Placeholder

We simulate a design with placeholder data. Be it texts, images, addresses or profiles. Designers tend to use ideal data. They fit harmoniously into the design and leave the customer with a good feeling in the first moment. However, if the page is filled with real data, a nice design can quickly reach its limits. Appealing design is not equivalent to good design. For example, when creating a profile, different lengths of the name should be considered. Both a Mia Weber and an Alexander Christopher Enno Timmermann-Lange could occur in everyday life. It is only one variable, but it affects the design in a subtle way. Long headlines, unexpected line breaks or possibly unexpectedly short texts, show the resilience of the components.
Not only texts, but also images need to be considered. Profile photos are not always studio quality with perfect backgrounds. Often, photos are not even available. A designer should also deal with difficult formats, unsteady image motifs and unhappily cut logos in the design phase. Not all eventualities can be taken into account. However, a majority should be mapped in the development process to illustrate the robustness of the design.

Living Sets

If we create tabular data, for example, it is also necessary to consider different lengths here. Furthermore, there is not only the challenge of representing different quantities here, but readability and aesthetics must also be combined on the element. For example, if one element has two bullets, another may have 21. Quantity can vary greatly and should get attention early in the creation process.

Demand design

It's not just the real data that's interesting, but also the "worst" cases. Seek out the challenge, pick it apart, stomp on the design, and claim it properly. By creating designs that generously allow for different user inputs and implement structured, machine-friendly output, we take the pressure off users and put people more at the center of the user experience.

Robust Design

Jon Yablonski's 10 "Laws of UX" include Postel's Law, which deals with the principle of robustness. The further ahead we can look and plan in development, the more robust our design will be. We can't spend an infinite amount of time on every conceivable case. But we can become more aware of the complexity of data and the impact of different outputs as well as view sizes.
Because it's not just the data that matters, the viewing context matters too. How flexible and robust is our design on a variety of formats? How does it display on a smartwatch, smartphone, laptop, desktop computer, or television? It should accept a wide range of inputs while delivering output that adapts reliably.