Friday, 27 June 2014

The Importance Of Context - Vanseo Design

The Importance Of Context - Vanseo Design

The Importance Of Context

Posted: 26 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

Context is everything. It shapes the meaning in all communication. Without context you can’t communicate effectively. When your message is delivered in one context, but received in another, it likely leads to miscommunication.


Note: This post includes an audio version. If you don’t see the audio player above, Click here to listen. You can also subscribe in iTunes

As you can guess I want to talk about context. It’s a subject I come back to a lot because I think it’s incredibly important. I also think it gets overlooked too often and not given the importance it deserves.

The Message Relies on Context to Communicate

Let me offer some examples of context. What if I asked you to add one to one. You’d probably hear the question as a math problem and quickly tell me 1 + 1 = 2. Does it? It depends on the context.

What if I rephrase the question and ask what you get when you add one sperm to one egg? You don’t get two. You get one of something different. What if I asked what you get when you add one drop of water to another drop of water. Mostly likely you get one larger drop of water. Again adding one to one, doesn’t automatically result in two.

I admit I’m cherry picking examples, but hopefully you see the point. It’s all about context. I gave three different answers to the question of what you get when you add one to one. The answers depended on a greater context.

The question, while seemingly straightforward, required more information than originally given to answer. We naturally assume the question is a math problem, but it doesn’t have to be.

Politicians speak in sound bites because what they say is reported in soundbites. When you remove the context of the words around the sound bite, you can present it in in a different context. You can change the meaning of the words or use them to give a false impression of the meaning they attempted to convey.

Anything in the form of “if p, then q” can easily be stripped of context by removing the “if” clause. If (insert some country)’s army crosses our border, we’re going to war with (that same country). Read it without the if clause and it presents a very different picture.

Sarcasm is another example. When it’s delivered in writing, without the context the human voice provides, the meaning is usually lost. So much of sarcasm is communicated with a change in pitch or rhythm of voice. You communicate two different messages, one based on content and one based on content delivery.

Visit any tech blog. Look for a post about Apple, Samsung, Google, or Microsoft. Find one with a lot of comments. You probably won’t need to scroll to far through the comments to find the following.

Someone leaves a comment that comes across taking a strong pro or con stand. Someone else replies to directly address the points in the original comment. The first person comes back saying something like “I guess some people don’t understand sarcasm.”

Of course they didn’t pick up on your sarcasm. You heard it it internally when writing. Someone else reading doesn’t hear that same voice while reading your words. That’s why you see people adding [/sarcasm] or </sarcasm> to forum posts and blog comments.

Communicating sarcasm through writing is difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. Sarcasm is saying one thing and having it mean the opposite. How do you do that with writing alone. You have to hear the voice speaking the words to hear the sarcasm. If you can’t literally hear the voice you have to be familiar enough with the voice to be able to accurately hear it.

Techniques Without Context Are Less Than They Could Be

Techniques for design and development are offered everywhere, but too often they’re given without context. The technique is offered without greater thoughts for where it might be useful.

I’ve come across many techniques over the years that looked impressive, but I could never figure out when or where the technique would be useful other than to demonstrate the technique itself. There’s nothing specifically wrong with that. Perhaps I lacked the imagination to understand where to apply the technique.

Still, when techniques given without some context it can be difficult to understand in which context it might fit. People copy and paste the code as is. They often don’t understand how to modify it for a different site, a a different context. It’s giving someone a fish instead of teaching that person how to fish.

Context is Everything

Everything is interpreted through some context. A very important part of our job as designers is to create a visual context that enhances what the site we’re designing is trying to communicate.

Context comes from what we create and it comes from the schemas and mental models of those who view the design. Context can exist at both ends of visual perception. As designers we can only control one end, though we can guestimate what the context at the other end will be like and design to work with it.

Every site should start with a story. Not a fictional account of events, but the story about the business or individual behind the site. The story should appeal to a group of people that will become customers or clients. The story will share why the business exists, what it does, why it does what it does better than the competition, etc.

That story is used to form a concept for the design that communicates visually what the story is communicating verbally. Your concept becomes the context for the communication. You visually create a unified context where every part of the story is contributing to the same message.

On a website, the context begins as soon as someone sees the design. It happens so quickly that all that can be taken in is a quick visual impressions. Within milliseconds and before viewers have had a chance to even think about your design, it’s setting an atmosphere for everything that follows.

People start comparing the context you created against those they hold in long term memory and making judgements and decisions about the site based on the similarities and differences.

Art Direction Is Creating and Maintaining Context

I started thinking about all of this after reading a couple of older articles about art direction. One was an article by Stephen Hay for A List Apart from 2004. It contains the following quote about what it means to be an art director.

art directors (often teamed up with a copywriter) come up with "concepts," the creative ideas which communicate with us on a gut level through such devices as theme, metaphor, and symbolism. Some art directors do little more than dream up these ideas and present them to clients, while some oversee almost all aspects of the design and production process.

Art direction is about concept. It’s about choosing how the message will be delivered. The concept should help the site reach its goals and objectives, but it’s also determining the context for everything that comes after.

Art direction is about defining what will be unity for the design and overseeing the design so that it remains unified to its story.

Art direction is not designing each post to make each post unique for the sake of being unique. It’s designing each page in a way so it’s unified with a singular story. The different looks for different posts did arise out of the same idea, but on a single article. Unfortunately I think it’s come to mean something different as the term is passed around on the web.

Art direction is creating context and making sure that context matches the goals of the design. It’s taking the story to be told and communicating that story visually and setting the scene for that story.

Summary

Hopefully I’m not rambling too much and the importance of context is getting through. The meaning of communication is shaped by the context in which it’s delivered and that meaning can be completely altered by delivering it in a different context. I hope the examples here illustrate that idea.

Designers create context. That’s what we do. We create the environment where the story lives. Our setting can contribute as much to the message as the message itself. It’s in our ability to enhance the message or detract from it.

We do this by understanding, as best we can, the story behind the site. We develop a concept that communicates the story visually, and contributes to the context within which the story lives. We make decisions based on a unified vision so that every aspect of the design contributes to that vision and the whole becomes more than the sum of the parts.

That’s the power of context in delivering a message.

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Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Style and Substance - Vanseo Design

Style and Substance - Vanseo Design

Style and Substance

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

Do web designers spend too much time focused on style at the expense of substance? Have we become distracted by the superficial to the point that we’ve stopped looking below the surface? Are we so focused on how things look that we’ve forgotten about how they work?

foundation and brush

A few articles I came across recently all raised similar questions about style and substance. All argue for more substance, which is hard to disagree with. Still, there was something in the articles that didn’t quite sit well with me. Here are the articles in question.

All are good and worthwhile reads. Below are some central themes I took away from the combined articles.

  • Designers are too focused on style, the superficial, the slick
  • Designers should be more focused on the deeper stuff, the content and how to organize it and make it easy to find
  • There’s too much copying of the cool technical stuff for the sake of showing off the cool technical stuff
  • The copying is leading to a sameness across sites, a technically impressive sameness, but sameness nonetheless
  • There are arguments in favor of stripping all the aesthetics away and there are arguments that your site should be different to survive and thrive, especially in a market where web design is being commoditized

I think I’ve argued all of these points myself over the years. Still, something didn’t sit right with me when I read these articles. I think what’s putting me off is the idea that what’s being observed is really any different than the way things have always been. There came across to me something in the articles that suggests any talk about style is wrong because it’s not a talk about substance.

Style plays a huge role in everything human beings are connected with

This idea of style being wrong or bad in some way isn’t necessarily in the articles. I doubt any of the authors are suggesting style is always bad. It’s more likely something I’m bringing to the articles that’s leaving me with that impression.

We’re all influenced by style, by what we see on the surface. That includes you and it includes me. I like to consider myself a deep thinking person who’s concerned far more with substance than style and yet I know I’ve made choices over the years based on style. I’m sure you’ve done the same.

We Are Superficial

Have you met humanity? Style plays a huge role in everything human beings are connected with. Look around and you’ll see much of the time we’re focused on style over substance.

  • Who was more popular in your high school, the head cheerleader or a member of the science or debate club?
  • The last time you went on a date did you shower, change clothes, and do everything you could to improve your appearance?
  • Why do corporate employees dress in suit and tie at work and change clothes shortly after getting home?
  • Have you ever gone to a movie because you thought the lead actor or actress was attractive? Ever see one based on the special effects regardless of the story?
  • There have been plenty of artists throughout history who’s work is more important for its style than its substance

The surface is more important to most people than some of us would like to think. In many cases it’s perfectly fine too. Does it really matter if someone chose to see a movie for great special effects on top of a poor story? I prefer the story, but have no problem with someone who opts for the special effects.

The design of anything is a multi-layered process. The outermost layer is the most visible one. People see the surface first and from the moment they do, that surfaces influences them.

More work is required to see beneath the surface to the deeper substance. I suspect the effort required to see each layer below the surface takes exponentially more work than what went into the layer before. Fewer people will always see one layer deeper, regardless of which layer they’re focused on.

If you can’t see that people focus on and are influenced by style, you haven’t been paying much attention to humanity. Look around you. There’s a seemingly endless number of examples that show the superficial tendencies of human beings.

This isn’t meant to be a condemnation of humanity. There are valid reasons why we don’t look deeper into some things. There’s only so much we can focus on and we have to pick and choose where to spend our mental energy. We might look deep in one place and shallow in another. The point is our species is often more interested in the superficial than the deeper layers.

To deny style’s place makes no sense. People are always going to see style first and we’re always going to talk about style and be concerned with style when we design. That doesn’t mean we as should ignore substance. It just means it’s unlikely we’re ever going to ignore style.

Why the Current Focus on Style

There was a suggestion across the articles that our industry is more focused on style now than it has been in the past. It wasn’t every article, but it’s something that came across to me. I disagree with this suggestion.

In part, the greater number of people talking style is simply a matter of there being more people online in general. I’d be willing to bet there are more people talking about substantial topics today than there were during some imagined time frame in the past. There are also more articles about style too. More people creating content online means more of both.

A decade or so ago when less people were talking online about design, it probably was easier to find content of substance. There was less content and so the signal was easier to find amidst the noise.

Aside from there simply being more of everything online as compared to a decade ago, is there another reason why you might see more focus on style recently? The last couple of years have seen some pretty big changes in design trends. Moving from a skeuomorphic to a flat aesthetic is a larger change than many design trends. Doesn’t it make sense that there’s going to be people talking about it?

If every website on the web was predominantly blue and then a a large number of sites changed to predominantly red, wouldn’t you expect a lot of people to discuss that cosmetic change as superficial as it might be?

We Are Talking Beneath the Surface

Style can influence how we perceive substance and talking about style isn’t always just a discussion of style. In many cases it’s a discussion about substance and how style can contribute to substance.

I’d argue the biggest change taking place right now in the industry has to do with responsive design and all the changes that come with it. Other than the articles arguing that responsive design lacks any style, much of the talk I come across has to do with the deeper significance of responsive design.

There’s talk about reworking content so it’s more modular and able to be structured differently for different devices. There’s talk about the new flexible and dynamic paradigm we’re now working in. There’s talk about putting more thought into how people will use our sites in different contexts.

Perhaps the ideas above and others get obscured at times, but they’re there and not too hard to find if you’re looking. There are plenty of conversations going on beneath the surface, but you always have to look harder for those conversations. The majority of talk is going to be on the surface. Again, have you met humanity?

Closing Thoughts

Despite my arguing in favor of style in this post, I hope you know I’m someone who thinks substance is far more important than style. I’m not only willing, but happy to put in the effort required to get at the deepest substance. I think the payoff is worth much more than the effort.

At the same time we should understand that style is also important. It’s what people, even those seeking substance, are going to notice first and it will then influence their journey to the substance.

Look around you. The majority of the time people will be focused on the surface, even those who claim otherwise. This isn’t a web design thing. It occurs in every industry. It’s a human thing.

Substance is important. So is style. Both can be found online. Both can be found in design industry talk. The substance will always be harder to find, but that’s normal. That’s how it’s always been.

If you can’t find the substance, it’s probably because you haven’t looked as hard as you think. If all you seek is what’s hot in web design then yes, you’re going to find the slick. That’s what lands on the hot and trendy lists. If you don’t look any deeper, why would you expect to find anything deeper?

In the end the information we take in has more to do with what kind of information we seek, than what’s most immediately visible.

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Friday, 20 June 2014

One Thing You Should Do To Improve Your Confidence - Vanseo Design

One Thing You Should Do To Improve Your Confidence - Vanseo Design

One Thing You Should Do To Improve Your Confidence

Posted: 19 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

When you have a good day, who gets the credit? How about a bad day? What was the cause? Do you consider what happens in your life to be the result of external forces? Or does everything that happens to you come from within?


Note: This post includes an audio version. If you don’t see the audio player above, Click here to listen. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Recently I came across an article on Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings site about confidence and self-esteem. The article was more accurately a review of the book “Letters to a Young Artist” by Anna Deveare Smith. To make everything even more confusing, the article led to me yet another article about another book with an essay on self-respect. The latter book “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” is a collection of essays by Joan Didion.

Whew! All that to get to the following quote

Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.
— Joan Didion “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”

The quote as well as the two reviews resonated with me. They recalled some of my early struggles trying to get a business started. I can see the same struggle occurring in some friends recently as well.

Think about the following question in regards to the responsible for your life and the events you live. Do you have a good or bad day based on things that happen or is your day controlled by you? When I answered by accepted that everything that happens in and to my life is my responsibility I became happier, more confident, and my self-esteem increased greatly.

I thought I’d share some things from when I first started working for myself and talk about self-esteem and self-confidence in general. I’ll close with some thoughts about how powerful it can be to accept responsibility.

Going into Business

I always wanted to be in business for myself. The thought of working in an office for someone else never appealed to me. Both of my parents owned business. They were different businesses with different levels of success. My mom’s business was one that allowed her to work from home and set her own hours to an extent. In many ways it was similar to any freelance service based business.

Since my first job, I never felt I had certain skills that would lead me to rise within a corporate structure. Office politics are not my thing. I simply don’t want to play. I prefer to do my work as best as I can and if possible help others around me do their jobs as best as they can.

I’d watch as people who didn’t work as well or as hard as me get promoted because they knew the right people. I got to work harder without additional compensation. I’ve quit many a job with little to no notice because of this.

The first time I thought seriously about my own business was about 20 years ago. At that time I thought of offering writing and editing services. This was pre-internet in the sense that most people weren’t using it yet.

A book with tips on how to start a writing and editing business talked about printed documents and face-to-face meetings with me dressed in suit and tie. It talked about having regular office hours and all sorts of things I didn’t want to do. I was going into business in many respects not to do these things.

I never did start that business and looking back I can see that in addition to all the things I didn’t want to do, I lacked confidence in my ability to make the business a success, which was the real reason that business never opened its doors.

It was another decade before I again thought seriously about running my own business. I was a more confident person, though still unsure. Fortunately a friend was in a similar situation and together we decided to start a web design business.

Having someone to lean on made me feel more confident and I imagine it was the same for her. The business later failed, but the year or so we were in business showed me I could do this on my own. It gave me the last bit of confidence I needed and here I am some 10 or so years later.

Testing Myself

A pivotal moment for me in all this self-confidence building occurred when I moved across the country. I moved to a city where I didn’t know anyone, didn’t have a place to stay or the prospect of a job. Worst of all I didn’t have enough money to last more than a month and a half or two at best.

I had purposely thrown myself to the wolves so to speak. Something inside me always trusted I could find a way to survive and then succeed if I was thrown completely into the unknown. I didn’t really know, but I thought I would come through it ok. Part of moving without a safety net was to test myself and see if I could indeed survive and succeed.

My confidence before this test may not have been there, but it was there after. Each day I survived to see another, my confidence grew. My self-esteem grew. I forced myself into a situation that would force me to survive starting near zero. After that everything seems doable.

The main thing that led me to the more confident place was something that had always been difficult for me. For a long time I gave too much credit to external forces for the direction of my life. I could easily see how others caused my problems, but it was much harder to see my own contribution to those problems.

When I finally was able to step outside myself and see my contributions and more important take responsibility for them, every aspect of my life improved.

Accepting responsibility grants you greater control over your success or failure. It motivates you greatly when there’s no one else to blame. It’s that responsibility for both the good and bad that is now my favorite part of being in business.

It’s scary to fly without a safety net, but it’s also very empowering in so many ways beyond and including business.

Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence

You have to accept responsibility for everything that involves you even when it’s hard to see how you could possibly be responsible.

Understand that self-esteem and self-confidence can only arise internally. When you attempt to derive confidence from external sources, any confidence you gain is illusion. When you seek approval from others you’re asking them to give you confidence. It means you also give them the ability to take it away instantly.

When you try to gain confidence through others it leaves you at their mercy. It leaves you at the mercy of employers and clients, market forces and opinions.

When your esteem and confidence originate internally no one can take them away. You always have that reserve to draw from. Self-esteem and self-confidence derive from within and with them you understand the value you bring to others which is vital for running a business.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore the opinion of others. Their opinions can be important. You can learn from them to grow better. You can gain insight seeing things through another perspective. Opinions aren’t judgements about you, your work, or anything else. Don’t allow other people to set your value and decide what you’re worth. Only you can do that.

Yours is ultimately the only opinion that matters in regards to your career and your life. Listen to the suggestions of others, but know their suggestions aren’t any more valid than your own and that in the end it’s your responsibility to decide which to follow.

Your Life is a Result of Your Actions and Reactions

It can be a scary thing to completely accept responsibility and understand that what happens internally has a much greater impact on your life than what happens externally. External forces will always be there.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
— John Lennon

Life throws stuff at you both good and bad. From most perspectives it’s not always equal amounts of good and bad from person to person and perhaps it truly isn’t. Still everyone experiences both good and bad. You might have a package left for you, but it’s left out in the rain and by the time you get to it, it’s ruined. You might just as easily come home to a package in good condition.

The point is the environment isn’t picking and choosing to give bad things to some people to give them bad lives. It’s our response to the external that drives our lives. It’s not whether you win or lose a client. It’s how you respond to the that event, regardless of the outcome, that determines your happiness.

For example say you work in an office, which you might very well do. One morning you wake up late. Maybe the alarm didn’t go off. Maybe you slept through it. You’re going to be late for work so you skip the usual shower and breakfast and race out the door.

Rushing to work you drive more erratic than usual. You almost get into an accident when someone cuts you off in traffic. You shake your fist and curse at the driver as you swerve wildly around his car. You arrive to work in an irritated mood and your responses to co-workers are snippy. They respond in kind. Most leave you alone for the day.

You make more mistakes than usual while working. Your curse that you got the difficult project. Two hours later you realize the instructions weren’t clear and you now have to start again from the beginning. Ugh.

And so on.

One irritation leads to another and when you reflect back on the day it was certainly a bad one. It’s easy to see all the things that happened to you. An alarm that didn’t work, crazy drivers, obnoxious co-workers, and poor instructions in your project. They all conspired to give you a bad day.

What’s much more difficult to accept is your own choices and how they more than anything led to you having a bad day. You didn’t have to rush to work or act snippy with co-workers. You could have and should have paid more attention to the instructions for your project.

The point is bad stuff happened, but it was really your reaction to what happened that determined your day. Your reaction to sleeping late fed back into the environment leading it to react in kind. You could have called work and let them know you’d be a little late and avoided much of what happened.

I realize this is an example about minor things, but hopefully it makes the point. Ultimately you’re responsible for everything that occurs in your life and when you accept that responsibility you can respond to the environment in positive ways leading you to have a better life. Whatever life throws at you can be turned into something positive or negative. The choice is yours.

Closing Thoughts

Creative work doesn’t come with exact numbers and answers. There are ways we can measure success and failure, but even then it’s never absolute. There’s always a solution that could have worked better.

We aren’t handed a problem and then look up the solution in a design solutions book. The truth is even the simplest website arises from a complex system of decision-making.

It’s a difficult thing to accept you won’t know with certainty if you’ve come up with a good design until long after the project is out of your hands. To some degree all design is subjective and you just won’t know when it’s time to decide on a solution to implement.

You have to have confidence in your work and in yourself. You have to be able to make the determination that the work is above an acceptable level. You should accept there’s probably a better solution, but yours is also good.

The self-confidence and self-esteem to do that, starts with you. It starts with accepting responsibility for everything that touches you in some way or another. When you accept that every aspect of your life is something you can change for better or worse and when you take responsibility for making those changes, you gain self-esteem and self- confidence.

It may seem strange to say that if you get struck by lightening it’s still your responsibility, but it is. You couldn’t predict the strike in advance, of course, but you could pay attention to weather reports or look out the window to know there’s lightning in the area. You still chose to walk outside. Again there’s no way you could predict lightning striking you, but you still had to take certain actions to be in the location where the lightning struck.

I know I’ve been much happier and much more confident in myself since I accepted responsibility and saw the world in a new way.

Self-esteem is that which gives us a feeling of well-being, a feeling that everything's going to be all right — that we can determine our own course and that we can travel that course. It's not that we travel the course alone, but we need the feeling of agency — that if everything were to fall apart, we could find a way to put things back together again.
— Anna Deavere Smith “Letters to a Young Artist”

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Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Make Me Think, Or Else - Vanseo Design

Make Me Think, Or Else - Vanseo Design

Make Me Think, Or Else

Posted: 16 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

I’m sure you’ve heard the advice “don’t make me think” in regards to website usability. It’s the idea that visitors of a site can use the site with as little cognitive strain as possible. Is it good advice? Well…yes, but there are times when making people think a little more might be the better option.

About a month ago Jeremy Keith suggested there are some dangers hidden in “don’t make me think.” He was addressing Google’s decision to remove the full URL from the address bar. Mark Boulton followed up in agreement. Jeremy’s article raises an interesting question.

Is “don’t make me think” leading us to a horrific ending?

A futuristic city in ruin

Our Dystopian, Non-Thinking Future

Jeremy’s article begins with a quote from Ray Bradbury, who said “The function of science fiction is not only to predict the future, but to prevent it.”

Jeremy points out how science fiction worlds are typically set in dystopias as opposed to utopias. The former ads much more dramatic possibilities to the story. Dystopias have conflict built in and conflict is a necessary part of drama.

Jeremy specifically uses Wall-E as an example. In the story all humanity’s needs are provided for. There’s no need for thought because there’s nothing to want for. It’s literally a case of “don’t make me think” and as a result humanity atrophies. We become “physically obese and intellectually lazy,” as Jeremy says.

Aside from making me want to reread some of my favorite science fiction stories, Jeremy makes a great point. It’s one I touch on whenever I talk about the conflict between creativity and productivity. Sometimes slower is better. Sometimes it’s good to think and struggle and put in the extra effort required.

Designers push the idea of thinking for visitors to save them from having to think about what to do next. I just finished a series here on visual perception where the key takeaway from the series was to reduce cognitive load where possible and offload thinking from the viewer to the design.

I remember a short story I read back in high school. For the life of me I can never remember the author. I want to say it’s Robert Heinlein, but that’s just a guess. If you recognize it, please let me know the title and author.

In the story society has advanced to the point where machines exist to take care of everything. The machines even build more machines to replace themselves. One day something happens to the power supply of the planet and nothing works. The people of the world are immediately plunged back to the stone age. Their reliance on machines has left them unable to get the power working again, rendering all the advanced machinery useless.

Isn’t this where we seem to be headed? More and more technology does the work we used to do and makes the work we do even easier. Look around you. Do people seem to be getting lazier? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Please don’t take any of this as doomsaying or a suggestion we should slow down on the progress. I’m a big fan of progress and new technology that makes our lives better. Just think how people lived 1,000 years ago or even 100 years ago. Would you want to live your life the way they lived theirs? Probably not. Your life is no doubt easier today and it stands to reason in a hundred or a thousand years people will say the same about us.

It does make you wonder though about the potential dangers of making things too easy. Should we really help people to stop thinking or should we encourage them to think more?

Thinking Is Good

If you’ve read here for any length of time, I hope you know I’m a fan of thinking. I try to encourage everyone to think for themselves and make their own decisions. As much as I like productivity and automating what can be automated, I think it’s important to meander unexplored and untrodden paths.

Don't require me to think. Do encourage me to think.

I routinely argue in favor of decision-making, critical thinking, creativity, both objectivity and subjectivity, and a focus on fundamental design principles, because they improve thinking and deciding.

The point of this blog is to allow me to share what I learn about design and hopefully make you spend time thinking about what I’m sharing. Hopefully you can take what I’ve learned and incorporate it into what you’ve learned. Ideally you’ll then share your ideas with others. Our combined knowledge, thinking, and perspective offers more than any alone.

And yet when designing an interface I always try to make it easier for people to use and do what I can to make them think less. What’s going on? Am I operating under a contradiction?

How Do We Encourage More Thinking?

Each of us is responsible for our own lives. Even if everything around you is helping you not to think, you still have it within you to continue thinking. Ultimately it’s on you to exercise your thinking muscles.

If you’ve read more than a few posts here I assume you want more than what’s on the surface. You’re looking for something deeper that does make you think instead of something that offers X ways to do Y.

If I’m wrong please let me know. It would be much easier and quicker to write generic top 10 posts. Their titles are great at attracting attention. If only their authors put more time into making what comes after the title useful. If only we demanded that they do.

My not so subtle point is that if we want to think more, we should seek out that which makes us think more. If you want more in-depth content don’t reward thin top 10 like articles. Reward those authors who look deeper than the surface. Tweet their content. Like it. Share it.

At some point we’ll complain about how little information out there is truly useful. We’ll do it in the same way we criticize politicians for never getting anything done. The thing is it’ll be our own fault for continuing to reward the content that doesn’t make us think and ignoring that which does.

Progressive Disclosure

None of this should be taken as me suggesting you ignore the “don’t make me think” advice. I still think it’s great advice and one of the more important goals every web designer should strive to acheive.

However, we need to understand the advice and where it best applies. Making it easy for someone to use your design, doesn’t prohibit you from also giving them the ability to think and do more.

“Don’t make me think” is the default setting. It’s the initial experience to help people orient themselves quickly and reduce any confusion they might have. It’s helping people who don’t yet have any experience with our site. It helps them use the site without the need for instruction.

Many will never want more. They’ll happily use your site without thinking too much beyond how easy it is to use. There will also be those want to know how to use your system more efficiently. They’ll seek to bump up against the limits of what your design can do and try to push it as far as it can go.

These people want to think. Let them. Show them. Teach them how they can do more. Provide additional layers of information, functionality, and proficiency. You don’t even need to present these things in an in-your-face manner.

These are people who want to do more. They’ll click and seek links in search of information. They’ll open preference settings just to see what they can do. You can provide the opportunity for more without hitting them over the head with it.

A simple link for more, a page of keyboard shortcuts, a listing of search features that can be used to filter content. Any of these things can provide more for those who want to think.

We don’t have to present every choice everywhere. That isn’t going to lead people to greater thinking. It’ll only lead them to more confusion. What we can do is follow the principle of progressive disclosure.

Make it as easy as possible for people to use your design, but also make it easy to discover more. Hide the advanced features, but don’t hide the path to those features. You don’t have to force people to think in order to use your design, but don’t prevent them from thinking either. Encourage them to think while letting them know you’re there when they need or want more.

Don’t require that I think, but do promote the option.

Lost URLs

Jeremy’s article was inspired by recent changes in Google’s Chrome browser that remove the complete URL from the address bar. I’ve noticed recent versions of Firefox have stopped showing page titles at the top of the browser window and it looks like Safari will be following Chrome in hiding URL information.

I agree with Jeremy. These changes take something away that’s important. It’s true most people don’t need to see the complete URL or page title, but there are those who do want them. There’s a lot of useful information in a complete URL or page title. Some who don’t need the information might have noticed it and become curious. Some would follow their curiosity, think, and learn more.

Jeremy also notes how much harder it is to view the source code of a web page without using specific developer tools. You and I already use those tools and so this might not seem like a huge loss, but I remember how I started learning to develop websites. I started by going to the menu bar and clicking view source on every web page I found interesting.

How many people won’t become web developers because they never get to take this step. Will non-developers know about and turn on developer tools? Will they be curious about what those tools can do without first having viewed the source a time or two.

Summary

The advice “don’t make me think” is good advice. People new to your design shouldn’t be left confused about what to do or where to find something. Make it easy for new visitors to use your site. That means their reducing cognitive load and doing some of the thinking for them.

At the same time allow and encourage visitors to think and do more. Don’t remove that ability. Don’t require it, but don’t prohibit it either.

Recent changes in how browsers hide URL information and how they make it more difficult to view source code are disconcerting. I suspect business agendas are behind the changes and I suspect the people who want complete URLs and source code will quickly figure out how to get both.

It’s discouraging though, that these changes don’t really make anything easier. They seem designed more to make it harder to access information that some would like to know. They make it harder to access information that might lead some to want to learn more.

Thinking is good. It’s what we humans do best. It’s what differentiates us from the majority of life on the planet. It’s in our best interest as a species to get everyone thinking more.

Don’t require me to think, but do encourage me to think.

Download a free sample from my book Design Fundamentals.

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Thursday, 12 June 2014

Can Your Design Process Handle The Uniqueness Of Each Project And Client? - Vanseo Design

Can Your Design Process Handle The Uniqueness Of Each Project And Client? - Vanseo Design

Can Your Design Process Handle The Uniqueness Of Each Project And Client?

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

Every project is unique. Every client is also unique. Each comes with a different set of goals and constraints. Can your design process handle all the differences that exist from client to client and project to project?


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I was recently reminded of the uniqueness of projects and clients after reading, Own Your Process: Ending Agile Guilt, by Megan Notarte for the Cloud Four Blog. Megan talks how their design process is changing and evolving and moving from something more waterfall to something more agile. She talked about how they now tailor their process for each project and client because of this uniqueness.

Like I said, all projects are unique. Even if you’re designing sites for two banks, those projects are still unique because the client isn’t the same. Each will have different goals, even if some are similar, and each will impose different constraints on the project, even if they share some constraints. Different clients will have different ways of working and communicating with you.

Empathy and Understanding In Client Relationships

A large part of the job of a designer has to do with psychology. Not in a how can I cure this person kind of way. Not in a how can I manipulate this person kind of way. But in a how can I understand and empathize with this person kind of way. That allows you to design the site your clients want as best as you can.

Every designer/client relationship is different and you have to work to build that relationship and understand how to work with it. For example based on the client I’m working with I might vary:

  • The words I use in an email
  • How often we’re communicating with each other
  • Whether we speak more over the phone, email, instant messenger, etc.

I’ve had clients over the years who are very hands off. I have to work harder to get information from them and ge them to elicit any feedback. I have strategies and techniques for doing both.

I’ve also had clients who are very hand’s on. I have to work harder to get them to leave me alone long enough to do the work they’re paying me to do. I have to understand which suggestions are the important ones and which I can probably ignore. Again I have strategies and techniques for both.

My Flexible Process

Earlier I mentioned waterfall and agile processes. I’ve described in previous posts how I too have moved from a process more waterfall to one more agile. I think this is true of most designers who are transitioning to responsive design.

When I mention these two processes, understand I don’t literally mean the Waterfall or Agile method of development. I have no idea what either really is. To me waterfall means planning all the details up front and working to meet those details and agile means starting with something rougher and iterating with the client until the site is done.

My current process is more to the agile side, but again I’m not suggesting I follow an Agile Process as I really don’t know what that means outside of my simple definition above.

My process is set up to allow flexibility and change. I start the process in the same way regardless of project and client, but the process isn’t a recipe of steps to follow.

In some respects it stays the same. Just because every project is unique, doesn’t mean every little thing you do on them is different. No matter how unique, the odds are the site has text on a background, navigation, a logo, a way to contact the site owner, etc.

You might come up with a new way to navigate, but chances are your navigation will either be a horizontal navbar across the top or bottom of the page or it’ll be a vertical menu down the left or right side. I rely on patterns for these and other design elements. The patterns are varied to the uniqueness of the project, but the underlying structure remains the same.

My process is set up to adapt to what the client wants to give to it. It’s meant to encourage and receive feedback, but is also capable of progressing without client feedback (or minimal feedback as some is always needed). In the latter case it’s up to me to decide when feedback is absolutely needed and when I can continue to work without it.

When you think about it, this is just one more change in moving from print to the web. That move comes with a different set of constraints. A set of constraints that allows for flexibility and desires proportion over absolute measurements. The web is flexible and dynamic. Our design process should be too.

I don’t specifically tailor my process for each new client, because the ability to tailor to the project is built into the process itself. The process expects change. It expects that each new project will be unique and will have different needs and requirements for best results.

Summary

Every project and client is unique and I think the best way to deal with the uniqueness is to work with a process that expects the uniqueness and can adapt to whatever conditions it’s given.

My process is hardly perfect. That’s part of it’s flexibility too, I suppose. It probably doesn’t adapt to some things as well as it could. For example I couldn’t see myself delivering static design comps at this point. It’s not something I need and I don’t think my clients really need it either. At the same time, I understand my clients may want static comps. In that case I’m prepared to deliver them.

The main thing is not to lock yourself into one way of doing things. Don’t force everything through the same tool and don’t force the same things over and over.

Work from a process that lets you quickly identify what will be different with this project and client and also what will be the same. Then have the rest of the process follow based on that information.

Start rough. Work from a process that generates a feedback loop as quickly as possible. Work a little. Show your work. Iterate. Repeat until finished. The flexibility to adapt to each new project and client can be built in, because the process calls for them to be part of the process.

Download a free sample from my book Design Fundamentals.

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Tuesday, 10 June 2014

Responsive Design Signals A Much Larger Change - Vanseo Design

Responsive Design Signals A Much Larger Change - Vanseo Design

Responsive Design Signals A Much Larger Change

Posted: 09 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

Responsive design is by definition a handful of techniques you can use to develop layouts that adapt to the device and conditions used to access your site. I think it’s much more than its literal definition, though.

My apologies if I speak about this too often, but I still see so many conversations about responsive design where it’s talked about in a way that I don’t think offers an accurate picture of what’s going on.

Perhaps I’m preaching to the choir, but I still see people who think responsive design is at best a trend and at worst a fad. I still see people suggesting that responsive design isn’t a good solution for mobile devices and is seldom, if ever, the right solution for anything.

Internet marketers have started to call it mobile responsive, which doesn’t really make sense and gives a false impression that responsive design is only about mobile devices and building designs specifically for them.

Sign showing the word change

Changing Contexts and Constraints

As I said above responsive design is more than handful of layout techniques or perhaps better would be to say it’s contributing to something far greater than a handful of layout techniques.

We're finally understanding we need to work with the constraints and freedoms of the web instead of trying to force it to behave like print.

On the surface it’s the ability to develop layouts in a way that allows your site to respond to the context in which it’s being seen. Look deeper and you can see a revolution occurring in how sites are created from the initial thought process to the final development.

Responsive design came about in part because we’re ready to shake off the constraints of print and work within the context of the web.

There are things that have been done in print for years that we can’t do online. There are things we can do, though they’re more difficult to implement on the web than they were in print. There are things we do that we shouldn’t continue to do. We did them because we always did them and so we brought them to the web.

Print and the web are different mediums, different contexts. Each comes with a different set of constraints. The different contexts do overlap and share some things in common. For example:

Neither of the of the above is specific to the medium. Both are to do with how our eyes work and how visual information is communicated.

Not all is the same, of course. For example absolute measurements work better in the fixed world of print, while relative measurements work better in the dynamic world of the web.

Because of the different constraints that come with the web and print we’ll no longer be bound by some things and we’ll find we’re bound by some new things. Overall the possibilities for where we can take design are much greater than they were. We can take design further on the web as long as we accept that it’s different from print and align ourselves with the strengths and weaknesses of the web.

The Change is More than Responsive Design

Responsive design is only one part of the change that’s happening. It’s the part that’s pushing us to truly embrace the web and it’s helping people see the greater picture responsive design contributes to.

It’s not the only part of this greater picture, though. The last few years have given us additional capabilities for designing and developing sites.

  • Typographic choices have exploded
  • CSS offers us the ability to animate changes over time
  • CSS lets us code more effects that previously had to be done in a graphics editor
  • CSS will soon allow us to break out of the rectangle and explore other shapes

New layout techniques that aren’t part of responsive design are both here and coming. Flexbox, regions, exclusions, and css grids will open up the possible layouts we can create.

There’s a long way to go, but think about how much has changed over the last few years and how much is going to change in the next few. Just as we’re ready to embrace the web for what it is, the technologies allowing us to embrace it are maturing to the point where we can work with the strengths of the web.

  • There’s a revolution in the tools we’re using
  • There’s a revolution in process and client relationships
  • There’s a revolution in devices used to access our designs
  • There’s a revolution in the way we’re thinking about design

These changes will lead to more and new challenges to overcome if we want to reach the potential for where we can take web design. It’s an exciting time for designers and developers and hopefully you see it that way.

Because we’re living and working while this revolution is taking place, it can be difficult to see what’s going on without stepping back to look at the big picture. The edges for where one paradigm ends and another begins are blurry. The changes are happening though, whether they’re recognized or not.

If you haven’t changed the way you design and think about design then you probably haven’t embraced the changes that are happening.

Web Design is Moving up a Level of Abstraction

Responsive design brings with it a huge change in how we have to think about designing websites. Again, while it’s literally a set of 3 techniques for developing layouts, it’s more the final piece in getting us to embrace designing for the web. We’re moving from:

  • Static to dynamic
  • Fixed to flexible
  • Absolute to relative

We have to stop thinking in terms of fixed and absolute measurements and think one level of abstraction higher. We have to think about relative measurements and proportion. Before we saw one column as 320px and the one next to it as 640px. We now have to see the second column as twice as wide as the first.

We need to be concerned with ranges of values instead of a single value. Again it’s not about a column being 320px wide anymore. It’s about that column working anywhere between a minimum of say 240px wide to a maximum of 400px wide.

It’s the relative differences that matter now and not the absolute ones. It’s how I reframed the idea of designing “above the fold” recently. Moving from print to the web, means design has to move up a level of abstraction.

Moving up a level of abstraction means we need to rethink and relearn a few things. We’ll find some of the rethinking and relearning easy and we’ll find some of it difficult. We’ll find good and bad in what we learn. We’ll find new constraints, new challenges, and new freedoms.

In the long run we’ll be better off for giving up pixels, but we’ll also lose our connection with each pixel as we do. We’ll lose some of the perfection of a static picture in exchange for the ability to adapt and work better across a wider range of devices and conditions.

As always happens with new technologies, we’ll lose a connection with some things and make a stronger connection with others.

Closing Thoughts

Perhaps I shouldn’t be mentioning all these things under the umbrella of responsive design. By definition responsive design is simply 3 techniques for developing layouts that can respond to device context.

I see responsive design as much more or at least a major part of something more. It’s a very significant change in how we think about the design and development of websites. It’s about our industry finally accepting that the web is different than print and embracing those differences. Until recently most of us have been designing for print even though we work on the web.

When you look beyond responsive design you can see our industry is finally ready to embrace what the web is. We’re finally understanding we need to work with the constraints and freedoms of the web instead of trying to force it to behave like print. Fortunately just as we’re getting to this point, new technologies are maturing to allow us to do more.

We’re moving up a layer of abstraction. We’re giving up static, fixed, and absolute, for dynamic, flexible, and relative. Proportion might be more difficult than absolute measurements to work with at first, but in time we’ll find it much easier and it will always be more flexible.

Responsive design is more than a set of techniques. It signals a change in how you think about the design and development of a website. Hopefully you see this change for the exciting opportunity it is.

Download a free sample from my book Design Fundamentals.

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Friday, 6 June 2014

What To Do When You Fall Out Of Love With Your Creativity - Vanseo Design

What To Do When You Fall Out Of Love With Your Creativity - Vanseo Design

What To Do When You Fall Out Of Love With Your Creativity

Posted: 05 Jun 2014 05:30 AM PDT

Many creative people feel a certain back and forth with their creative output. Some days we’re happy with the process and the results of our work. Other times we can’t stand either the work or the result.


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I thought I’d share a little of my own experience where this back and forth is concerned and offer some thoughts about why I think it happens and what I do to get through those times when I’m not happy with my writing and creative output.

I’ll be talking specifically about writing, but this happens to all creative people, whether you write, paint, create music, or design.

My Occasional Writing Woes

When I’m in the love phase with my writing it feels as though everything goes as smooth as possible. It feels like I just sit down and the words flow as if they’re writing themselves. I make the points I want to make or explain what I want to explain. Everything flows and writes itself.

That doesn’t always happen. Much of the time I have the opposite experience where the writing is a struggle and I don’t like anything I produce or most parts of the process. I might not like the idea I’m writing about or it feels like agony trying to place words, sentences, and paragraphs on the page.

During these times I don’t feel I’ve made a coherent point or explained myself well. I have to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and still not like what I’ve written. I’ve sometimes agonized about hitting the publish button and then waiting for the inevitable being found out as a sham or hack.

Still when the post is done I do publish and move on. For better or worse the writing is done and it’s time to move on and write something else. The funny thing is in either case the quality of writing is probably about the same. I’d be willing to bet most people reading wouldn’t be able to tell how I felt about the piece they’re reading.

I’ve published posts I thought were great and enjoyed every aspect of creating them, only to watch as no one seems to notice them. The writing draws no comments, not, social sharing, no references of links.

I’ve also published posts I couldn’t stand working on and thought would out me as a fraud, only to watch them get tweeted and liked and commented upon.

It can be a bit maddening because I wonder if I really know what I’m doing and what you want to read. Why is it that the things I think high quality are sometimes ignored and why things I don’t think particularly good practically go viral.

Don’t Let Fear Get in the Way

I think the main thing that makes us hesitant to write or publish is fear. We doubt what we’re writing and the doubt becomes fear. Maybe what you’re writing is too personal and reveals something you prefer to keep private. Maybe you’re afraid your thoughts and opinions aren’t valid or won’t be accepted. Maybe you worry they won’t be correct or useful to anyone.

You have to get over your fear. Rarely, if ever, is there anything to be afraid of. If your writing is that bad no one is likely to read it anyway. If they aren’t reading beyond a few words they aren’t going to reach the point of judging the things you’re saying.

Most personal stuff shouldn’t be so scary to reveal. Most people won’t think it’s a big deal at all. Less people will care than you think and those that do likely care because they identify with what you said.

Your best writing sometimes reveals itself as fear. It makes you feel uncomfortable. The stuff you’re afraid to say is the stuff that will likely resonate the strongest and with the most people

Writing something like “everyone should work hard to succeed,” isn’t scary. it’s safe. Who’s going to disagree? It’s also boring. Who needs to read something they already know and have heard many times before. Safe may not cause fear, but it doesn’t lead to interest.

That’s not to suggest you should reveal everything. Some things you do want to keep to yourself. The point is don’t automatically give in to the fear. It might be signaling that you have something really good that will resonate if you’re willing to risk sharing it.

Fight Your Way Through

Not liking your work at times is a natural part of the process. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything I want to do all the time. We all need to take breaks. We need to refresh and revitalize ourselves. Anything gets tiresome when done too much. It’s possible you need to walk away from writing for a short time and do something different.

Much of the time the dislike is just something you have to go through. We’re all human beings and like every other human beings we have good and bad days, weeks, months, and years. Maybe you don’t like your writing this week, because you’re simply having a bad week.

It might be that something in your life isn’t quite right and it’s throwing you off. Your dislike of your writing isn’t to do with the writing. It’s due to the usual stuff that happens in life. Perhaps what you really want to write is what’s going on with your life. Write that in a journal and keep it for yourself. Then get back to the writing that pays the bills.

Sometimes as hard as it is you just have to fight your way through these times and trust what you write will turn out ok regardless of how you feel about it. I couldn’t always do that, but over the years I’ve gained enough confidence to trust that what I write will be above a certain level of quality that I’m ok publishing.

You can’t wait for a day when you suddenly feel inspiration. That only comes during the writing, not while waiting.

Collect More Ideas

For me, it’s often a poor choice in topic that leads me to dislike my writing. When I lack interest in the subject it’s hard to motivate myself to write about it or research it beforehand.

I publish two posts a week here. To get through two posts a week I spend a day working on notes and another on a draft. I spend a day here or there working through an editorial calendar where I decide what to write about. If I want to stay on schedule I sometimes have to force my way through a post, because there’s not enough time in the week to switch to another idea.

When I have to force myself through the process it all feels like work, like an obligation. There’s little sense of joy or play and everything about the writing is a struggle. Still you have to fight through those times.

I don’t believe in writer’s block. I’m sure there are legitimate cases of it, but for most people it’s an excuse. You don’t lose your ability to write overnight. Usually when someone says writer’s block, it’s offered as an excuse for why they aren’t writing. It’s an excuse not to have to deal with life’s issues that are on your mind.

Be Professional, Invite the Muse, Strive to Improve

I think the times when you don’t like your writing are actually good practice. You aren’t going to enjoy writing every article or post. Being able to write to your level of quality when the last thing in the world you want to do is write, is a sign of a professional writer.

Sorry to break it to you, but not every minute of life is joy and play. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t particularly want to do. Suck it up. If you can’t write when you don’t want to, maybe it mean you’ve chosen poorly when it comes to your career.

Inspiration doesn’t just show up and make everything wonderful. It shows up after you’ve set the conditions to invite the muse. You have to work hard to make the muse interested in visiting and you have to be prepared to work on the days the muse has better things to do. If you’re a writer you’ll get through it and the good feelings about your work will return.

Have confidence in yourself. You might think what you write during the difficult times is garbage, but odds are it’s better than you think. It’s more your mood telling you the work is awful and not the part of you that knows writing.

If you consistently work to improve the quality of your writing then even your bad writing will likely of better quality than what many others are publishing. Have you read some of the writing on the web? Most of it is pretty bad. It’s not a high bar to surpass.

Work I don’t like may not be my best work, but I understand it’s better than I feel it is. By definition only one piece of writing can be your best. If the next article isn’t, it doesn’t mean it’s bad. Sometimes it’s more important to be finished than to continuing to tweak and refine forever.

Use any feelings of doubt you have to motivate you to become better. Accept that some things you publish won’t be your best and figure out why and how to make the next piece better. If that means choosing a better idea or spending more time researching to better understand the topic, then that’s what you should do. Learn from the writing you don’t like.

Analyze why you don’t like it. Was it everything or just one aspect of the writing. Were you feeling good when brainstorming and taking notes, but feeling the opposite when editing? Identify which part of the process isn’t working and fix it.

Watch for patterns. When you dislike your writing is it usually the same thing you don’t like? Does it consistently happen after something similar happens in your personal life?

Tips — A Few Things I Do

I think it’s good to work with a process. Sometimes when you don’t like your writing, it’s really about being unhappy with one aspect of it. For me it’s usually the topic choice so I maintain a lot of ideas that I can reach for. I’m always collecting potential ideas for articles. It helps me find something I’m interested in writing about when I have to choose a topic. It lets me switch to a new idea quickly if I don’t like the one I first chose.

Some days I don’t want to write sentences and paragraphs, but I’m fine researching or even editing something I previously wrote. Having a process allows me to choose different parts of the process to work on based on how I’m feeling. If you have multiple articles going, each at different points in the process you can usually make progress even when you don’t want to write.

I’ve also found certain times of day more conducive to different parts of the process. Identifying when I do certain things best lets me schedule work that suits how I typically feel at different times of day.

Getting ahead of schedule is something else I do to help me through the tough writing times. I’m recording this on Friday, May 16th and will be publishing it on Thursday, June 2nd. I have three weeks to replace this recording and post if I don’t like how it turns out. I can take a couple weeks off without anyone noticing.

I may publish twice a week, but I can write four articles one week and none the next to maintain that schedule.

How you prepare can affect how you feel about writing. Most of the time to prepare to write I have to avoid it at all costs. I’ll do anything other than writing, usually engaging in some kind of play activity or reading. It gives my subconscious time to prepare.

Other times I trick myself into writing. I’ll reply to emails, forum posts, blog comments, and all sorts of things that are writing, though not the writing I’m trying to avoid. I don’t have to be perfect in a blog comment so I write. Before I realize it the words I’m typing are part of a post for that week.

Occasionally you do need to drop what you’re writing. Maybe the problem is that the current article isn’t good and you know it’s not good. Stop working on it and find something else to write about. I have far too many posts that no one will ever read sitting on my hard drive.

Sometimes I need to hold on to those half written posts until I see how to connect them to another idea in another half written post. I just had to wait till I understood what each post was really about.

Always be improving your writing. Practice writing everywhere and anywhere you get the chance. Don’t just reply to an email. Proof it, reorganize your thoughts. Make it a great piece of writing. Don’t just tweet. Refine your tweet. Work on it. Make it better before releasing it to the world.

Read good writing. Sometimes all it takes for me to feel better and more hopeful about my work is to read something else written well. It inspires me to do better and get back to typing out words on a screen.

Summary

In the end the most important thing is to keep writing. It’s ok to take a day or week away from it. We all need breaks and vacations. Just don’t make the break too long or think you should wait for the muse to show up, sit down at your keyboard, and do your writing for you.

Ultimately you get through the tough times by continuing to write. You don’t have to publish, but you should continue to write. It might be on a different piece and it might not be writing related to work, but keep writing.

Creativity isn’t all fun and games. It will be sometimes. Other times it’ll feel like work and drudgery. Part of being a professional anything is being able to work when you don’t want to. It’s part of being a responsible adult.

Once again while I’ve been talking about writing in this post, I think everything I’m saying applies to any creative endeavor. It’s normal to fall in and out of love with whatever create pursuit you engage in. Whether you write, paint, or design, the key to staying creative is to continue to work at your creative output even when you don’t love doing it.

Download a free sample from my book Design Fundamentals.

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