In Search of Inspiration: Part 2. Design Thinking
As a follow-up to the “In Search Of Inspiration” column I’d like to tell you about the method of getting inspired from interaction with the world around us.
Prequel. Gaudí’s genius
A few years ago I visited Barcelona for the first time, and there I understood that I had been making light of Gaudi’s work. He was not exactly a genius, but a romanticist, capable of having a fine appreciation of the world and depicting it in his works. And this is amazing! His houses and parks very vividly reflect nature and fauna with their colors, form uniqueness, effects of light.
Sagrada Família is an airy silent forest filled with lofty trees and various colors, reflected in the stained-glass windows. Casa Batlló outside looks like a fairy dragon struck with sword. Inside it is a waterfall, softly falling down the corridor walls, flower-shaped ceilings and lamps, tree-shaped windows…
It is wonderful how easily and precisely nature wraps his architectures. In his buildings you feel warm and cozy, as you were in the ledge in the woods or by the sea. And if Gaudí managed to depict beauty of the world around to his architecture, then why not to try the same with interfaces?
Method 1. Use the product
Means: A sheet of paper, pencil, silence
While working at one of my projects I faced the challenge to design the interface for classical musiс radio app. And since I am a lifelong classical music lover it made me really happy. But when I opened the editor I realized that I didn’t know what to start with. There were a lot of ideas, thoughts, and emotions rapidly flowing around me, but I didn’t manage to catch any of them at least for an instant.
Just like lots of designers I went on the internet. To look for similar apps, to see what others do. And I quickly understood that everything I found was boring, similar, emotionless and didn’t appeal to me.
I took a few deep breaths, got rid of my thoughts, and tried to think again: “What does classical music mean me?” Beethoven, Bach, Einaudi, Cacciapaglia, Chopin,… I randomly put some music of various composers on, took a sheet of paper and a pen, put on my earphones, and closed my eyes, losing myself in the music and writing down my emotions:
1. Air. A lot of air and space.
2. Life. The feeling of life. Heart rhythm, motion.
3. Lightness, ethereality, featheriness.
4. Words. Meaningless. So many words to be said, but music does it better.
Then I started to analyze this words, trying to link them together. And then I got it: birds!!! Hummingbird! Something alive with wings and feathers, representing lightness and ethereality. And the smoky sky covered with white clouds and fog, representing air and freedom, on the background.
Googling the bird. Now I borrow the colors, and transform them into the primitive ones, well presented on various screens. That’s how I rather quickly got the first concept of the app.
I showed it to my colleagues. They liked everything, but… (yeah, this very “but”). They considered it to be quite “cold”. Emotionally cold.
The next day I took a new look at the draft and realized that my colleagues were right. I was captured by the colors of this bird, but I forgot about the fact that it had nothing to do with classical music. It wasn’t violin, violoncello, or piano. It was something soulless with no warm emotions.
What did I do? You guessed it! I just googled another bird :) The one that perfectly matched the interface. By the way, even years after, this app is still one of my favourite :)
I decided to depict my craving for words in the splash screens. The concept was the following: every time you open the app you can see some sounding quote about music, then it gets blurry and replaced with the player.
Method 2. Appreciate the perspective your core audience has
Means: emotions and feelings
Example. Feature — sport community for people in town. Where people can unite into groups (based on the district where they live or sport they want to do) to organize joint trainings, competitions between different groups, and so on.
I wanted to create something peculiar. I knew what sport meant for me, and that was exactly what I wanted to reflect in the app. Also, recently released Material Design was in its full blast. All android-based apps looked similar: light and blank background with bright details. To a large extent I like Material, but sport is something different — it is about emotions. That is why I decided to take another direction.
Pictures full of movement crossed my mind. Crowds of moving people. Water, sweat, splashes. Spanish dances. Roughness. Passion. Red light! Pain. Blood. Muscles. Clouds. Dimness. That is motion what we see, trainings are disappearing on the background. Dark color. Focus. Strength. Severity.
I just mixed it into one image, and I got the following:
The customer accepted work from the first design :)
Method 3. Be like Gaudí
Means: nature
At the end of 2014 I was given the task to design a social network app for fishermen (yep, you heard it right). Studying the market players and the market itself, I realized that most of the apps were quite old, poorly designed and not really user-friendly.
But! Again, I had no idea what to begin with. I had never been enthusiastic about fishing. And in actual fact that meant that I was a total know-nothing.
And then Gaudí came into mind — the man, who would find inspiration in nature. Why not to try the same? Usually, fishing in Russia is associated with a lake or a pond, a forest, a wooden boat, fish. I remembered taking a picture of the fish, which charmed me with its shape and colors, so I found the photo (by the way, that fish has a funny name — “mandarin fish”).
With no bother I just blurred the picture on the background angle-wise. Interface naturally matched the picture. It highlighted colors of the background without covering them. I wanted the app to make users feel immersing into water, into the world of fish. The light, falling top-down under water and playing with flecks of slight waves, contributed to the picture.
The customer accepted work from the first design :)
Method 4. Take pictures of everything you like
Means: city, nature, people
I have an old habit: I take pictures of houses, sky, animals, shop-windows, plants, and so on. Nature and architecture abound us with unexpected shapes and beautiful color schemes to be remembered. Develop a habit to stop and memorize or examine things which catch your eye. You should probably create a separate folder on your PC or phone, so you could refer to it in cases of creative crisis.
This method works just fine. It is totally ok for a designer to be in the situation where colors don’t match or you can’t find the proper one. So in one case I can remember a bright white-gray-orange house, which I saw 5 years ago in the outskirts of some town. In another, appeal to field flowers or shades of the sky.
While working at one of my projects I couldn’t find the color I needed, so I decided to do something else, keeping the issue for later. And now the interface elements were ready, and the only thing I had to do is to color the draft. The deadline was coming, but I still had no color set.
Then, one evening, my friend and I cycled to the gulf. The city was slowly diving into the sunset, coloring the sky in different shades of blue. In some places, the color is deep dark, saturated and vibrant. And in others, the sky had a bit warm blue color. Only 2 colors created the contrast so strong and beautiful that it was difficult to force your eyes away. At this moment I realized — I got it! This is my app! Outside, it is bright as the clear blue sky. Positive and inviting to actions. But the more you dive — the more you enter deep blueness, which focuses the user on the most important details.
The customer accepted work from the first design :)
I hope that this article will be helpful for you, and you will find some new means of searching for ideas for your interfaces. Within 1 or 2 projects just try to avoid copying dribbble or behance. Listen to your feelings, look at the world around you. Search for the inspiration inside yourself and in the outside world :)
