Not Thinking Outside the Box
It’s better to be inside of it
Everyone knows it’s important to think “outside the box” when you’re designing, solving a problem, brainstorming, and just step away from boundaries so your mind can roam free and go where no men have ever gone. But why? To be special, different, unique, to find a niche market, or just to be seemingly creative or innovative? It occurred to me at a random moment (while reading comic…) that being outside the box doesn’t always mean it’s better. In fact, I think that’s the wrong way to approach things and may lead to huge amounts of anxiety and confusion. I’ll get to why in a moment but before that, I propose that you “think inside the box” — just have a really, really big box.
I was always into magic, fantasy, sci-fi stuff but for some reason, Harry Potter and Gandalf never interested me too much. Other “magics” from Goku (I hope everyone knows Dragon Ball), Cyclops (the X-Men one), and the force used by Jedi are somehow more intriguing to me. I began to wonder why, because weren’t the wizards supposed to be able to do anything with their magical spells? Isn’t that better? Then it hit me.
Sure wizards can do anything, cast any kind of spells you can think of, but that exactly is the problem. Anything you can think of, a n y t h i n g. Now quick, come up with an ultimate super spell.
3..…
2...
1..
You probably just failed. 10+ spells crossed your mind but you couldn’t decide. Why? Because there’s no box and your thoughts are lost in limbo. If I were to tell you quick, come up with a fire-based super spell then I’m sure a RPG-player’s answer would probably be like Meteor, Fire Nova, or Firaga instantly. Because there’s a box for them, a context to think within, and a path to explore.
Take another example, Google’s Android VS Apple’s iOS. Android is open sure, so theocratically there’s no rules, no design limitations, and anything is possible. Great. So then why are there so many crappy apps on Android? Where’s the one awesome app that every Android user would talk about? It’s because there’s no clear “box” for developers to follow and explore within when designing a product. Their scope becomes too big, they try to do too much of what would not be possible on iOS, they are outside the “sandbox” now and helplessly lost.
Similarly the web didn’t get stuck and become stale because of it’s limitations — things didn’t move so GIFs came along. Then Macromedia took that notion of “moving things” further, expanded the “box”, and we have Flash. Sure there were connection issues but Flash designers got around that by creating “loaders” and mini games to play while you wait. All this creativity came about not because people tried to ignore all the rules and go “outside the box”, instead they played within the box, found empty corners, and filled in their imagination.
You can have very different takes on “thinking outside the box” and what it means. Trash me for being a complete BSer that’s fine, but whatever you’re designing or product you’re building — always leave room for the users to be creative and run loose, but within a “box” you’ve created. Having a product that does everything and anything users want (ah-hem. Mxcroxxft.) will only end up doing nothing because the user can’t focus and have a hardtime trying to understand the context of it.
No need to think outside the box in order to come up with new unique touch gestures for your app to be cool. Instead, provide a few functions based on gestures people know already, and allow the freedom to mix or combine the gestures to futher enhance the functions.
It’s like MineCraft — give them the tools to play with in your sandbox.
God my writing is aweful. So here’s a pretty MineCraft wallpaper to make up for that.
