As I pave my way into a new career path as a future UX designer, I find myself reading a lot about ideation, methodologies, repetition and iteration. I’ve also been swimming in discussions about trends and what tools of the trade I should know like the back of my hand and should never live without. It’s a bit overwhelming. Early on, as a new design student, I have at times started to think “What exactly did I get myself into?”
However, as I delve into more and more essential readings, one story in particular about design from an historic perspective keeps me hopeful about my prospects in design.
The story is about Leonardo da Vinci’s “kitchen nightmare.” When we think of da Vinci, we think of this creative genius who was way ahead of his time. Someone like this was too perfect and too smart to be able to fail right? Wrong. In Ali Rushdan Tariq’s article, “A Brief History of User Experience,” Tariq talks about how around 1430, the Duke of Milan was planning an extravagant feast and asked da Vinci to design a kitchen that would be efficient in facilitating an event of this scale. Da Vinci designed conveyor belts to transport food quickly, a sprinkler system in case of a fire, a large oven to cook food at higher-than-usual temperatures and even invited local artists to carve entrees into works of art for the guests (2).
Da Vinci’s conveyor belts worked perfectly, the oven cooked food quickly, the sprinkler system was impeccable, and the artists he hired for food carving were talented. This all sounds ideal, so what was the problem? While all his designs and services worked perfectly, da Vinci failed to understand the needs and typical workflow of the kitchen staff. So instead the party was a disaster:
- The conveyor belts were too slow or too fast for the kitchen staff to be able to work efficiently with
- The oven cooked the food too fast so the food got burnt
- The oven also caused a fire so the sprinkler system that was only supposed to be offset in case of an emergency went off
- The artists didn’t carve food quickly enough to feed the guests in time so the guests pretty much went home without having eaten
What can we learn from da Vinci’s “kitchen nightmare”?
- Do not skip understanding your users’ needs
- A feature-laden product or service alone may not be the answer to the problem your users are facing
- Be open to failing and failing fast
- Your first solution won’t necessarily be the best solution. Understanding this will help you get rid of assumptions
- Learn from your mistakes and iterate
- The saying is true: If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again (wait, did I just quote Aaliyah? #90skid)
With a comedic piece of UX history now covered, I return to my lectures and projects, taking one step closer to my new career path. Besides the take-away lessons I learned, one of the main things that keeps me hopeful towards this path is the fact that I don’t have to be some creative genius right off the bat in order to be successful. This takes a lot of pressure away and makes me feel relieved. I hope anyone else that is reading this and is just starting out can feel that sense of relief too. We’re here to learn from our mistakes (I mean that generally too) and even Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t exempt from failure. Let’s move onward.
References:
- Tariq, Ali Rushdan. “A Brief History of User Experience.” InVision Blog. N.p., 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.
- Sullivan, Brian Keith. “Leonardo Da Vinci’s Kitchen Nightmare.” Big Design Events. N.p., 08 Aug. 2011. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. .
