Pixel Talk
Yesterday I gave a brief talk about web design at the Pixel graphic design club Alumni Day at UC Davis. Here are some of the notes I wrote down when I was thinking about the talk. The slides for the talk are included below, but probably aren’t as meaningful without the verbal component.
The complexity and reach of the projects I’m working on has increased exponentially since I graduated. But the questions and process to solve the problems are fundamentally the same. Design provides a framework that is rarely taught in schools: a method for creating intelligent solutions to complex problems.
My advice to you: embrace the fact that everything in your life can (and should?) be a design problem. Think beyond graphic design, exhibit design, fashion design. See the world from a more holistic perspective – the world is a place full of complex problems in need of intelligent solutions.
The projects I’m working on now will have contact with tens of millions of people. What makes me qualified to do this? What makes me think I can do this successfully? One answer: design. Problems get bigger, but the methods for solving them stay the same. Identify the goals, identify the constraints, learn enough about both to push the limits of what’s possible.
Here’s the other trick: it’s not magical. Yes, sometimes there is that spark, that moment of creative inspiration where everything falls into place. More often (and more important, when you’re expected to produce these solutions on a regular basis, not just when you happen to stumble upon an epiphany), it is the result of hard work and focused effort. There’s a lot of mediocre stuff out there. Mediocre design, mediocre products, mediocre people. If being exceptional was easy, everyone would do it. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for those who embrace the challenge), it’s much easier to be mediocre.
My challenge to you: Take what you’ve learned here, and remove the limits from your thinking. There’s plenty of complex problems out there in need of intelligent solutions. Take your design education and go solve a few, you’re better suited than most to do so.
I earned two degrees while I at UC Davis. One took 80% of my years here and 20% of my effort (Ecology). The other took 20% of my years here and 80% of my effort (Design). Looking back on it, I think I tired of my ecology program because there wasn’t much room for creativity. If you did the research and recorded the right numbers, and then put those numbers into the right equations, out came the results. You may not like the results, but there wasn’t much guesswork in the process.
Design, by contrast, forces you to ask questions and explore solutions. Some (many?) of the solutions will be novel, at least to you. How to pick one? There aren’t traditional “right” answers. Sure, design has “rules” but they’re not like the rules of physics – immutable and constant – in design, the possibility exists of breaking those rules, so long as you’re doing it appropriately and know what you’re doing. A favorite quote: “Rules are a substitute for poor skills of observation”. If you find yourself depending on the rules for guidance, maybe you need to work on your judgment and observation.
When picking these solutions, you can only choose the one that you think will best solve the problem within the constraints of the context.
