Comments on: Observations on Designers

By: It’s not about new ideas, it’s about getting new ideas made…. « User Experience Design Life

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:19:45 +0000

[...] (A great foray into another post: Observations on Designers) [...]

By: Interact Seattle » Blog Archive » User eXperience (UX) Digest #4

Interact Seattle » Blog Archive » User eXperience (UX) Digest #4 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:52:43 +0000

[...] Great creativity comes from a great team, not great things. [...]

By: User eXperience (UX) Digest #4 « Chasing the Dream

User eXperience (UX) Digest #4 « Chasing the Dream — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:51:25 +0000

[...] Great creativity comes from a great team, not great things. [...]

By: Nathanael Boehm

Nathanael Boehm — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:38:07 +0000

Designers are no more creative than anyone else in a team — they just might spend more time creating than others. Programmers, project managers, team leaders, copywriters, system admins … they all have to be creative to do their job so putting designers up on this “creative” pedestal and catering to designer divas with fancy office furniture is ridiculous!

Disclaimer: I’ve only ever worked in a grey box cubicle so I *may* be slightly jealous of those who get to work somewhere cool.

While working with peers is very important you’re not going to be able to develop a fully-considered design without including others and everyone, *everyone* has something to contribute. So get out and see the world – as it were.

Good article.

Nathanael
UX designer

By: dbrondeau

dbrondeau — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:30:50 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with the need for teams to be more inclusive and not designers-only. Where I work, the majority of our projects have what we call “hybrid” teams. That means the design team is comprised of 2 designers from our company and 2-3 people from the client company. In my experience, you always get a much wider range of creativity when you include people with different roles and experiences.

I’ve also been humbled many a time by a client team member who has no “design” experience, yet comes up with such a great idea that I can only say, “I wish I had thought of that.”

So naturally,I also disagree with the opinion that “finding great ideas anywhere” is the exception. I believe that if you give the people on your design team the right data to design from and a clear process for designing—that you will always find great ideas.

One last thought: you should also consider the composition of your all-inclusive team. Be careful that you don’t fill it with experts only; try to also include people who are cross-functional with broader backgrounds and experiences. They make excellent cross-pollinators and will enhance innovation, in contrast to a team of all “experts”, each with their own narrow experience. You can read more about this idea at http://incontextdesign.com/blog/t-shaped-teams/

By: « Observations on designers »

« Observations on designers » — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:32:46 +0000

[...] un article très intéressant concernant le designer, ses clichés et l’ouverture de la [...]

By: Joe Fletcher

Joe Fletcher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:36:17 +0000

@Stinermas – you own a Starck juicer don’t you?
Actually one of the key points was the irony in the way designers can complain. Not about mediocre ideas. I forget who the quote was from, but I remember someone mentioning how most of the time we don’t create anything new, we just slightly change things. So of course it’s nothing new.

By: Stinermas

Stinermas — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:15:30 +0000

There’s nothing new about this. The mediocre idea with great execution wins over the great idea with mediocre execution. 1% inspiration, blah blah blah.

By: Joe Fletcher

Joe Fletcher — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:36:33 +0000

@Auke – good point. I’m torn on specs. On one hand they get out of date, but on the opposite side, when you work at Microsoft, you have a lot of testers/QA that need to know what to test. You can’t loop in everyone all the time, so at points documentation is not only good, but essential.

@Leigh – I know what you’re saying on the philosophy aspect. I’d say great ideas are often like coal in a way. Everyone can have them, but they’re probably unrefined and a mess. That’s where design & marketing can come in to help to a story. Being in marketing you should know there are tons of great ideas, but telling the story is what sells it. I also have a feeling that other disciplines can’t communicate as well. So when they have a good idea, it’s hard to explain. The other thing I’ve seen is someone will have a good idea that doesn’t relate to anything you’re doing.
“Ok, how’s the campaign on shirts coming”
“What if you froze orange juice into a popsicle”
…wrong timing… which again, being in marketing, timing has a lot to do with success

@Jeffie – calm down and have an ambien

By: Jeffie

Jeffie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:49:13 +0000

Joe, if I EVER catch you bad mouthing having a great coffee machine in the office again, there will be trouble…