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Do you share design feedback or sometimes act like a designer? This one’s for you.

Why good design sense is a superpower

UX designers aren’t the only ones designing. PMs, marketers, analysts, founders, and developers share design ideas and feedback all the time. At many companies, it’s a core part of their jobs.

Many of these product stakeholders don't come from a traditional design background. This becomes a blocker when building your product—they have valuable insights to share, but struggle to articulate why a good design is good and a bad one is bad. Experienced designers seem to know intuitively, but the truth is that anyone can develop a design sense.

When we talk about design sense, we’re not talking about which colors go together or which icons match your brand. We’re talking about understanding how to evaluate and use design to best serve your users (and meet your goals).

People who understand this are able to share ideas and feedback that lead to shipping better user experiences, producing efficient design cycles, and hitting goals faster. That’s why good design sense is a superpower when you’re a non-designer.

We asked our in-house design experts and educators, Leon Barnard and Billy Carlson, to share their top tips and resources to develop good design sense.

How to develop good design sense

#1: Learn the basic layers of UI/UX design.

When you’re in the ideation phase, you have to look past the visuals and appearance to see the different layers of your product: structure, organization, usability, and behavior.

For example: if you don’t understand the fundamentals of design hierarchy, you might lean toward a design that leads users to see a button before the context for it. Or, perhaps you’re providing feedback on a navigation menu, and a UX designer pushes back. Understanding the layers of the user experience will lead to a more productive conversation that centers around your goals for the user, versus your personal preferences.

🎁 Balsamiq resource: Introduction to User Experience Design through Wireframes (free course)

✚ BONUS: What is UI design? (free course)

#2: Practice thinking outside of your product.

There’s a high chance your customers spend most of their time with other products and less time with yours. To create the best experience for your users, you have to think holistically about the products they regularly interact with—not just yours.

This will help you see which patterns your users see frequently (or which ones they don’t), so you can fit in or disrupt. Two ways to get tactical:

Competitive design analysis: Review your competitors' products and zone in on critical screens, like onboarding or their pricing page. Analyze them through the layers of UI/UX described above to understand what they do well or where you can do better.
Comparative design analysis: Look at products outside of your industry for inspiration. Create wireframes based on familiar patterns and interfaces from other products your customers use that could work for your product.

🎁 Balsamiq resource: Balsamiq's simple competitive analysis template

✚ BONUS: Copying an Existing UI to Learn How It Was Designed (article)

#3: Use questions to dig deeper.

Our UX professor-in-residence, Billy, likes to think of this as “pushing the why.” In our August newsletter, he wrote,

When I teach UI design, the first assignment for my students is to select one product they like and explain why. They’ll often write about why Venmo makes splitting the bill easy — or why TikTok is addicting (it’s the endless scrolling of content). A real answer from this assignment was, “I like it because it is simple, interactive, and customizable to my tastes.”

But, this answer could apply to any product. Billy pushes his students to dig deeper and focus on their specific product: Why do the different levels of typography make it simple? Which elements on the screen make this interactive, and how?

This shows how design can evolve from being subjective (simply saying whether you like or don’t like it) to more objective when viewed through the lens of how a product helps a user accomplish their goals.

The deeper your analysis, the more likely you are to get a more usable, well-loved product.

🎁 Balsamiq resource: Billy’s product analysis questions (template)

#4: Separate your brain from your user’s brain.

Your target user probably isn’t you. So even though you’re great at your job, you have to separate your interests and preferences from your users so you can ask the right questions.

Leon says that teams often struggle with product market fit or growth because they only think about the product, not its usability. It’s not just about the buttons and colors working—it’s about your product fitting into your user’s life and the “job” they’re hiring your product to do.

Putting on a “user brain” when asking questions will help you get closer to their reality, which is the one you really want to design for.

🎁 Balsamiq resource: How We Do User Research (article)

#5: Lean on your favorite wireframing tool.

Non-designers use long, hard-to-read lists of requirements to explain their ideas. Product managers and founders write user stories. Marketers draft strategy documents, and engineers write requirements.

But the problem with words is that they are very open to interpretation and can be visualized very differently. Adding a sketch to your idea, like a wireframe, strengthens discussions and is more likely to solve the problem. It becomes a solution, rather than a follow-the-feature list.

Wireframes also help you surface and visualize assumptions early. They let you explore lots of solutions quickly, without wasting time or getting too attached to any one idea. You can move past ideas that fall flat, understand together, discuss, and iterate without getting stuck on a bullet point.

🎁 Balsamiq resource: Balsamiq Wireframing Academy (dozens of free articles, videos, and courses that fit your time and questions)

✚ BONUS: Balsamiq Office Hours (free advice on your work or career from senior Balsamiq staff)

Design sense compounds

The stronger your design sense, the more you can focus on the details that matter— differentiating factors that make your product magically unique. You’ll work better with your product development/design team, wasting less time and earning more trust, and you’ll create better products.

The best part? Design sense (and the skills that come with it) compounds. It gets stronger and better with repetition.

So whether you invest a few minutes a week in articles or take a free course, spending time building design sense can make a huge difference for your projects, product, and career.

Happy customer of the month

For over a decade my favourite #wireframing tool is @balsamiq, it is easy to use and allows me to create wireframes really quickly, and what is more important these wireframes are intuitive and easy to understand even for non-technician people — maxico.dev

Product news

As predicted, the decision to detach Desktop from Cloud, while painful to make, enabled us to start going much faster on the Cloud front.

The first set of improvements, coming soon, are around the UI library: you can now filter icons by category and resize the UI library to take a better look at it, or to make it smaller and out of the way.

This is just the beginning! We are working on several major improvements to Balsamiq overall, which will make it even faster and easier to use, no matter your design experience.

Wireframing Academy news

We’re continuing to improve the accessibility of our educational materials. This month, we added closed captions, video transcripts, and text summaries to the videos in our Rapid Wireframing: Finding the Right Product Design course.

We continued to pull insights from our recent Balsamiq Wireframing Academy user interviews. Thanks to those of you who told us more about your reading and learning habits.

Last but not least, our latest update on our book went out, which describes the similarities between writing a book and doing good UX design!

UX/UI links for March

UX Lessons From a Pottery Professor About Lean Product Design - by Slava Polonski
The Disabled State in UI Design - by Krisztina Szerovay
Patterns Are Good - by Filipe Nzongo
Modern iOS Navigation Patterns - by Frank Rausch
The Anatomy of a Good Design: An Analysis of 4 Sites - by Sarah Gibbons and Kelley Gordon

Company news

We continue to work on different internal projects related to benefits, communication, managers, and more. These efforts support our teams better and help us be our most productive, happy selves at work—which we think results in an even better product and customer experience.

Join our research program! We’d love your feedback.
Sponsorships and raffles: Notable events we sponsored in March are INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, UX Copenhagen, Make a Mark Brussels and more!
Notable recipients of our Free Software Program:
- Enveritas is a non-profit with the mission to end global poverty in the coffee sector by 2030
- Flüchtlingshilfe helps refugees in need in their home countries
- Cameleon aspires to a world without sexual violence

That's it for this month!

When it comes to creating great designs, it’s not just about the tools (though they help, too). It’s about the skills and knowledge that help you create, evaluate, and iterate—whether it’s with your team, users, or both.

See you next month, with more behind-the-scenes news from your friends at Balsamiq!

Arielle for the Balsamiq Team

Most new customers find Balsamiq via recommendation...

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traditional design background efficient design cycles house design experts good design sense best product ideas

Balsamiq resources for developing your design sense

Why good design sense is a superpower

How to develop good design sense

#1: Learn the basic layers of UI/UX design.

#2: Practice thinking outside of your product.

#3: Use questions to dig deeper.

#4: Separate your brain from your user’s brain.

#5: Lean on your favorite wireframing tool.

Design sense compounds

Happy customer of the month

Product news

Wireframing Academy news

UX/UI links for March

Company news

That's it for this month!

Most new customers find Balsamiq via recommendation...

Key phrases

Older messages

How we evolved decision-making at Balsamiq

Looking back at Balsamiq’s 2022

The future of Balsamiq for desktop

Balsamiq’s interview with the author of Navigating Remote Work

It’s pruning season at Balsamiq

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