Observador

The project prioritised mobility and flexibility, which were at the core of every decision. It was aimed at being accessible to young or old people, and being mobile-first, fully responsive, and accessible to all users. The choice of a priori premises reflected the project's initial ambitions.

Methodologies like Desk research and Benchmarking were being constantly used to research the market and the competitors. Finding the right UI elements and the UX is a crucial step to counterbalance Observador’s editorial position. Opinion pages were designed with those methods in mind, they contain important issues written with the right balance of fact, analysis and a touch of irony or humor sometimes.

A 12 column layout was used for mobile, tablet and desktop devices. To calculate the optimal number of columns, the vertical rhythm, the fixed or responsive grids, the gutters/margins and so on, … I’ve researched a lot on how to achieve a visual system that would look harmonious and won’t make users think when making a decision. To help me achieve the final results, Sketch (2014/2015) helped me a lot and since then has been my most used design tool.

At Observador both professionals were always working side by side and sharing knowledge. I had the opportunity to do code and developers were always helping with the design decisions and user experience. We were a really small team at that time and in my case thinking in CSS while doing my designs helped me a lot with limitations and constraints.