Don’t (make me) think… feel.
The other day I found myself quoting Bruce Lee to a colleague when he rightly pointed out a problem with an item on a list I’d sent round. Jokingly, I said we could gloss over that and proceeded to try and remember a quote from Enter The Dragon…
“Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”
Initially I was just being facetious, intending to not let the whole list be dismissed because of one point being contentious. I surprised myself though. Not only that I’d remembered a quote from a film I’d not seen for over 10 years, but that it was a nice quote that I could relate to some reading I’d recently done on central and peripheral vision in design.
This lead me to exclaim in jest “Bruce Lee was a UX master”.
The next quote that I could think of (to try and test this new-found theory) without googling was…
“Don’t think… feel.”
I immediately drew similarities with this quote and the title of the acclaimed Steve Krug book Don’t Make Me Think, and, in brief, designing to alleviate cognitive load. That was that. My theory was proven, and I was obviously going to be the only designer that had ever had an interest in UX, together with a childhood interest in Bruce Lee movies! This was gold.
Seconds later, and back out of my bubble of self-appreciation, I realised this obviously wouldn’t be true. This is when I found Joseph Dickerson’s article UX the Bruce Lee Way. A great, simple read that highlights how Bruce Lee’s wise words didn’t just apply to the creation of a new (more usable) martial art, or to self improvement, but can lend themselves to good UX and design practises too.
Another good article that showcased my theory (yeah ok, it’s not mine anymore) was Sarah Kessler’s article about former Nike designer, D’Wayne Edwards, and the inspiration he took from Bruce Lee.
The more I look into it, the more facets of life I find that Bruce Lee’s philosophies can have a direct impact on. Marvin Li wrote a great one, 9 Things Bruce Lee Taught Me About Programming and all you have to do is search for Bruce Lee on here to find out how this man continues to affect many subjects.
So, un-deflated by the fact that my ground-breaking theory wasn’t that at all, and hope of becoming a Taoist-like design philosopher had been shattered, I decided to try my hand out at bit of Bruce Lee quote analogism. I’ve pulled out a some extra quotes that weren’t used in the articles I read, and can relate to my day job designing user interfaces and journeys:
“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”
This quote harks back to a talk that Tomer Sharon (formerly of Google) gave at NUX4. He spoke of the fact that a lot of companies conduct user-testing, but, unless you’re prepared to actually do something with the results, it’s pointless.
“The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.”
Understanding your target audience is key to learning how to approach the psychological aspects of design. The more you understand of how people work, the better your design will work.
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Continually learn and practise your art. As with any skill, it takes time and effort to master, and even then you shouldn’t stop trying to learn and develop as things are continually evolving (there’s a quote for that too). People respond so differently to you when you know what you’re on about.
And two for the price of one…
“It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.”
“Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory”
Never replace function with form.
I’ve always had a quite simple view of Bruce Lee as having been a clever, driven and interesting man, who was bloody good at what he did. I’ve always liked his films and as a result even made a half-arsed attempt at starting to learn Kung-Fu (not even Jeet Kune Do). Now, I’m actually going to take a different view and try and learn from him.
