The Value of Unsolicited Redesigns

Love them or loathe them, this is why they’re important

We’ve all seen them, maybe you’ve made one. Maybe you wake up in a cold sweat at 3 A.M, screaming bloody murder about them.

I’m talking about uninvited redesigns — where a designer or team decide to change the design of an existing site/app/brand without being requested or paid to do so.

Lately I’ve seen a lot of hate dished out towards this practice. Usually the argument is that the majority of these redesigns are often just ‘eye candy’ and don’t improve the product or fit in with the brand’s values.

While that can be true for a lot of cases, I don’t see what is wrong with making a — pretty for the sake of being pretty — design in your spare time.

The key words here being spare time, it’s not for a client. It’s just a designer exploring ways of making something look better.

There are those who go beyond that approach, who put more time and dedication in to the process and use research and testing to come up with ideas that improve upon the product.

The latter approach is far better, it’s organised, data driven and effective for solving real pain points.

The former is shorter and impulsive, it’s creating visual ideas without really focusing on anything else, but that means it’s design in perhaps its most instinctive form.

Both methods offer value and both deserve to be tried out, although I definitely reccommend sticking to a plan (and aiming to solve problems) more often than not.

So, why should anyone bother if it’s unpaid and done in their own time? Well, there’s a number of reasons that make it an attractive proposition:

Learning

If you’re an inexperienced designer, a redesign project is going to be great for your development. It’s cliché but the best way to learn really is by doing.

When carrying out the project you’ll enhance time management, planning, problem solving and empathy. You’ll learn how to gather user data and carry out an iterative design process, highly useful if you’re interested in a UX career.

It’s perfectly acceptable to interview friends or family to get the data you need at first. Progress to random users when you feel more comfortable.

You can then write a case study that goes over what you did and why, you’ll be able to learn valuable lessons from it in the future.

You’ll also enhance your practical skills and become far better accustomed to the tools you’re using.

Portfolio

Those who are just beginning their design career could struggle to put a satisfactory portfolio together.

When you don’t have client work to show off, a redesign is an excellent way to showcase your skills to a potential employer.

Just remember to clearly show your aims, reasons and any research that was carried out, as well as the final result.

Freedom

There is no brief to follow like there is for a client or student project. There’s no deadline so you only need to work on it when you want to.

In creative terms you have free reign to incorporate whatever features you want. If you make a mistake it doesn’t matter, you can practice as much as you like without any pressure.

You’re also free to share and discuss it in detail online during any stage of the project.

Networking

Sharing designs online can create opportunities to interact with other designers/employers, don’t be scared to ask for feedback.

In some rare cases a well done redesign can lead to a job with the featured company or other opportunities. As a student, Andrew Kim made a Microsoft concept and they hired him after finding the designs online. He has since gone on to lead design on the HoloLens and work for Tesla. Quite the success story indeed!

There’s an active community who regulary post on sites like Uninvited Redesigns, Behance, Dribble and Reddit.

Inspiration

Reworking an existing application can inspire others to do likewise, or simply get them in the mood to create something.

It gets people thinking about the ideas that were explored and how they’d approach them, you’ll inspire others to challenge themselves.

Read any redesign case study and I’m sure you’ll think about what you’d do differently, how you would tackle the problems that have been identified. It instigates ‘design thinking’.

Fun

When you’re passionate about something it’s a breeze to do it as a hobby. In fact, starting out doing a couple redesigns purely for fun could acquaint someone with the amazing world of design and be their first step towards a career change.

I’m personally a supporter of redesigns, I enjoy reading about them, I enjoy making them from time to time. You shouldn’t prioritise them over client work but I think it’s great practice and a lot of fun for any designer to do in moderation during their downtime. It’s also a fantastic entry point to UI/UX design for a complete beginner.

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