“…I don’t think design involves that much creativity. It involves creativity in the way doing a crossword puzzle involves creativity. You need some imagination and knowledge. I think of artists as creative because they have to invent something out of nothing. I think designers design because they can’t invent something out of nothing. Or at…
Tag: culture
Designerly Thought of the Day #20180302
All designers bring about their personal design cultures. Only good designers’ cultures challenge your own work culture for the better. Bad designers’ cultures merely hinder your business wellbeing.
Designerly Thought of the Day #20180301
The second step to understand design is to acknowledge that your way of designing is tightly coupled with your work culture and its subcultures. There is no universal process/method that “just works”, unless by “it just works” you mean “it works but”. Your work culture and the way of designing form a dynamic synergy of…
Thoughts on Constraints in Design
A Constraint That Hinders Creative Freedom In both art and design, we can identify three dimensions of constraint: material, functional, and cultural. The beauty of art often lies in the freedom of expression where a constant, self-indulging or self-induced struggle over the constraints by those dimensions. All three pose fascinating challenges to an artist, who…
UX: The Trouble of a Term
The term UX (user experience) has probably come to the point where it’s becoming more misleading rather than encouraging, aspiring, or clarifying. “…the term [User Experience] has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose it’s meaning. …user experience, human centered design, usability; all those things, even affordances. They just sort of…
The Story of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody
A thought-provoking cultural tale about everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody.
Physicality for Digital Ritual
The Lost Ritual of the Physical Social ritual is largely lost in the digital scenarios. For example, the ritual of lending/borrowing physical books is lost in the digital scenario. So are the resulting mutual appreciation and social intimacy. When you lend an eBook to me, the act of kindness or friendship is barely visible. The very…
Is Everyone a Designer?
All Are the Designers? The déjà vu discussion started from a tweet by Jared Spool: Anyone who influences what the design becomes is the designer. This includes developers, PMs, even corporate legal. All are the designers. — Jared Spool (@jmspool) March 1, 2017 Which led to a fascinating discussion down the line here: @jmspool Going…
Tractatus Logico-Measuremicus: Goal Comes Before Measurement, Not Vice Versa
1. Goal comes before measurement 1.1 Before making any kind of measurement, we need to set goals first 1.2 Measurement can only be created according to goals 1.2.1. To measure anything, we always use a set of criteria for quantitative or qualitative qualification 1.2.2 The set of criteria reflects the aspects or angles from which…
What Your Manager Expect From You
I’m your manager. And one day I tell you, I have this idea blah blah blah, could you work on it. You tell me sure I will. My idea is half-baked. There are no clear path to approach the task. Everything is kind of vague and uncertain. What do I expect from you? First, there…
Book Review: Beyond Measure
Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes by Margaret Heffernan The Bottom Line Read the invigorating and highly quotable introduction as well as chapter 1 and stop there if you’re in a hurry. Official Summary A powerful manifesto for CEOs and employees alike: Influential and award-winning business leader Margaret Heffernan reveals how organizations can build ideal workplace cultures and create seismic…
Book Review: Why We Work
Why We Work by Barry Schwartz The Bottom Line Chapter 4, The Technology of Ideas, is worth the full price for re-introducing so many essential ideas you MUST understand in order to truly understand the dynamics of work culture. Official Summary An eye-opening, groundbreaking tour of the purpose of work in our lives, showing how work operates…
