Digital Design: To Inspire, be Inspired
You’re working on that exciting new project. You understand the requirements and your users and — finally — you’re ready to draft that pixel-perfect ground-breaking design.
…Better be original… What if it’s not perfect? What if it doesn’t impress?
How do I find the flair to “wow” my users when there’s so many great designs out there?
Use them for ideas, energy and inspiration.
Many designers tend to neglect this opportunity and get cracking immediately:
Some designers — especially new ones — try to be completely 100% original and deliver “fresh” work; It’s much, much simpler than that: Start with collecting great work from others and leverage it for your own ideas and energy.
Experienced designers often depend mostly on their trusted patterns and knowledge; Even then, it’s sometimes difficult to ignite that spark for creativity or find motivation. A detailed exploration of great designs is often neglected.
To create something special you need to be inspired
Replenish your energy with what’s out there.
You can only be inspired when discovering great designs and ideas you haven’t! Use them for energy; Copy, adapt and improve.
It’s almost impossible to explore too many new designs and ideas. It helps you keep up with modern trends and technology, and are instrumental in helping you learn from others’ tried and tested work.
It enables you to apply proven knowledge
It’s not just about inspiration.
Being a good digital designer doesn’t always mean being completely original and pioneering — it means learning from widely available knowledge and patterns accumulated over years of trial-and-error and applying it to whatever you’re working on. Many companies and digital products are the result of years of iterative design and the accumulation of best practices and patterns.
Established websites and apps spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research and testing to answer questions like: Which interface design patterns are most usable? or Which amounts to more sales and conversions? What helps users engage more and what puts them off? Use this knowledge to your advantage.
What’s more, in the digital age there’s a good chance that there’s a product out there that’s very similar to what you’re targeting already. Find it and pick it like a ripe fruit, slice and dice in targeting design that will satisfy user needs. It’s also beneficial to your users to engage with expected and familiar interfaces, without having to make them think.
Don’t see it as research; it’s exciting and motivating to explore other designs, especially when it’s something you haven’t seen. Besides — it will make your job a hell of a lot easier, make you look good and also speed up your design time.
Improving on others’ work in modern times
The tendency is present universally and in global companies:
- Apple improved on the Microsoft Surface tablet with the iPad
- Facebook improved on Myspace
- In some ways Twitter is a 160 character version of a blog, a concept that has been around for much longer
- The list goes on and on
It’s of course present in earlier times as well; eg. The saying “Good artists copy, great artists steal” have been around the block.
On the practical side
Here’s some very useful places to look for design ideas and inspiration:
- Uplabs: My personal favourite, allows you to browse by platform/OS.
- Web: Awwwards or Google web design awards
- Apps: Google app design awards
- Dribbble — “Show and tell for designers”
- Producthunt has some great products to browse
- Behance: Exclusive portfolios from top designers
- Pinterest. Be sure to make your search specific. Like “web member panel design”
- And of course, Google it
And some practical points to take into consideration:
- Remember that — even before starting — user-centered design based on user research is always the most important basis for understanding your users’ expectations and needs clearly.
- Compile a spreadsheet with a tool such as Google Sheets to list sources of designs or products you feel are a good fit for requirements/expectations. Add a comment on each detailing what you like in it. Build up your list for future projects.
- Browse at least 20 examples of ideas that might work, and pick 10 as your main sources of inspiration.
- Be sure that the sources you feed from are trustworthy: a good reputation or fair amount of user engagement is essential.
- Always start with low to medium-fidelity designs before you go full pixel.
- Don’t try to be perfect, rather iterate quickly and don’t get stuck in the minor details early (like color, spacing, etc.)
Don’t be intimidated by seeing the good stuff out there. Most of it was inspired by someone else’s good stuff — to inspire you need to be inspired first. Brené Brown also explains in her book, Daring Greatly how we only grow when we accept our vulnerability for failure or inferiority and learn from others’ work.
Lastly, I’m not saying don’t be original:
I’m saying don’t always try to be pioneering. You can still be original while learning from others’ trial-and-error. Copy, adapt and improve. There’s just too many great designs out there to ignore.
In the least it will most definitely provide you with future references or spark the creative juice, so easy there Da Vinci.
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(I’m always open for inputs, please share your thoughts!)
