Creative Approach
In my mind, I feel that whatever product or service, your success is contingent upon your consumers. If the consumer is not happy with a particular service or is confused on how to use your mobile app, that will be a reflection of your brand. As a design leader, I model myself around the philosophy of designing products that are useful, easy to use, user-friendly, technically feasible, and of commercial interest.
How do I achieve this?
First, I ask a lot of Questions. How does it work? What is the goal? What is the customer journey? It doesn't matter if the product is a TV, a website, or a car. The user already has an opinion of your product. What the user understands about your product will also depend how they understand the world. A better understanding of the user's mental model will help you design the conceptual model of a product.
Don't make me think
I keep it as simple as possible. When I was at The Richards Group in Dallas Texas, a colleague of mine gave me a copy of Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think (2000). The insight of this book changed me forever. It taught me a lot about website usability. Prior to reading this book, I was developing complicated Flash websites that weren't very user friendly. I basically designed websites for designers, not for consumers.
Explain like I'm 5
Consumers love simplicity. They want task to be easy, communicated clearly and simply in their own language, and provide good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures. I have told my team of designers to keep things ELI5. Don't over complicate. Things should be visible and relatable between the user's intentions and actions. Buttons should react like buttons and the language shouldn't be ambiguous.
Customer needs
The most basic principle of product design or interaction design is to meet the user's needs. After my team (sometimes myself) creates a prototype or mock-up, this is where I like to test the design with real users by implementing a series of user scenarios, A/B testing, and usability testing. Find the mistakes early, fix them, and test again! Users will not shy away from telling you what's wrong with your product.
Consistency
I've driven this concept to my team members so much they think I'm consistent. Make the style guide stay on brand! There has to be visual identity throughout the experience. If the user goes to another page on a website, or goes through multiple screens on an app, I want to make sure that the visual identity is conveyed throughout the user's journey. Consistency is an absolute fundamental principle in my design process.
Less is more
I love minimalism and it's apparent with some of the choices of architecture, and furniture I like. I feel the use a simple language gets to the point quicker. Most people aren't designers or developers, most of them do not understand the design concept and development process. The language and text of the product must be easy to understand and very close to general user's thoughts. The design should appear familiar and natural.
Function with form
Design is completely different than art. Design serves a need whereas Art gives you emotion. There's nothing wrong with Art. You can have an exceptionally better product if you are able to combine functionality with form. A good-looking interface will not only be pleasing to the user, but also reflect the iterations of the product by maintaining its aesthetically functional qualities. Some say function over form but Apple has shown you can do both.
user-centered design
While technology has changed, human decision making really hasn't. When the focus is on the user first in design, not only will you have a great product, but the consumer will love it too. This creates brand loyalty because in the user's mind, they feel you had their best interest. In this day and age people are inundated with so much media and apps, you can't afford to ignore the user because they'll simply go somewhere else.
