A lot of people have asked me how I come up with ideas for new designs. While I can't offer a generic recipe for getting ideas and turning them into design solutions, in this article I've tried to express my own thoughts about working creatively. Interaction design research today is very focused on developing methods for establishing and creating so called design spaces that support the creation of good design solutions. I approach web design in a similar fashion however not necessarily in such a theory-based manner.
An old truth is that you should find out what you love to do, and do it. Your choice of career shouldn't be based on what pays best or what your parents expect of you but what you love and believe in. You should seek to do what you feel is right and what works best. History tells us that individuals driven by their own ideas, ideals and who are seeking to realize them have often been successful.
I do what I do because I love doing it. I love creating meaningful things that bring people joy, that make a difference and that serve as a testament to my own abilites. In order to be good at what you do you have to love doing it. You might hear people saying they just "happened" to be good at something, well be that as it may everything requires effort and you won't make an effort unless you feel motivated.
dedication and perseverance are much more important than anything else when it comes to realizing your abilities
Practice makes perfect
This may seem rather metaphysical and rather obscure in case you're looking for "hard" advice, but I am of the opinion that in order to do good design, you must think it's fun and have a lot of patience with yourself. So first of all, believe in yourself, and believe in your ideas! Don't feel intimated by those that are better than you, realize they were once beginners and the only thing that separates you from them is time. Take the opportunity to learn from them. With time anyone can become a master. I know some people mumble about "talent" but I have never believed in it, and cognitive psychology seems to support my view. Your dedication and perseverance are much more important than anything else when it comes to realizing your abilities.
Ideas are the wealth of the creative
It is important is to develop an awareness of ideas and solutions relevant to your work. I always notice how magazines are designed or how lighting affects a room and the objects in it. All of these things can be applied in web design. When you know what you want to do you will usually have a number of ideas on how you want to do it. You will probably find ideas by doing things that are important and meaningful to you, or by doing something entirely new such as traveling to a place you've never been before. In most cases we cannot afford such extravagant sources of inspiration so there are a few tricks. Some design bureaus have boxes with strange items they've collected from all over the world. When working on a problem the design team picks up random items from the box and work them into their ideas or designs. Sometimes they apply a method called "the six thinking hats" in order to determine the potential of an idea.
You don't need a box of random exotic items to do the same, here's a few ideas that might help you find inspiration for novel ideas and solutions:
- Watch a movie and take note of everything that seems interesting, consider your notes ideas you can use it to create a design or solution
- Read a book, I love reading science fiction because of the grand, bold and often ingenious concepts which are the trademark of the genre. For some of my favorite books, see the webstore's book section.
- Generate a random word or random haiku and work it into your design or idea
- When you see magazines, books, TV shows, road signs take notice of they're designed, if you like something remember it for later and try and incorporate it into your design.
- Listen to music, try and remember how it affects you, how it makes you feel, try to use it in your design.
- Don't be alone! While design may seem like a rather solitary activity, inspiration often comes from being in the presence of others. Van Gogh cut off his ear, something he supposedly did for a woman - someone other than himself. Mad or not, point is: life would be meaningless without other people around.
- Take a walk in your hometown but go somewhere you've never been before, explore it and at the same time observe and remember. You might get some great ideas.
- Play a new computer or video game, observe and try and enjoy more than the simple fun of it, try to understand the underlying principles of every aspect of its design. Well-crafted art, just like great performances, will grab all your senses and pull you in. Computer games are art and performances to me, and I find them to be a great source of inspiration.
It is important you don't sacrifice your own ideas in favor of what people tell you to do. Have an open mind though, be open to try everything but have good judgment to tell what works and what doesn't. It may require you to discard some ideas in favor of other ideas. This is in fact the principle of achieving good design, being able to work at a broader more holistic level while at the same time keeping an eye on details and evaluate both in terms of the goals of your design. Fortunately there are methods for doing this.
You have the potential to come up with a totally novel way of solving a problem, or designing a solution. You do, because you're human.
A structured approach
So where do you get good ideas to begin with? Well, what are your interests? Relating things to yourself may seem rather egocentric at first but you will realize it makes a lot of sense. Of course, we usually don't design for ourselves but on the other hand it's very hard to work with something you have no opinions or feelings about. Finding aspects of the topic, item or concept that you already relate to, or can relate to is important. If you know nothing about it, learn something about. Put it in relation to things you already know. Every person is different, has different ideas and views and this means our ideas will be unique. Perhaps similar sometimes but always unique. You have the potential to come up with a totally novel way of solving a problem, or designing a solution. You do, because you're human.
So you have that awesome idea, you're sure of it, but you're unsure about what to do next. Well, it depends on what you are going to use it for. Ideas are just ideas, abstract, fluffy, ever-changing things until we can communicate them to other people. Then they become shared. Shared ideas are powerful, they can change the world. There are however good and bad ideas, the quality of an idea stands in relation to its intended application, or use. Being able to evaluate ideas is a key skill which every human has. We have ever since the dawn of humankind been able to judge whether a construction or plan would work by simulating it in our mind. You can tell that you won't be able to jump across that gorge because you can simulate it in your mind, evaluate the idea and whether it's viable.
With a clearly defined purpose and clear goals it becomes easier to evaluate ideas since you can do so based on how well they support or don't support your purpose and goals. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to write things down, or draw complex diagrams. A lot of planning is done without paper, and actually sitting down and thinking about a problem will often take you a long way toward solving it. However the are methods developed to help you organize your thoughts and focus on the important aspects. Interaction design professionals, who are just one group of people who work professionally with design, use methods such as drawing conceptual maps, creating user personas and write lists of desired attributes to help determine whether an idea is worth developing further.
According to theories of design, the design process is a diverging-converging process. You start by developing and creating lots of ideas, you create as large a design space as you can within the time alotted to finally evaluate the ideas to find candidates to keep. Applying evaluation methods, and developing ideas further to learn more about their potential, you keep cutting down the number of ideas or designs that remain until you're left with one. In theory this is the ultimate solution which is the optimal solution in your original design space.
This is just a very brief overview of how people who develop new products and designs often work, and how I often work, and I've generalized a lot. I believe a lot of it makes very much sense and is how most people would intuitively go about solving a problem.
perspectives and views change all the time, you grow every second of your life and coming back to something you left some weeks ago you will look at it with new eyes
Reviewing your ideas
Some of you may wonder if it's always necessary to apply a range of methods just in order to find viable and useful ideas, maybe not. I must admit a lot of my ideas have come to me all of a sudden. The idea for Solaris wasn't developed, or iterated, it just came to me and it worked. However regardless of the origin if your idea, whether it came to you as a "keeper candidate" or whether it was developed iteratively, an idea will always improve by reviewing. A good design solution can always be made better. Your perspectives and views change all the time, you grow every second of your life and coming back to something you left some weeks ago you will look at it with new eyes. You will try ideas you didn't even consider earlier. Always review and even when pressured by a deadline try and make time for reviewing. It is time well spent.
Some might say the best projects are the never-ending ones, since you can improve your idea forever, reviewing it until you die. I do not agree, I believe everything has its own time, everything has its lifespan and eventually needs closure so we can move on, learn and grow. A time and resource limited project can pose a challenge as well as introduce constraints that forces you to grow as a designer. You will become better at getting ideas as well as evaluating and developing them, coaching them to grow into their potential stardom. Perhaps they gain eternal life, such as the idea of flight, realized over a hundred years ago by the Wright brothers.
Love your work, believe in yourself and take every opportunity to learn and you will soon see yourself grow watching your ideas and your work improve. It's a never-ending process and challenge because there are always new things to see, know and learn.