{"id":4052,"date":"2012-01-05T22:14:44","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T22:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edwinkua.com\/?p=4052"},"modified":"2012-01-05T22:24:24","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T22:24:24","slug":"10-new-years-resolutions-for-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edwinkua.com\/?p=4052","title":{"rendered":"10 New Year\u2019s resolutions for designers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the new year off to a positive start with these design resolutions<\/p>\n

Wake up. I hope you enjoyed your holiday because it\u2019s a new year and it\u2019s time to get back to work. We did pretty good last year. We started standing up for ourselves. We stopped working for free. We started getting our financial house in order. (Please don\u2019t make me do the contract thing again this year.) We rediscovered typography (again). We learned to think about mobile first. We learned how to make responsive sites. And we stopped comping with lorem ipsum and started paying attention to the actual stuff we were designing for.<\/p>\n

This year? This year\u2019s gonna be a goddamned golden age. Last year we trained. This year we fight.<\/p>\n

1. Choose better problems to solve<\/h2>\n

Designers are, by definition, problem-solvers. And the world has never been so blessedly full of problems. Our infrastructure is rotting, the economy is crap, Wall Street is awash with criminals and millions of people can\u2019t get basic medical care, food and water. We don\u2019t need another app to rate your sandwich. We don\u2019t need to know when we go to sleep and get up. We do not need digital farms. We need real ones. We need fresh water. We need solutions for the apocalypse.<\/p>\n

We have more processing power, affordable tools, and combined intelligence right this very minute than at any point in the history of design. We are using it to build shit. It\u2019s time to aim higher. Let\u2019s find problems to solve that actually improve people\u2019s lives. Whether it\u2019s figuring out a better way to access medical records, figuring out how 14 year olds can stop carrying forty pounds of textbooks back and forth to school every day, or a reservation system for the communal rooftop farm in your building, there has got to be something more beneficial to society than the next Facebook clone.<\/p>\n

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2. Stop stealing crap<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not against stealing. I\u2019m against the quality of junk you\u2019re stealing.
\nDesign is the collective knowledge of all the design that has been done before. So take advantage of how others have solved a particular problem. Learn from what they did and see if you can take it to the next evolutionary step.<\/p>\n

Do I mean that you should literally steal their code or drop their screenshots into your own work? No. I\u2019m telling you to be aware of and take advantage of the learning that came before you. Be aware of yourself in that timeline. And become the person who next generations will steal from.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be afraid to steal, just steal the right stuff. I am old enough that my first book on how to make websites was called View Source. If we saw something cool, we viewed the source. We copied it. We tried doing it ourselves. Then we added something new to that, put it online, and somebody came along and copied that.<\/p>\n

You have not been alive that long. Design has been with us since the creation of the universe. Be aware of it, explore it, take from it and put something new into the timeline once in a while for someone else to steal. Trying to re-solve a problem that has been solved by millions of other designers without the awareness of what they did isn\u2019t just a sin of ignorance; it\u2019s a sin of ego.<\/p>\n

3. Stop trying to save bad work<\/h2>\n

The most common question I get from designers after pointing out what is wrong with their work is, \u201cCan I save this?\u201d<\/p>\n

You are not Jesus and comps aren\u2019t for saving. If something isn\u2019t working, start over. Otherwise the goal you\u2019re working towards is saving your work, not solving the problem.<\/p>\n

Also, comps do not have feelings. You are not abandoning them. (You have no idea how much therapy that sentence took. Seriously.)<\/p>\n

This urge comes from not wanting to feel like the time they\u2019ve spent on that comp is wasted. The only possible way you can waste time is by being dishonest with yourself about its value. If you just spent an hour on a comp thinking it was working, then that was time spent honestly trying to solve a problem. The minute you realise the comp isn\u2019t working and you start trying to \u201csave it\u201d, you\u2019re no longer working towards good design. You\u2019re working towards ego salvage. You gonna bill for that? That\u2019s what I mean by dishonest time.<\/p>\n

4. Stop being your own obstacle<\/h2>\n

I spent the first 10 years of my career saying things like, \u201cIf I could just do this work the way I know it should be done…\u201d and convincing myself that someone else was keeping me from making better choices. I\u2019ll often be reviewing work with another designer and they\u2019ll say, \u201cWell, if I were doing this…\u201d I stare back at them in astonishment until they realise what they\u2019ve said. What is this strange gene that makes designers handicap themselves?<\/p>\n

Stop designing the compromises you expect to have to make. Your fear of being wrong wins out over your fear of having to convince someone you\u2019re right. Your client is in your head with you. Telling you to make the photo smaller, the logo bigger, paginating the multi-page article. You\u2019re choosing the typeface you think your client will like, not the one that solves the problem best.<\/p>\n

How horrible for a client to have gone out and found a good designer and then get handed work that looks like something they would have done. Clients deserve your best work, not their best work. Really good clients, the ones I want you to work with, would rather be challenged than pandered to.<\/p>\n

Always design the best choices. Compromises will always come later on down the road. With much argument. And after much salesmanship. But if you\u2019re coming to the table with a compromise in hand, even before you\u2019ve tried selling your best work, you\u2019ll end up losing the client\u2019s respect \u2013 which you were so naively craving anyway.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t design in fear. Don\u2019t throw the fight before a punch gets thrown.<\/p>\n

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5. Blame yourself first<\/h2>\n

Blow a deadline? Miss a requirement? It happens. Raise your hand. Let everyone know it\u2019s your fault. The sooner you take responsibility for something the sooner you can start fixing it. Excuses help no one. Everyone respects the person who can admit their mistakes. No one respects the weasel trying to pin the blame on their teammates.<\/p>\n

This year, everything will be your fault. It\u2019ll feel good.<\/p>\n

6. Stay curious<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t be the designer who gets proficient and then stops. It\u2019s easy to make a steady living doing that one thing you\u2019re really good at. Until something comes along and obliterates it. Aim higher. Remember those guys who were really good at Debabelizer? (Ask your parents.) Don\u2019t spend your career satisfied with doing things you\u2019re good at \u2013 try to do things you\u2019re not good at. You\u2019ll eventually be good at more things, and you\u2019ll know what you honestly suck at. And you\u2019ll have a longer career.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a ton of great shit coming down the pike this year, including stuff that\u2019s gonna surprise us. Not to mention the stuff we\u2019re still getting used to from last year. The future\u2019s not only fun, it\u2019s messy. Welcome it with open arms.<\/p>\n

7. Learn to make mistakes faster<\/h2>\n

The first thing I do when I sit down with a designer is sneak a peek at the file name. If it\u2019s 2pm and we\u2019re looking at \u201cacme_article_1.psd\u201d, I know we\u2019re in trouble. By 2pm we should be looking at double digit version numbers. If we\u2019re not, then chances are the designer\u2019s being too precious and careful. They\u2019re either not willing to make mistakes or not recognising them fast enough. Even if you think you\u2019ve nailed it on the first try (you haven\u2019t, by the way), challenge yourself to try it another way. You\u2019ll learn more by trying something 50 different ways than by stubbornly trying to make your first idea work.<\/p>\n

8. Stop Using Your Mom as an Example of a Stupid Person<\/h2>\n

How many times have you heard, \u201cWe need to make this so easy my mom could use it!\u201d? The goal is worthwhile. The example is condescending.<\/p>\n

Do you think Chelsea Clinton asks herself if her mom would understand something complex? No. Because her mom is a badass. And while your own mom may not be the Secretary of State, she was smart enough to raise kids who learned to read, navigate the internet and become career professionals. She\u2019s no dummy. So please stop using her as an example of one. (Not to mention that we\u2019re using a beloved family member to thinly veil an industry-wide sexism problem.)<\/p>\n

Stop using \u201cmom\u201d as a shortcut for finding out who the people you\u2019re actually designing for are. Find out how the people you\u2019re designing for actually run their lives and handle their business. Good design comes from empathy, not stereotyping.<\/p>\n

And send your mom flowers. She\u2019ll know what to do with them.<\/p>\n

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9. Learn to write<\/h2>\n

Ninety percent of design is communication. Half of that will be done in writing. A designer who can\u2019t write can\u2019t defend their work. And work that can\u2019t be defended will die.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen a lot of good work get trampled on because the designer released it into the wild without a clear explanation of how it mapped to strategies and goals, a defense of how it met project requirements, and a well-articulated advocacy from its designer. The biggest lie you\u2019ve all been fed is that good design sells itself. Whoever told you that couldn\u2019t write.<\/p>\n

10. Get comfortable arguing<\/h2>\n

Remember when I said half the communication you\u2019d be doing would be in writing? Well, here\u2019s the other half. You\u2019re going to spend a lot of time this year (Mayan apocalypse notwithstanding) presenting your work to people. They will ask you questions about your work. Questions it\u2019s your job to know how to answer. At some point they may ask you to make changes to the work that you feel are detrimental. You\u2019ll stand your ground. You\u2019ll be amazed how many times people are just looking for a solid justification. Stop giving away the farm just because someone asked for clarification. Just calmly tell them why you think your solution is right. You\u2019re the line of defense for design. It\u2019s your job to protect good design. No one else\u2019s. Sometimes you\u2019ll win, sometimes you\u2019ll lose. But you will always do your job.<\/p>\n

Above all, remember that you have more power over situations you find yourself in than you\u2019ve been giving yourself credit for. Start using it.<\/p>\n

Enjoy your year, it\u2019s going to be pretty awesome.<\/p>\n

By Mike Monteiro on January 03, 2012<\/p>\n

and thanx to Ashley New for bringing this article to attention.<\/p>\n

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