Out of all the different types of card sorting I’ve learned, this modified Delphi card sorting method is the most interesting one.
Visualize Ideas, Even If They Could Be “Bad”
As designers, our intuition and judgement take a big part when it comes to evaluating our own design ideas.
Sometimes, I kill ideas when they’re still in my head.
The problem with that is several fold.
Be Your Own Creative Director
How to expand your design explorations? How not to explore just “safe” design options?
Connecting Is Simple
As we walked away, I was thinking. Human connection is such a wonderful thing that gives you wonderful feelings.
Book Notes: Creative Confidence — Reframe A Question to Get Better Solutions
If someone asks you to make a tool lighter so it’s not too tiring to use, is “lighter” the real solution?
What would be the 10-star experience & beyond?
Trained academically as a computer science student, I was used to/still sometimes evaluate feasibility too early. When a solution appears, my mind starts asking “is this feasible” very quickly. That’s the downside of having an engineering mindset: you may run “feasibility evaluations” for your design solutions your head too early, rather than putting all the solution options onto the table, and waiting for your engineering partners’ expertise. This resulted in eliminating certain solutions prematurely. When you care about “what is feasible” too much too early, you stop going an extra mile to add a level of star experience for your users.
“Perceived Performance” – Eli Fitch
Waiting in a line at DMV. Enjoying an exciting concert. Working on a project with a tight deadline. People perceive time differently in various situations. How would a bit front-end engineering effort make a difference in people’s perception on applications?
I have some learnings from Eli Fitch’s excellent presentation “Perceived Performance”. The quality of presentation is as amazing as the content.
Book Notes: The Laws of Simplicity
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. — John Maeda
Event Notes: On Some Soft Skills for Designers
This session was hosted by DocuSign, as part of SF Design Week 2018. The designers at DocuSign talked about how soft skills helped two of their past projects. There are a number of things I’m sure we’ve heard over and over again as designers. And it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves once again, because soft skills will make you a truly great designer.
Tic Tac Toe
A fun little design side project on this simple game to get me started in animation. My husband Yanbin and I will collaborate to make it real.