Are there objective criteria for evaluating the quality of a design?

Question

Design

I have a few questions for experienced designers. And to make it clearer, I will try to explain with an example.

Nikolai is a web designer. He designed a small regional online store and handed it over to the customer. The customer launched this online store (found the developer, made it up, put it on the engine, put it on hosting, etc.). Nikolai put the site in his portfolio.

It's been 3 months and the customer is fine. The site increased sales, the conversion to order from the site was 30%, a new assortment appeared, etc. Nikolay knows that the customer is doing well, but, of course, no one provided him with metrics. At the same time, Nikolai's colleagues say that the layout is shit. Violated internal/external, out of balance, poor composition, etc., without knowing the metrics and indicators of the site. On the one hand, a satisfied customer and 30% of users, and on the other, Nikolay, who cannot find a job because he has a “wrong” layout.

Questions:
1) Who evaluates the design: users or other designers?
2) Are there any objective criteria for evaluating the quality of design in Nikolay's case?
3) If yes, what are they?
4) To what extent does the idea prevail over the visual?
5) Why do you think NOT top studios are looking for a designer not just with UX skills, but directly with research, etc., if 90% of their clients * are the same customers as Nikolay's?

*These clients don't have the time or money for UX research, prototype testing, prototype fixes, new prototype testing, and finally A/B testing.

Answer 1

No

Answer 2

If the store does not have money for testing, then he does not have to expect that he will attract someone with the design alone.
Accordingly, the only thing that makes sense to evaluate in design is the question of whether a user who is ready to make a purchase could make this purchase by finding what he needs in the store, going through all the checkout and payment steps and not getting lost.
By swearing in feedback, for example, such problems can be identified;)

Answer 3

here it’s obvious that Nikolai’s colleagues themselves are nasty people,
especially among designers, this is the norm
, they usually gnaw at each other like spiders in a jar
even in Lebedev’s studio, such garbage
here Nikolai needs to sharply become toxic and say that all his colleagues who said so are themselves bad designers
and work any master can only be evaluated by other masters,
but masters can be bad toxic people,
so you need to be independent and not listen to anyone's opinion and not ask anyone for an assessment

Answer 4

1. Both. But at the same time, none of them, because a third-party designer does not know all the nuances and target audience, and the user can only evaluate at the level of like / dislike, convenient / not convenient.
2. I don't think so.
4. If the site does not fulfill its main function, then its design is worthless. That is, the function and achievement of the goal is always more important than the visual.
5. And what to do with the remaining 10%? What is "research"?
As for the final point, in my understanding, research is a continuous process of improvement. And if there are resources for a constant set of focus groups with attention tracking, it's not scary. Research can also be carried out by technical means, through analytics on the site, you can simply read reviews, look at the sales funnel, and so on. You can ask the user to leave feedback at the end.
This is all done very cheaply and does not take much time, but it gives a lot of useful information.

Violated internal / external, out of balance, bad composition, etc.

This is exactly what a designer can appreciate.
And such nuances just speak of professionalism.
On a large scale, inconsistency in design will reduce developer productivity (simply by having to make changes to each component), and will also slow down the user, because he will not be sure that "looks the same = acts the same", which will cause errors and irritation.

Answer 5

1) Who evaluates the design: users or other designers?

Everyone evaluates. Only the cases are different, in the first case, the customer and users vote in rubles, in the second case, the studio / company represented by employees evaluate your creative abilities from their own bell tower, focusing on their experience and their clients (yes, clients are also all different, and each studio focuses on some "client niche" that she knows well and understands what suits her).

2) Are there any objective criteria for evaluating the quality of design in Nikolay's case?

Yes, not to say that much, but there is. The composition and color combinations are well researched and have generally accepted standards. Font ratios, indents, proportions, readability of elements, the speed of finding important elements of interaction ... There are many things, I don’t remember everything now, but they are there and they are decently so, if approached objectively and according to science. But only a few do it, mainly relying on subjective feelings, which, by the way, is acceptable if you have a lot of experience, since in fact it repeats everything the same as in science, just already at the level of "I smell crap / quality". Yes, even Googlebot, when evaluating a page, can issue recommendations such as "elements are too close", "font is too small", etc.

3) If yes, what are they?

wrote above

4) To what extent does the idea prevail over the visual?

Not how much. Both components are different stages of design implementation. If any of them are shitty, the result of any of them will be Mr.

5) Why do you think NOT top studios are looking for a designer not just with UX skills, but directly with research, etc., if 90% of their clients * are the same customers as Nikolay's?

Because there are 10% of other clients, and they also bring money for research, and there are designers who know how to research for +- the same money as those who don’t, so why waste money?

Answer 6

Easily
Collect a list of criteria and evaluate according to them

Answer 7

All components are important here. Maybe your Nikolai made the shade of shit a little more pleasant, due to which there was a slight increase, but it's still shit, which his colleagues solemnly inform him about.
Everyone evaluates.
Compliance with UI/UX design principles.
As much as the visual is above the idea. These are equal parts.
UX itself requires relevant research.
However, you do not understand this, and most likely you will never understand. You evaluate from the position of a programmer, regarding the real return, that is, the conversion, but the quality of the design is not evaluated by this indicator. But you can be forgiven, you are a website developer, and this is a separate category with a diametrically different way of thinking.
Separately deliver answers from programmers. Indeed, who, if not programmers, should answer this question.

Answer 8

Guest3302

Maybe your Nikolai made the shade of shit a little more pleasant, due to which there was a slight increase, but it's still shit, which his colleagues solemnly inform him about.

what does the word "perhaps" mean? Accordingly, without seeing the design, you can’t say Nikolai did shit or not? It's like saying I haven't seen the Mona Lisa, but maybe it's shit. Probably the Mona Lisa example is not relevant, but it is not relevant only in terms of the number of "users".

Compliance with UI/UX design principles.

what kind of principles are these? Google has its own, and Amazon has its own. So I ask: are there any common ones? And if so, what research are they based on?

However, you do not understand this, and most likely you will never understand. You evaluate from the position of a programmer, in relation to the real return, that is, the conversion, but the quality of the design is not evaluated by this indicator. But you can be forgiven, you are a website developer, and this is a separate category with a diametrically different way of thinking.

That is, the best designer in Russia made the site better than Amazon? If so, why is Bezos one of the richest people in the world? Does he also have a diametrically different way of thinking? A website is just a small part of marketing. And marketing indicators are considered and analyzed. Therefore, the site is also subject to analysis.
An example especially for you: Konstantin decides to open an offline store of super-premium grills in Saratov. He understands that he needs advertising. Therefore, he buys 90% of the billboards in Saratov, orders layouts from Lebedev's studio, aic and Gorbunov's Bureau (yes, such a rich man), conducts A / B testing of all layouts and leaves the layout to Gorbunov's bureau. And in a year his business will fail. Why?
1) There are not many rich people in Saratov who are ready to buy a premium grill.
2) Those rich people who have already bought a grill from Konstantin will not change it every month. They will change in five years at best.
3) There are not many transport companies in Saratov to sell grills with delivery.
There may be something else, but that's just the way it is.
Attention to the question:
How did the site affect Konstantin's bankruptcy? Yes, he spent a lot of money initially. But if he ordered a site on the stock exchange for 30 thousand rubles. , then he would have come to bankruptcy a year and a half later. But the result would be the same.

Answer 9

1) Who evaluates the design: users or other designers?
2) Are there any objective criteria for evaluating the quality of design in Nikolay's case?
3) If yes, what are they?

For me, the objectivity of the assessment depends on the initially pursued goals. I will skip the example of Nikolai, I will try to consider it from my own experience. For example, I recently did the design of a cafe project here, the work was evaluated by both designers (colleagues) and the owners of the object themselves .