Our Creative Director, Connor Vanderpool, creates unique and intuitive app designs that reflect your branding and get sales reps sharing your content with StorySlab. We asked him about his UX background and how he uses his experience to create apps that sales reps actually use. Here’s what he had to say.

How do you define UI/UX?

UI/UX is half design and half psychology. It’s how humans expect to interact with technology. People are using tech all the time so people actually know a lot about UX even if they don’t think they do.

I tend to think about UX even beyond human-computer interaction and just as it relates to day-to-day convenience. Even when it comes to something as mundane as locking mechanisms on a door. Which way do you expect a doorknob to turn? Is it push in to lock, slide sideways? Why did they choose to do it that way? How did original conventions get made and why do some places go against the norm?

What’s your background and how did you get into UX?

I studied game design development and minored in web development, and the transition to UI/UX was pretty natural. UI/UX is everywhere, games included. When I launch a game, the first thing I notice is the menu and how clear it is. Can you do everything you hope to do?

How do you keep the aesthetic fresh while avoiding confusion?

Keep with convention. For example, Apple paved the way for phone convention, how you expect things to function on mobile. It’s best to use standard conventions like the ones Apple uses for swiping and inputs. If someone thinks something is going to react a certain way, you either go with that flow or, if you choose to do something different, you have to introduce those new elements slowly over time.

Keep things uniform and make it so a color or icon always means one thing. Use color similarities to draw a connection between multiple elements. Creating those associations for the user is one of the more powerful things you can do.

It’s easy to say that you want to keep things simple, but if you make it too simple, you might be giving up power and limiting what the app can do.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I usually get inspiration from the sites I use. I’ll be on Spotify or Gmail and think, “Oh, that’s interesting the way they did this.” Those companies represent the best of UX. What better way to find design inspiration than to look at the most popular, most used sites? Those are the conventions understood by your average person.

Then when I get in a rut, I look at projects by other designers on Behance to inspire me.

How do you make sure the StorySlab app is easy for anyone to use?

First, I make it feel familiar. I take the way the company looks and feels and apply that to the app. I use the conventions they’re used to and how they choose to display product lines. I don’t want them to look at the app and feel like it’s completely new or foreign. It should feel like them.

I also make sure the design is flexible enough to package everything salespeople could possibly want to use in one spot. So, for example, I added scrolling bars that allow you to add 5 items or 20 or however many you have. As your content expands, you can easily add more without changing the interface much. That way people still get how to use it.

What are some secrets of strong UX design?

Avoid making it too sleek. I’ll never incorporate elements that are flashy or cool for the sake of being flashy or cool. 

Think about how many clicks it takes to get where you want to go and how you can reduce that. What are the most used, most important things salespeople have to get to and what’s the quickest way to get them there?

The goal is to make it so you never need to search. Let’s say a company has 1,000 pieces of content, but they only use 50 regularly. Put those 50 behind the main homepage buttons and put the rest behind a filtering system. You want finding the right content to be intuitive.

Want to see what users are saying about our app design? Read our reviews on G2!