Month: September 2009
There are (at least) two parts of my sketching process.
- Spit-firing all of the ideas: getting them out on paper (or dry-erase or whatever)
- Selecting the strong ideas from the weak ones.
I need to have a lot of bad ideas before I can get to the good ones. I learned this process a few years ago: how to get these “bad” ideas out of my system. Once they’re materialized, there is more room in my mind for “good” ideas.
I’ve never worked at a startup, but a couple of years my peers/friends/colleagues and I got together to develop the glossy IU Student Media magazine INSIDE (and hey, it’s still going strong!).
We were building something out of nothing and had never “had a baby before” so this process was new. I was working with a co-art director to selecting typeface, color, page numbers, baseline grid numbers, masterpages, illos, paragraph styles and all the elements of the visual language. After some difficulty with progress, we arrived at a simple rule for the Phase 1 of sketching (spit-firing):
When an idea is being proposed for the first time, discuss it. Avoid, with all of your might, to say “no” immediately.
This helped so much! Our design styles (and personalities) were very different. Very frequently, we wanted to say no. If we kept doing that, no ideas would have ever materialize. Instead, when an idea was proposed, we talked about why it would or wouldn’t work (this mocks the critique process in a way).
Now, “What about time?” you ask, “Who has time to talk about every single idea?” And no, we don’t have all of that time. But simply eliminating “no” or “I don’t like that,” or “that would never work,” from the initial phases helped us make room in our brains for good ideas. “Bad” ideas also, often, spark really good ones.
I am not perfect and surely have been saying no, but I’m going to try to practice this during the semester.
Don Norman: Three ways design makes you happy
This post is in reply to Kathleen’s comment on emotional design. I didn’t leave this in the comments because I thought the embedded video would get better play here. I’ve been meaning to read Norman’s book for a long while now, but here’s his TED talk.
Considering emotions in design is so important. My ipod brings me joy or putting together these shelves bring me frustration. Today I was trying to get my printer working and realized I needed new ink cartridges. I would have been much less irritated if there was a feature where my printer sent a note to my computer, and therefor a note to me asking if I wanted to buy new cartridges. But, instead I had to fuss with the hardware for a while, get ink all over the place and search for some serial number. I felt like I paid a lot of this technology and it ought to be easier to use.
Getting back on point, emotional design is an art.
I revisit this video of Ira Glass, NPR Journalist, every couple of months. I think it’s completely natural to go through these cycles where you think I think I am just absolutely fantastic at what you do. Now, is not really one of those times. But, that’s exactly it. I (we) reach these thresholds and tipping points where all of a sudden we can see further along the horizon of how much more we have to learn and experience. Anyway, any time I am starting a new creative project or feel like my designs “suck” I call on Ira Glass (watch from 0-:00-2:41. Then skip to 4:45 if you want to skip the journalism part). I always feel better. He reminds us 1. We are young 2. We have great taste, that’s why we began doing this in the first place 3. We have the great taste to know our work is “crappy” 4. There is a solution: do a huge volume of work. Keep practicing and exercising.
I’ve been thinking about this video as I’ve been filling up my calendar with red, orange blue and purple events. Work, HCI, events, social and so on. Then I start looking at my task lists. Again, work, HCI, Shopping, General life To-dos. But then I think about Ira. I think about how much work I am doing. These huge volumes of work and how much practice I’m getting. (Remind me to blog on Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers. This is all about practice).
That’s what I think we are learning here. Between all of these classes and the rest of our lives going on we are learning a lot in a short ammount of time. We are implementing Ira’s advice to do a huge volume of work. Failing often. No problem.
If this video doesn’t make you feel better… well, it will. It really will. I just love it.
“It’s going to take you a while… You will make things that aren’t as good as you know in your heart you want them to be. Just make one after another.” Please trade the word “TV” for whatever you want to be making.