Practice4 min read
What a design review should actually catch
Opinions about spacing are cheap. The valuable review finds the states nobody designed.
Sample post. This entry is placeholder content used to build out the journal. It is not a statement by or about Tecnicubes.
A review that only produces preferences is a slow way to reach a coin flip. The useful ones interrogate the states that were never drawn.
Ask for the ugly cases
- Empty: what does this look like with no data?
- One: does a single item look deliberate or broken?
- Too many: where does the layout give up?
- Slow: what shows while this is loading?
- Failed: what does the user do next?
Most interfaces are designed for the happy middle and shipped into a world made almost entirely of edges.
Every screen has five states. Most designs have one.