Looking at how a brand connects with an audience, Only talked about the formats in which people consume media; today, the primary way of consuming advertising through a screen (via a laptop or phone), therefore websites and apps are one of the most effective ways to communicate the meaning of a brand or the products available. However, consuming information digitally tends to be fast paced and digital media is constantly evolving, so interface designs should always aim to feel fresh and relevant without following trends to closely.
Only highlighted some of the many considerations that should be applied within any interface design:
- designs should be bold and as simple as possible in order to create maximum clarity on a digital display
- when displaying text, line lengths should be short and concise
- spacing between images and between image and text is crucial - how content looks on a phone screen vs a laptop screen is the difference between capturing and losing an audience
Only also talked about their own process behind creating a user interface design for a client. They consider research to be a crucial first step, so before making anything physical they undertake research into the client, the message and ideology that they wish to portray, target audience etc. Once a solid foundation of research has been established they then create a wireframe for the app. This is the stage where physical idea are created in mock-up - the designer finalises what the product is, what it might look like, how you flow through it, what the usability is etc. This creates the bare bones of the project. From there the design is worked through and finalised.
Perhaps the most useful piece of advice was that for digital designs that will be used across multiple different platforms, most of the time a responsive website is better than an app. Apps have certain restrictions and can only be displayed within the dimensions of a phone screen, whereas a responsive website will shrink to fit a screen of any size, allowing it to be viewed through any browser on any device. This ultimately increasing the accessibility and the audience reach for a client.