The fight against the ugly

“The life of a designer is a fight: a fight against the ugliness.” — Massimo Vignelli

I can confidently say that after my first semester in the studio program I feel more prepared and ready to fight against the ugliness. Before starting the program, I believed the ugly was just designs that used papyrus (if you don’t get that reference, do yourself a favor and watch this SNL skit). But, now, I see that the ugliness is a lot more. Specifically, the ugliness is problems. The problems that users face in everyday scenarios.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned this semester was having an eye for problems around me. Learning to sit in the problem, empathize with the user experiencing the problem and finding a solution based on the problem need.

But once you recognize a problem, where do you go from there? Over the past four months I have learned several new tools for using design in the fight against the ugliness (aka the fight to solve problems). Below are some of these tools and how I have utilized them throughout this semester.

Affinity mapping

I’m about to hit you with a new legendary strategy: Sticky note affinity mapping. Yes, I know, very exciting stuff. You can even organize your ideas by color sticky notes! WHAAAT. But in all seriousness, affinity mapping has been a game changer for my creative process. The premise is to use affinity maps to organize and produce many different ideas. I’ve utilized affinity maps on every project to start the creative process. Affinity mapping has the potential to take a rough, gritty and rocky slew of concepts, then bring them into recognizable and organized idea(s).

User flows and Information Architecture

User flows and information architecture have been an essential part of projects this semester. It may not seem as colorful as affinity mapping, but they both offer a way to anchor your ideas and create a foothold to move forward. A user flow is outlining the path a user would take through an entry point to a successful outcome and final action. A user flow outlines the users steps to help you see the potential simplicity or complexity of a users actions. In essence, a user flow helps you see whether a needed task is easy or too complex to be completed successful by a user.

Information architecture (IA)is the design of organizing, structuring and labeling content in an effective way. Imagine visiting your favorite website and taking an inventory of every page and menu item that you came across. The IA is the layout and mapping of each of those pages. The IA shows the different levels, relationships and organization between pages. User flows and information architecture are needed tools in organizing and seeing the larger picture of concepts.

Wire Frames

Wire frames felt intimidating at first. After all, I’m not an electrical engineer so I’m not very good with wires (haha?). Wire frames are a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website, idea or app. I learned how to embrace a notebook and pencil to sketch out different ideas and explore possibilities through low-fidelity wire framing. From these low fidelity versions, I learned to embrace the process of generating many different versions and not let myself be slowed down by sloppiness or mistakes.

After the process of sketching and low fidelity wire frames, I was able to take these versions through a design phase to see the ideas become more developed. These simple designs allowed me to have an eye for layout, spacing, color, organization and more. Keeping the design simple is a key step in wire framing. This allows you to not get hung up on design specifics and have the perspective of a potential user to analyze the problems they could encounter working through specific tasks. Utilizing both low and high fidelity wire frames are an asset and key step to moving a project forward.

Prototypes

Prototyping can be the most exciting part of a project. It’s the step where you take all of your insights, work and revisions to a working level of functionality for testing. I was able to develop prototypes this semester and it was a rewarding (and kinda scary) experience. These prototypes allowed me to see a project become real and then have actual (yes real!) people test these prototypes. These tests gave me valuable feedback to make revisions to the functionality of the users experiences.

All of the tools above have become essential in my fight against the ugly.

However, I think my strongest tool has been being a student again. These past four months have allowed me to learn from industry leaders and my program peers. I wouldn’t have been able to learn about and develop all the tools above without the opportunity to be in grad school this semester. Being a designer in the fight against the ugly is more fun and fulfilling when you’re learning from and working with people who truly inspire you.

Here’s to the semesters ahead and all the tools yet to come! #cheers