Design Intern Diaries — Design Lessons of the Week #2
Design can be terrifying. Especially coming from an engineering background. I went to school to learn the beauty behind math, how things work at a fundamental level and to gain the bragging rights of having an iron ring on my pinky at the end of it. So why did I decide to enter the creative and artsy world of design?
It challenges me in ways that I’ve never been challenged. It scares me beyond belief. There is never going to be a ‘right’ way to approach things, no linear process to get to the ‘end’ product and a pixel can make all of the difference.
This week I dove into how design works as a business and how I can start I apply that to my personal creative process.
1. Quality over Quantity.
I learned this from my last blog post. Perhaps, instead of providing my readers with 5–6 ‘lessons’, I should be providing in-depth analysis about concepts through current examples, and giving my two-cents on things. I also realized that I should be approaching this series as a design — I need to consider my audience and who is reading it. I do realize that my last blog post was not perfect in terms of clarity, and hopefully it will continue to improve.
2. The Visual Language System.
So I did some research about ‘visual language’ since my last post and learned about how companies are using the idea to help scale up their business. Design language communicates brand and business values across all platforms through visual components and interactions with the product.
The combination of UI elements and interactions with all aspects of the product creates a communication system that makes a user feel a certain way, which is defined and driven by business values. The idea of a design communication system also enables businesses to scale up while maintaining integrity towards the way that they want to make their users feel.
For example, Airbnb’s functional logo allows them to scale their business to meet ‘one-off’ needs.
Airbnb’s logo thought process clearly displays their business values and conversational look and feel. It shows that the company is built on empathy and the love for human culture.
Airbnb’s strong visual language system allows them to design logo variations with ease, while still maintaining the ‘human touch’ which is one of their business values. Through the use of slightly random curves and cinks in the logo, and variations of colour and pattern, their logo seems very close to home and personal.
This strong set of guidelines for visual design allows Airbnb to communicate to users and make them feel comfortable and clearly understand the business values. This is a strong asset for any business, and a very interesting topic.
You can read more about Airbnb’s visual language system here: http://airbnb.design/building-a-visual-language/
In future blog posts, I will be challenging myself to look for examples beyond UI, but lean more towards the experience and hopefully spacial design.
3. Using Filler Text.
This week, I was working on a few ideas for wireframes and got into a bad habit. Let’s compare the two images below.
On the first wireframe, I displayed my use of CTRL-C and CTRL-V, whereas the next one shows a much more polished version of the same wireframe.
Using filler text, like the first one, takes out the source of randomness that we must adhere to. While using real data and text, I can consider how the design changes when text overflows. Moreover, the audience understands what type of text should be there and what the real estate will be used for.
4. Cultivating creativity in all aspects of life.
This week I had the chance to visit an art gallery. It sounds cliche: a wannabe design student going to an art gallery to ‘gain inspiration’. A vast majority of art is meant to be interpreted and understood differently by every individual, while the artist still communicates some sort of meaning through their art.
I love my creative side, but I am still learning how to embrace it and exercise it. For me, creativity is about taking risks and not always knowing the outcome. It bugs me that I’ll never know why an artist used a certain colour or stroke in his painting, and it also bugs me that I’ll never know why my vegan cupcakes taste terrible.
Don’t give up!!
Learning how to cultivate that creativity enough to do things from intuition and feel good about is the end goal. Gaining that sense of intuition only comes from practice, and that means failure. So let’s embrace that.
5. Design in a Professional Setting.
When I first entered the world of design, I thought I would be surrounded by people like this:
I always wondered how businesses ensured an efficient creative process. Creative energy can be hard to harness, so how do we ensure that we get great products out on time? So far, I’ve learned that it’s not that different than any other profession. As a designer, you encounter tight deadlines, work through problems when others, and create something great.
But as a business grows and develops strong management, especially for creatives, is vital. How do you manage a team of creatives who all have their own style, while measuring progress against a set of goals? The answer is in the management and design critiques.
Q: What happens when you put 20 designers in a room together to critique a project?
- You spend 20 minutes talking about the placement of a few buttons.
- Hell breaks loose.
- You gain valuable insights about things you never thought about before.
A: All of the above.
Presenting your ideas to others and talking about your thought process allows you to get feedback and enhances your design abilities. Now imagine doing this for all projects that come out of a business. Designs will be assessed and analyzed by a variety of people and it will be that much better.
That’s all for this week! I would love any feedback on the structure of this series, and ideas for me to explore further. Have a lovely Sunday ❤
