Where to begin? We covered a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time. It seems like a long time ago we were shooting our self portraits, but it was only about three months ago. We moved at a break-neck pace, and things seem to blur together. What a busy semester. But in the end, I have some pretty cool things in my portfolio from this course. And I learned a lot of important things about design and my professional modus operandi. Here they are, in no particular order.
Concept Sketches
This is probably the most important phase of the design process. I used the heck out of my sketchbook. Every project from this course began on paper. Paper is where the bulk of my ideas were generated. Once my sketches were done, I would start working in the software. Whenever I would get stuck, I would turn to my sketchbook and work it out. It’s all about coming up with ideas, and paper really is the best medium.
Ideas Come First
I loved the fact that this course challenged us to follow our ideas instead of getting bogged down in functionality. I followed my ideas, and then ended up spending endless hours figuring out the functionality to get my ideas working. This was tough, and I spent more time working on production projects for this course than any other. But in the end, my design and technical skills expanded. It was difficult, but completely worth it.
Critique
Some people hated critique. I liked it. That’s why I pushed for the full iMedia cohort critiques: I wanted to get as many opinions as possible. Critique is difficult, but important. My classmates would often suggest things that became incorporated into the final project. In the end, I just wanted the best possible product, and critique was massively important in this aspect.
But, it’s important to be able to distinguish between people’s critiques. For some projects, there are people who understand what you’re doing and others who don’t. The people who don’t “get it” usually don’t have much to offer, and you need to be able to (1) determine that they don’t get your idea yet, and (2) try to offer more complete and thought-out versions of your work to avoid this. Not every suggestion is valid, and knowing that can save you a lot of frustration. But ultimately, you need to listen to what others have to say and use their suggestions to better your work. It’s worth it in the end.
Always Consider The User
If it looks great, but only you know how to use it, it needs more work. If you’re creating something intended for the web, chances are a lot of people are gonna check it out. And if a lot of people are gonna check it out, it should probably be useable. One of my biggest pet peeves was the blatant lack of usability in some projects. I wish more of the projects were geared towards usability instead of presentation. Out of all the infographics and games we made, only a minority were usable by anyone besides the creator. I hope that isn’t a problem for anyone in the future. This leads to my next point.
Fashion vs. Function: The Great Balancing Act
It looks great but is confusing, it looks like crap but works great, or it looks great and works great. Always be mindful of the ladder. This is one of the things we were challenged to think about when designing our projects. Ultimately, it seems that the most successful designs are the ones that incorporate great design with intuitive functionality. Like, for instance, the iPhone (which is the mecca of intuitive design). This is also the biggest challenge, and requires deep consideration and skill in both design and functionality. I learned a thing or two in this area, and will be chasing that magic dragon until I catch it.
Abandon It
This is only hard when you don’t have 1,000 other things to do, but over winter break I plan on tweaking about 5 of my projects. Then it’ll get difficult, because I’ll probably want to keep tweaking things. And eventually I’ll have to abandon them. But the best one-liner takeaway I got from this course was the Hitchcock quote about abandoning your projects. They’re never finished. EVER. Especially digital projects, where it’s easy to jump back in and start making changes. But at some point you have to pull the plug. Maybe someday I’ll get better at that!