Learning to Take ‘Me’ Out of My Design
In mid-July, I learned that BDW was coming back as IXDMA, a masters program in experience design. Five months later, I am at the end of my first semester. To say that it’s been a whirlwind half-a-year-or-so would be an understatement.
There are countless things that I have learned since I became a graduate student, and in lieu of doing a top ten or top five, I have dug down into all the little and big things that I have learned to try to sum it up as one, ultimate lesson that I have learned from design school.
And that lesson is this: DESIGN IS NOT ABOUT ME.
Design Decisions Should Not Be Based on My Whims
During my time in IXDMA, I have been exposed to a lot of different, super cool, sleek, trendy design. Stuff that is dazzling and beautiful and gives me design-envy deep down in my designer soul. Sometimes that envy turns into action and I get a little too focused on the “cool” over creating a good experience of my user.
There have been a few times when I have made choices on an aspect of the UI that, when asked about, the only reasoning I can come up with to defend it is, “Because it looked good” or “It fit best that way” or “Well, I put this thing here because I wanted to try something different and cool and so then I had to do this here and that there and…” And, quickly, a simple question of “Why?” reveals that I am not making decisions for the best reasons or, really, any reason at all.
When designing for the user, I have to remember to always keep my design user-centered. Seems easy, right? Well, that means that I can point to every minute detail and have a good, user-centered reason for it. Because user-centered design is not designer-centered design. It’s not about me and what I think will make people’s eyes pop. It’s about making the best product for my target audience. And on that note…
I Am Not My Target Audience
It is incredibly tempting to fall into the “design everything for meeeeee!” trap. After all, I have cool ideas. I have needs. Hell, I’m a decent person. There are things that I wish my current technology did in general, or at least did better. However, I have learned that it is of the utmost importance that I resist this urge as much as possible.
It is very hard to stay objective and stick to research when I am designing something where I am the target audience. As I said before, designing for me results in decisions being a product of my own preferences and whims as opposed to what a wider target audience would want. Besides, I think I have done more interesting things in general when I am making something that I myself wouldn’t really use.
For example, we were assigned a project in which we had to choose from a few product platforms, all of which have been made a million times over already. Our choices were: music or podcast searching tool (something I would use and have personal feelings about), a food/restaurant searching tool (something I would use and have personal feelings about), or a task management system. The last one is the only one I didn’t have a personal stake in; I have happily and successfully used the app and website Teux Deux for over two years now, and am not looking for a new product to manage my tasks.
So, I left the me out of it and went with making a task management app. And when I was making design decisions about my product, my reasoning was never, “…because this is what I want” or “…because this would work the best for me.” My decisions were based on research of the market and of the needs of my target audience. And the result ended up being both interesting and, in ways, surprising to me. I didn’t go into it with some preconceived notion of what the solution would be because I was able to more objectively derive both the problem and the solution without my own whims coming into it.
And, not to be harsh or anything, but the project pitches I have had to sit through in class where the impetus is nothing more than, “Well, when I’m _____, what I really want is…” tend to be the most boring. So, this whole thing is just to suit your personal taste? Yawwwwwwn, you just lost me.
It’s Not About Me, It’s About The Work
This is something that we have talked about a lot when it comes to giving feedback and working productively in a group. When someone else is giving me feedback on my work, I have to remember, it’s not about me, it’s about the work. It doesn’t matter how long I spent on it or how attached I am to it or that feedback on the negative side might be bruising; it’s not about me. It’s about making the best possible product. And that means designing things and then being able to let them go. If I have to go down in flames explaining or defending the choices I made, then what I created obviously isn’t that great.
And I have to be ok with that. Because it’s not about me.
