Ta-dah
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Designers are notorious when it comes to ‘keeping things to themselves’ or the ‘my way or the highway’ approach. We hear it all the time from prospective clients. After all, being a designer means that only a designer can design right? Well, the truth is that times are changing, and have been for a long time. People who consume and interact with what designers make (that’s pretty much everyone) aren’t just buying and lapping it up any more. They have an opinion, a right, to question whether they think it’s worthy of being a great piece of design, for their needs. These are changing times for everyone, especially here in the UK, and the spotlight is on.
These people are the ones who make or break design. What would they think to a new app that helps you share avocado on toast recipes between your neighbours, only during weekdays, Av-any-toast; um? A Sharpie x Post-it collaboration pack, you what? Design is everywhere, there’s a lot of good design, and plenty of bad design, but that’s just my opinion, and these designs are probably not made for my needs. Give this same design to the people who it’s actually made for, and that’s a valid opinion.
Take any recent re-brand project that you see go up online these days. Log on to Twitter or any other social media platform, and you’ll see the backlash between the general public and the designers who made it. “Why did you change this?”, “I could have done better.” and “What have you even done to the logo Design Studio X, it’s just been rotated?” The designers behind the work defend it down to the wire. I’ve seen some hilarious and pretty disturbing back and forth between these designers, the general public and the media organisations covering these branding stories. I think the problem is that these re-brands, or any design project that goes live, especially online, always seem to start with a ‘ta-dah’, here it is, a drum roll moment.
People interpret surprises on a wide, varied scale. A lottery win: a very good surprise. Being asked on a date by someone you like: a good surprise. The yearly invoice from your accountant: a bad surprise. The death of a loved one: a very bad surprise. We as humans are all physically built to be ready for surprises, but sometimes, they still don’t feel good. Where does how designers reveal their work fit onto this scale then?
Realistically, design doesn’t just abruptly appear in your life, it’s usually because a product or service you constantly interact with needs improving, or the sneakers you love get released in a new colourway, with an additional velcro attachment. True, the greatest designs had to start somewhere, the iPhone didn’t exist, and then it did. Before the Wetherspoons app, you actually had to go up to the bar to order. But we believe designers can be doing a much better job at stopping this ta-dah nonsense and start exposing people to their design process earlier and with transparency.
Firstly, it creates better design. If you’re revealing what you’re working on sooner, and I’m not talking about posting every logo sketch on Twitter, I’m talking about within your internal design team, your internal stakeholders, your clients and their customers — the more relevant and honest feedback and insight you’re going to receive. Who doesn’t want this honesty? We all want to make the next version of our design better right? Even if designers sometimes don’t want honest feedback and opinion, we all know that we need it. We’re designing for people, and this honest, valuable feedback challenges us to make things even better.
Take any early stage digital product usability test. Start with a sketch of the product screen and the user you’re speaking to will focus on the concept and the goals of what you’re trying to show them. Show them a fully interactive and designed screen before anything else and they have an opportunity to focus on the colour of a button or why you’ve tried to reinvent the search icon for the 107th time.
Secondly, it saves times. There’s only a certain amount of hours in a day. Why are we spending additional time polishing what we’re making, for the sake of presenting? Especially when it’s work-in-progress. Design has to constantly evolve and improve, so let’s embrace that. Lets help the Twitter naysayers understand that until ‘release’, nothing is actually ‘released’. And even then, there’s always room for improvement. It’s okay not to be finished. It’s okay not to put our work on a pedestal, even if we think it deserves to be.
Where does this ta-dah idea come from? Which designer first invented the idea of the big reveal? Well…no one really, but we’re all responsible for keeping the growing monster alive. It’s what confuses people when they try to define design. “So it’s just how things look right?”. Whatever your interaction with design, whether you’re a designer or not, how many times have you heard that phrase or something similar? Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself. The big reveal doesn’t show any of the real work that’s gone into the end result you’re showing.
As designers, we’re all constantly talking about value this and value that, but the value we do provide people with (which is a lot), shouldn’t just be defined by the end result, the final reveal. Jarrod Drysdale has talked a lot about this in his recent articles about designer’s portfolios.
In fact, the end result doesn’t exist. ‘Perfect’ doesn’t exist and design is constantly evolving and helping to move things forward for everyone in these uncertain times. From step one: the conversation with a client, the first interaction with a customer, the first team brainstorm, this is what the value of design is. If you were to package up that first meeting with the client and try to sell it to another client, you couldn’t label it a ‘ta-dah’ moment. You would label it as ‘this is what we do’ and ‘this is what design is’ moments. That’s value.
Design helps people understand their ever-changing environment and the experiences they have. The key words here are ‘ever-changing’. If every time a designer made something and said it must be revealed in a ta-dah way, we’d still be on the original iPhone, and imagine a world like, shocking. We would never move anywhere. By the time Apple present their product Keynotes (a very big ta-dah, you got me), lots of work has already gone into what they’re going to present, but they are constantly improving each time the next Keynote happens. The first sketch is as important as what’s eventually printed on the chocolate bar wrapper, it’s just a case of fidelity really. The latter couldn’t exist without the former. But if the sketch isn’t what is first sold to the chocolate brand, I’d ask yourself why not?
Above I said that designers are responsible, that we confuse people by doing the big reveal, like we have a big secret to pull out of a hat. The effect of this is that the people who we do this design for have become so used to how designers reveal their work, that they’re actually expecting more and more from each ta-dah. That’s why a new chocolate bar’s wrapper, and social media strategy, and chat bot, and cryptocurrency integration needs to be shown before it can be given the go ahead. Phew, that’s a lot. How about we just start with a sketch of the wrapper idea and see if they like that first? Chocolate chat bots can happen later.
Finally, you might now be thinking, “If I reveal my/our team’s design process, doesn’t that devalue what I/we can deliver?” or “I’m giving things away by doing this?” or “Some other designer, agency or client team will copy what I do?” Think about it this way. You, me, my team, the next designer, the next design studio and so on, all do things differently. “But Paul, there is really only one way to make a new brand’s logo?” Well, all of your previous experiences (work and life), personal interests, outlook on your culture and the environments around you, make you, you. It’s why some logos end up looking like they do, and why some end up looking differently. I’m fairly confident to say that with your friends you’re not hiding your true self, so why do it with design?
People buy into why you do things, how you do them and who you are, not just what you do. Why don’t you just try opening up the door a little…
High 🖐️s for reading.
