I Designed an App and It Failed
Part I — Learning to Take Action
In a world where success stories are prevalent, this story is about failure. Success is sexy, but it is a lousy teacher. For those of us that hope to succeed, in whatever form that is, we need to turn to failure. Failure has a way of teaching us more about who we are and what we are capable of doing.
The more we learn about ourselves and what we can do, the more likely we are to get on a path that others will envy.
Last year, I had an idea for a digital tool. Since I am not a programmer, I was only able to design the tool. I hoped to team up with a friend to create a fully functioning system. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Instead, my design has been happily collecting dust on my computer.
Even though my idea didn’t come to fruition, I am proud of what I accomplished. The experience taught me that I can design interfaces, tell stories, and talk to complete strangers about ideas in my head.
I don’t have an application that’s downloadable from the app store, but I do have the confidence to turn my thoughts into digital prototypes.
The purpose of sharing this story is to encourage you to take a chance, on yourself, especially if you filled with self doubt. It doesn’t matter what the consequences are, take action, indulge in the experience and learn more about what you are capable of doing.
If you read my blogs, you know I write about human-centered design and the need for elevating experiences. For me, nothing really matters, except for the type of experiences we create for others.
I have always wanted to create great experiences through better design. Kim Goodwin once told me that if I wanted to be a good designer, I had to practice good design everyday. I am always looking for opportunities now, but it took me a while to embrace this notion outside of work.
Even though I blog about human-centered design, I hadn’t created anything special that wasn’t assigned to me. I have thought about starting a ruckus, testing the entrepreneurial itch, but I never acted on any of my impulses. I have been too afraid to try something new in anticipation of failure.
From a very young age, we are taught not to make mistakes. We are told to think twice before doing anything once. I’m guessing this is why we have such a disdainful relationship with failure, and why we don’t act on our impulses to indulge in risky behavior like solving interesting problems.
I have learned that this type of courtship with failure can be toxic because it makes us complacent with what we find safe. It prevents us from taking action and impedes us from living to our fullest potential. It stops us from taking risks and coddles us from exploring possibilities.
One of the ways to change your relationship with failure is through motivation. If you want to explore the edges, learn new things, and create something of value for someone other than your boss, you have to hunt for the right motivation.
Motivation reveals itself in many ways.
For me, motivation came after a trip to sunny San Diego. Little did I know San Diego is more expensive than Los Angeles, and you have to wait in line for everything. Literally, everything — I had to wait in line to eat, to drink, to sleep, to dance, and to even explore the city. Plans were ruined by all the time spent waiting in lines. I missed a few activities and the opportunity to explore historical parts of the city, so naturally, I was upset.
I never enjoyed waiting in lines. Who does? After spending a good portion of the weekend waiting in lines with other people, I thought there had to be a better way of getting what you want without wasting too much time.
One solution that came to mind was digital, but I quickly convinced myself it was a terrible idea. I enjoy solving design problems, but could I possibly create something that could save time for people? I didn’t know. And at first, I didn’t want to try.
But I had wasted so much time that I felt intimately acquainted with the problem. I had never been so negatively motivated by something before, so I convinced myself I had nothing to lose. Since the best case scenario was that I wouldn’t ever have to wait in line again, I thought to myself, “Why not?”
I took a chance, despite the high probability of failure, and designed a prototype. It’s not a minimum viable product, but it’s a start. Even if the designs are just sitting on my computer, I wanted to share my journey and the lessons I learned along the way. Hopefully, this inspires you to take a chance on yourself, especially if you are inundated with self-doubt.
I decided to call my design BeeFree.
If you are curious about how I came up with the name and would like to know more about what I learned, please join me in my next post. I will also share my designs and the relatively affordable tools I used to create them. The details of my adventure and amazing experience with failure will be available through a series of four different entries. Please be sure to tune in. Hope to see you on the next post!
Parts of this blog series can be quickly accessed using links below:
I Designed an App and It Failed: Part II
