Top mistake non-technical founders make in UX design
Have you ever seen a recipe for a delicious dish by a famous chef and attempted to replicate it? How did that turn out?
I remember that, like everyone else in the first wave of the pandemic, I decided to make banana bread. But, I didn’t just want to do the standard thing. I got ambitious and found a recipe with 1,027 ingredients and gourmet icing.
The result was not the same as the picture. The gourmet icing was a sugar soup, and the banana bread was more of a banana brick.
After that, I decided to outsource baking to the professionals and do what I am good at instead: make money so I can spend it on cake.
I am all for trying new things and being ambitious. But, we also need to acknowledge when things are best left to the professionals.
One of the top mistakes non-technical founders and innovators make is thinking that they can design their product themselves.
The thinking goes: I use apps. I know what I like, I can learn design software and whip up a prototype. This will save me money on design costs and then I can go straight to hiring developers.
But, as Sang Valte, Design Standards Board Member at General Assembly said in this TFNT lesson:
“design is something that everybody can learn, but not everybody can master.”
Just as knowing how to use a kitchen knife does not turn you into a chef, learning how to use prototyping tools does not turn you into a designer.
In this week’s Tech for Non-Techies podcast episode, I talk about the top mistakes non-technical innovators make when it comes to design.
Remember, good user experience design lies at the core of every product. If the underlying code is fantastic, but the design is confusing, people will not use it.
This is why, learning how to work with designers, is a critical step to being a smart digital collaborator.
That’s what we cover in this weeks episode: Top mistakes non-technical founders make in UX design.
By the way, I am not a designer. I don’t run a design studio. If you try to hire me to make you designs, I will not say yes.
My job is to teach you how to hire and work with product teams, how to have a smart digital strategy, not to build your app for you.
To succeed in today’s economy, you do not need to learn to code, but you do need to learn how to work with people who code.
The secret is that becoming a digital collaborator isn’t actually that hard, but many people don’t do it because they get put off by the jargon.
My aim is to change that.
