DESIGN A PURPOSEFUL ERO HEADER

How do we avoid the Dribbblisation of design and put purpose over form? Daniel Schwarz explains how in this quick tutorial for designing headers

- Daniel Schwarz

Do visuals even matter? Does content matter? Do they both matter and, if so, which comes first? Should UI be beautiful? All of these questions have a single answer in common (in a roundabout way). Yes, they all matter. Design is both complex and overwhelming at times, which is why it’s so easy to lose sight of what to do, when to do it and why we’re doing it.

Whenever you find yourself in doubt, just ask yourself the question: “Why am I doing this?” Almost every time you’ll reach the same conclusion: “Because users want X.” In user interviews, users will never claim to want flat blue colours or Fira Sans or Humaaans illustrations, even if they do all look astonishing (we’ll talk about that later). At most they’ll say that they want something minimalist, which is understandable.

People aren’t here for the visuals or even the content. They’re here for the product – the thing that helps them do X or feel X way – and visuals, content and UI all contribute to this end effect.

In this tutorial, we’ll explore the visual aesthetic usability paradox, the UI and the content dilemma and learn why – actually – it all comes down to why are we doing this and what is the purpose?

If you’d like to follow along with this tutorial, invent a fake business concept (I’m choosing Airbnb for co-working) and let’s explore how we might design a purposeful hero header, taking into consideration visuals, content and the user interface.

STEP 1: GET THEIR ATTENTION