Design Takeaways from Fabricio Teixeira

Aug 17, 2023 (IST)

These are my takeaways from “The musings of a designer and what he loves about design and what he’s learned along the way” (2023) by Fabricio Teixeira. I found it full of practical and actionable advice and I recommend you read the whole article yourself:

lessons.design

Takeaways🔗

I don’t quite understand what frameworks is about, and I understand and appreciate the points on simplicity and consistency a fair bit, but my biggest takeaway is on framing:

You should present your idea as a starting quote, image, video, metaphor, or something to introduce the idea to your audience. See the emphasised points under the section on framing for more.

framework🔗

• have a model/framework for the product. to represent and understand the subject of the product. this should not change as the product evolves, and should keep the product consistent
• identify and emphasise the core differentiating factor of your framework. make it incredibly obvious
• don’t stick to preconceived notions of the problem/subject area
• test concepts by making prototypes with exaggerated differences
• make frameworks and get inspiration from beyond design

simplicity🔗

• if two things are similar, bring them closer, merge them, or separate them further
• whitespace is for the eyes to rest and absorb things
• descriptions with “and” or “also” suggest that the product is doing too much
• words and writing can merge things together, make them shorter, make them less generic

framing🔗

If you read the article a second time, you’ll see that he uses these ideas at the beginning of the page, as well at the beginning of every chapter.

• frame the product such that you present your reasoning and make it apparent to people
• learn to see the rationale behind designs, to learn how to frame your own
• you can frame a product with a conceptual word, an image, an animation, a video, a short sentence, a metaphor, a drawing, a framework, a datapoint, a quote
• don’t just describe the layout of the product (which is already visible). describe how it will benefit users, how it reaches business goals, the reasoning behind it
• framing gives people time, context and insight about the design, which makes it easier to understand

consistency🔗

• consistency means designing for the future — not just for present delight or use
• consistency helps users as well as creators (team)
• double check work to ensure quality, consistency
• don’t pursue consistency in the face of context
• the people you work with will last longer than the products you work on. joy in that is what lasts