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Express Your Designer Self through Writing

Recently, I gave a presentation to a group of 100 designers on how to get started in writing and keep it up.

In this presentation, I shared my stories – why I started writing, some tips on what to write, how to write it, where to publish, as well as how writing can help with them to become better communicators at work.

My audience was Chinese designers in North America, so I delivered the presentation in Chinese. The slides were in English though. Check out the recording.

Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous

Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous. -- Tina Seelig

“Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous.” comes Tina Seelig’s book What I wish I Knew When I Was 20 — one of my favorite books. She teaches at Stanford University, and promises to deliver her very best in each class and expects the same from the students.

She said this in the book “being fabulous comes in many flavors, but it all starts with removing the cap and being willing to reach for your true potential. This means going beyond minimum expectations and acknowledging that you are ultimately responsible for your actions and the resulting outcomes. Doing just 1% better each day leads to enormous positive results. Life isn’t a dress rehearsal, and you won’t always get a second chance to do your best.”

Everyday UX – Have a machine-made burger

The burger machine (from website)

How good would a burger be if it’s made by a machine?

The automated food making process is frequently seen in factories, you can easily find a number of such videos on YouTube. But, automate it in front of the consumers? Never heard of.

Falling into a rut is the worst thing you can do

Falling into a rut is the worst thing you can do. -- MTJ

After the game Bubble Bobble became a hit in the game industry, MTJ, creator of the game, decided to approach the next version differently.

Typically, when companies develop the next version of a game, they keep some aspects from the previous version — characters, stories, elements, the name of the game, etc.

MTJ decided to abandon them all and developed Rainbow Island. In some places, this next game got a bigger hit. When asked why he chose to do that, this was what he said.

I believe he made up his mind to stay creative and challenge himself to try diverse initiatives. It turned out good for him.

In my opinion, you need to make a good use of your judgement to decide when to follow the rules or break them. Some rules benefit you, for example, a design system allows you to put together designs fast. However, others hinder your creativity  —  “the reason why you should do this is that we’ve always done this way”.