Is your product functional, or just eye-candy?

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Digital design is one of the fields that changes and evolves constantly. Each year new trends appear, that are often quickly and blindly implemented by designers trying to be "edgy" and keeping up with trends. Often the client himself wants a specific style, close to some pretty, sugary pictures that he has seen on dribbble or behance.

"You're an artist here, so make me a good product!" they say sometimes completely missing the point. An interface is not a poster or an ad. There is very little place for abstract thinking and extravagant elements. Apps and websites are products that first and foremost need to be readable, aesthetically pleasing and functional

A design going too crazy and crossing a line into being art and not a product is called "digital sugar". In most cases the culprits look amazing on small visuals posted online. But in reality they're often impossible to achieve, non-functional and useless in a sense of breaking all the rules of a good experience in favor of their looks.

It's worth to understand what is just eye-candy, and what is a thought-out, functional design. If you see a project that you like, take some time to answer these questions:

Is it readable at first glance?
Would you consider it easy to use over a period of time?
Is the visual chrome the first thing you see and not the content?
Are there reasons for most of the visuals to exist?
If there's animation - won't it obstruct the experience by making you wait every time for it to finish?

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Rich and vivid, but can you easily understand what's it about?

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Can you easily focus on this picture?

If you need help with your digital design needs get in touch with us.