September 10, 2021
GDUSA: Staying Ahead In An Evolving Digital Landscape
As Associate Design Director at MCD Partners, Alan Reuter works as team lead on the design end, creating user interface design over a wide array of digital projects ranging from interactive marketing materials to rich digital user experiences. With over 10 years of experience, Alan has had the privilege of working with a number of high-profile clients, such as Discover, PBS, El Rey Network, Hallmark Channel, NBC Universal, Coca-Cola, Facebook, and Siemens.
I’m always snooping around to see what the rest of the design world is up to. Let me say, I’ve never been happier about the health of design in the world today. Companies everywhere see the value in the good design of their products and services, and designers now have a more important and more integrated role in the success of these companies than they did 20 years ago.
However, like any other discipline, design can evolve slowly and before you know it, new paradigms develop. If you aren’t paying attention when that happens, you will fall behind.
The great thing about the internet is how easy it is to get your work out there. A few clicks and a free account are all it takes. But whenever I go on these sites that showcase designs, I’m typically presented with the same issue: a few pages featuring a few screens of a sample project, be it an app or site design, out of context and with no foundation.
While often still beautiful, these images do not tell me anything about the design of it.
Designers are in the business of humanity. Whether it’s a personal project or the design of an interface for a multi-billion dollar company, designers must understand the bigger picture design goal. That said, as design evolves, so, too, do the principles and practices that help a designer achieve these successfully. Trends and tastes come and go. But there’s a few principles that never change, even if the way we approach them evolves.
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