The idea of left and right design came to me recently when working on prototypes for a web application I am building. At the same time I have been researching interaction design techniques and design patterns because since I became a web application developer I have been generally interested in interface design.

Now, I’ve never claimed to be a designer because, well I’m not that great of a visual experience creator. I dabble in it here and there but I know when to stay out of it working with an excellent designer like TJ. But design aside, creating user interfaces and interactive experiences is what I do – and is that not design?

Once I figured out that design was essentially two complementary parts the realization occurred to me that as a web application developer I am in a sense a designer. Sure, I do not know the first thing about getting around in Photoshop. I don’t use design view in Dreamweaver. I look at markup and code all day – how can I be a designer? This is a common mistake for web developers. Not considering themselves a designer limits what they can do with their applications. It will often cause pitfalls in the development process because they are not familiar with design patterns that affect their work and their user’s experiences.

Well, I am a left designer. The idea of left and right design is analogous to the theory that human thought is divided into cerebral hemispheres (left and right brain) and that people are naturally stronger on one side or another. People stronger on the left side are more logical and sequential in looking at parts of a solution. Right brainers are those that look at a problem more subjectively in a holistic big picture approach.

In comparison left designers are students of patterns, evidence and creators of interactive user experiences. Right designers create visual masterpieces that communicate a message using many design techniques like typography, layout, organization, etc.

Left and right design are complementary, meaning they are mutually dependent upon one another in the same sense a computer and a monitor are. Sure, you can get by with one or the other but combining the two together the experience is the most rewarding and valuable. You can create a great web application but if it looks like crap no one wants to even try it. TJ touched upon this months ago in his post ‘First Impressions’. Users make up their minds in the first twentieth of a second. Without a good right designer you have just lost your user before you got to show off your amazing code.

This works the other way around. A wonderfully designed website will get the users to stay but if they cannot figure out how to use it or get confused the user will leave. There is nothing more frustrating to the average web user than not knowing how to use an application.

So, team up. That’s what TJ and I have done. Look in your organization, class, or team and find someone with complementary talents. Good designers on both sides need each other. If you are good at both – congratulations. But I still think a team of two complementary designers is the best because each will have input in the others work.
That being said, I hope to be of some help to web developers who have not embraced the fact that they are designers. You don’t need to know Photoshop or have any artistic skills to be a left designer. In fact left design is more appropriate for developers because it uses evidence based patterns and sequential logic to create valuable user experiences.

To get you started, LukeW at functioning form has an excellent series started yesterday about design patterns. Check out part 1 and part 2.

UC Berkeley has a site called Web Patterns – A UC Berkeley Resource for Building User Interfaces.

And, Yahoo has provided a great resource for developers in their Design Pattern Library.

Interaction Design Association Resources

That will get you started – the rest is up to you.

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