04: Who is the designer?
I’ve been pondering the idea about who, what, and why the designer exists. Then last week, I saw this tweet from Jared M. Spool:
These questions framed the articles I’ve collected for the past 2 weeks.
Breathing life into ideas. 3-min visuals →
“We hope to help children recognize the power of their own imaginations and to encourage them to pursue their creative potential.”
What a rad mission statement. The project boasts over 100 artist renditions of monsters invented by kids around the world. I saw this and immediately sent the site to a teacher at my son’s school hoping our students could get in on it for next year. Looking through these inspiring images, I realized the true power of the designer is bringing concepts to life through UI and prototypes. (A shout out to Ryan Lange and Claude Piche in their new vlog series, Elevate, where they are showing how they can prototype an idea in less than 2 hours!)
Medium fidelity. Maximum accuracy. 2 min visuals →
There’s nothing like poking fun at our design rituals and processes to make the day a bit easier to get through. I’m in love with these product design comics by Greg Shewchuk for Axure Software.
Creative interactions 3 min read →
Leave it to Muzli to consistently publish posters, articles, and nice animations from dribble to get us corporate product designers dreaming we were at some cool startup somewhere. However, do apps ever actually get these complex interactions or is it just the designer wishing upon a star?
Customer value = Business value 5 minute read →
Jeff Gothelf said at this years’ Webstock that “Customer Value = Business Value.” He argued that product teams should be given the business outcomes they need to reach rather than told what features to build. I think that Nathan Kinch is essentially saying the same thing here — bringing us back to the reality that we have to ship commercially-viable products. It’s a great read that will inspire us to think a little bit more critically about hypothesis measurements, and outcomes rather than just behavior-change, usability, and feasibility.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 1 min read →
Jason Fried’s short and simple post is summarized in one line: “What are people going to stop doing once they start using your product?” For instance, if I want people to spend more time on Trade Me, what am I taking time away from? How can I help them along this change? Once we realize that our design solutions represent a replacement of the status-quo, we start to understand Newton’s third law expands much greater than just the physical.
The evolution of the designer 10 minute read →
“As we move away from screens, a lot of our interfaces will have to become more automatic, anticipatory, and predictive… Designers will have to become experts in science, biology, and psychology to create these devices.”
This quote by Andy Goodman in 2015 has changed the way I looked at my design career, provoking a shift in mindset from Graphic Design, to UX design, to Human-Centered Design. While I still love my tools and processes, this new mindset challenges and excites me far more than the traditional design career.
David Issa’s article hammers in that idea that the design field is changing and we need to evolve. No matter what the medium, whether it be VR, physical, industrial, or digital, design-thinking is at the core. It’s well worth the long read.
Shooooots — that’s awesome.
I’ve been a big fan of InVision since 2012, advocating for the product in three separate businesses. Their newest feature, Craft Freehand, is an awesome evolution of their hidden feature Liveshare. You no longer need an InVision account to quickly view progress on the work or flows of a project (here’s a sample of a quick project I whipped up). What will InVision come up with next?
Don’t forget…
Atomic’s Product Design Weekly
Curated posts from Designer News
Mahalo Design Digest is a way to give thanks to those in the wonderful, awe-inspiring world of design, UX, and digital-experiences! I (along with periodic guests) will curate links from around the web for you to be stoked on. If you want me to check out what you’ve been up to or an article that inspired you, send me a message! — Cody Iddings
