a new web app. We have hired a contract designer, and we are developing it ourselves. Our designer has been great, although not very experienced.

1) We are wondering if it is common or recommended to get external design expert opinions / reviews as some sort of "design audit", preferably from a proven / experienced designer. The purpose is to look at any design / user experience blind spots that we and our designer might have missed.

2) How do we structure the deliverable for such design review? e.g. for tech security review, the deliverable is pretty standard, 2-3 iterations, check against some checklist, and produce a risk assessment report. Since design opinions can be more subjective, how should we approach this so we know what to expect to get from the design expert.

Thanks!

 

[southernbbn]

@lifestudent I actually haven’t heard of many outsourced/consulted UX UI design audits, but I’d be willing to help you out. I can send you some of my work if you’re interested. I’ve constructed dozens of brand guidelines and seen them through to production.

To answer question 2, you need to have a style guide and ideally pre-establish, or in your case establish, accepted design principles such as color, font, relative sizing, predictable and intuitive view design, consistent shadows, consistent border radius, etc. It’a bigger than that but I think you’ll understand where I’m going. When I work with young devs, they think I’m being very nitpicky at first, but once they realize how much time it saves them and that the ultimate product looks much more polished, they come around.

 

[iv65]

@lifestudent What exactly r u doing?

 

[counselorwriterdad]

@lifestudent If you're looking for a designer to QA your designer, you need to fire your current designer and replace them with a proven vendor.

We have worked with Ship Shape Studio and love their work - they are terrific.

 

[dmsnansdkfl]

@lifestudent What you're looking for is called UX research. You want to funnel actual users through the app to test, not other designers. Unless the app is for designers.

My firm facilitates UXR studies like this regularly. PM me if you want to chat.