The Value of a Style Guide and UX Best Practices
We recently completed an engagement helping establish a Style Guide and UX Best Practices for development of Web-based financial applications for a $16 Billion financial services organization. It’s the kind of reference that many would have thought, even as recent as a decade ago, even the largest organizations could get along without. The fact is, it’s hard to imagine working without one in this age of ever-evolving brands and hundreds of channels and variety of technologies in which information and applications can be accessed..
Core elements that should be considered for any complete Style Guide and UX Best Practices documentation should include:
Standards to follow for all design elements used in the creation of user experiences.
Education on core principles to follow for development and updating of applications and content.
Personas for all defined Target Audiences – internal and external
Common terminology – a glossary of definitions so everyone knows what everything specifically means
The benefits of such documentation for any sizable organization are many:
They foster consistency in the visual identity of UX elements, leading to better overall user experiences within and across applications.
They encourage analysts, designers, and developers to think about the UX from the beginning.
Everyone on the team can have a common understanding of best practices.
They make designing interfaces more methodical and able to be based on re-usable components.
They present a holistic view that makes it easier to spot inconsistent UX elements that should be avoided. In other words, they keep everyone from straying.
They speed the time to market for design and development.
The particular project we completed included areas covering application ideation, definition, design, development, deployment, and maintenance, covering hundreds of new and legacy apps in the field. While the emphasis was certainly on new projects going forward, it also included rules for how and when to upgrade older apps and, in some cases, retire outdated interfaces. Given this client had applications still incorporating ‘green screen’ era technologies, some rules were easy. In other areas, such as attempting to adhere as completely as possible to current ADA accessibility standards, best practices were more challenging. In the end, though, it helps greatly to have this ‘source of truth’ for how things should be accomplished, to inform existing and new teams what is paramount or actually required, what is optional, and how not to stray from what is expected, with agreed-upon processes for each stage.
It’s also important to remember that a Style Guide and other Best Practices documentation are not a ‘one-time’ thing. Like digital asset management, this is a discipline, and the documentation should be living, breathing references that are regularly reviewed and updated to match emerging trends, new standards, and changes in branding and other areas within the organization.
Without a guide, we all know we can end up anywhere, and possibly somewhere we do not wish to be. If you are looking to shore up how you approach this area for your organization, we can help.