Avoiding the Rabbit hole

Designers love creating. It’s what keeps us passionate after hearing “just make it pretty” or “design is just the icing on the cake.” We do it because we love the end result.

But…what if we fell in love with the process instead of the result?

Early in my design career, I’d talk with a client or colleague and ask questions before hunkering down in the safety of Photoshop for hours. That’s where I felt most comfortable. That’s where, I believed at the time, the end result was to be determined. I’d appear from my Photoshop cave with the design in hand, excited to see what the client or colleague thought, only to be met with criticism and critique. Understandably frustrated, I’d return to my cave and push more pixels.

“They don’t appreciate design.”

“They don’t understand what I do.”

It wasn’t until a mentor of mine pointed out that it was the process, not the result, that was broken. I had fallen victim to the rabbit hole and in the many years since, I’ve seen designers of all levels face the same challenge.

At Button we’ve found several ways to avoid the rabbit hole…

Ask the right questions

When new products or features surface amongst the team, it’s up to us as a product team to ask the right questions. Without a clear understanding, designing an elegant solution is impossible. If somebody says, “I love the new Jukely site…we should do something like that,” ask what about it appeals to them. How do they see it applying to your set of challenges? What makes it better than the current design? As design is both objective and subjective, it’s important to understand the motives and thought behind their appreciation of the other site or app. It also helps to narrow down on what the actual deliverable should be.

Shorten the feedback loop

Many designers retreat into Photoshop (or Sketch, our preferred tool) and work for hours on a specific design task. While it’s important to have uninterrupted time to design, it’s best to show work early and often. At Button, we start each day with a standup meeting featuring what’s been done, what we plan to do, and what’s blocking us. During this quick meeting we’ll show the progress we’ve made and get some quick feedback. As a design team we meet towards the end of each day to review and ask questions. This prevents anybody from spending too much time without a checkpoint.

Recently, we’ve implemented an exciting Demo session at the end of the week where we showcase work we’re proud of that was completed during the sprint. It’s our main touchpoint with the people outside of the product team and provides us with valuable feedback.

Explain the process

So much of design is trust and nothing helps fellow team members or clients build trust more than being able to explain how the final design was achieved. By walking through each step (sketching, wireframing, hifi screens, interactive prototype), everybody is able to connect the dots and better understand what goes into design. It also forces the designer to refine their process and account for different problems and solutions.