This content originally appeared on Brad Frost and was authored by Brad Frost
I came across this great post by my friend Cameron Moll on LinkedIn. He says:
Telling designers they shouldn’t use high-fidelity designs early in the exploration process can be the equivalent of telling an artist they shouldn’t use paint and instead only start with rough pencil sketches.
Some designers think best in hi-fi. I’m constantly amazed at how others feel justified in telling them to avoid this too early in the process.
Yes, let’s occasionally remind designers that hi-fi can lead to false alignment with stakeholders, spinning on visuals without solving fundamental user needs, or other countless warnings we typically associate with hi-fi early in the process.
And then let’s step back and trust those designers to use the process that suits them best.
Cameron Moll
I found this fascinating as I’ve been on both sides of this. On one hand, I’m the person telling designers “Please don’t create desktop, tablet, and mobile versions of the same freaking hi-fi comp here; we’re still just figuring out what this thing does”. On the other hand, I’m the person saying “Let’s explore! Let’s play! There are no rules! Don’t be confined or constrained!”
To be clear: telling designers they shouldn’t use ________________ early in the exploration process is lousy.
Creativity is freedom, and different people translate the thoughts in their heads into things that exist in the world in myriad ways. Limiting creative expression to specific modalities or formats — especially in the earliest parts of the creative process — is counterproductive.
The funny and sad thing is that’s how most digital design workflows work! I think many people who work in this field are used to something like this:
- Step 1: Requirements
- Step 2: Wireframe
- Step 3: Design Comps
- Step 4: Code
Through the lens of Taylorism, this process makes a ton of sense. It’s predictable! It’s reproducible! But through the lens of innovation, this process needlessly limits the creative infinite into a narrowly-defined box.
Creativity doesn’t live in a box, nor is it linear. The specific formats and modalities we use to get the ideas out of our heads and into the world inform and influence the nature of the work. “Design this product using a Sharpie and a napkin” will yield different results than “Design this product using this clay” will yield different results than “Design this product using code”.
Many people aren’t aware that their creative canvas is infinite, and even more people are artificially given unnecessary limits to their exploration and creativity. There’s a time and a place for everything, but when we’re talking about exploration, we’d do ourselves a service by not setting myopic limits on how we explore.
This content originally appeared on Brad Frost and was authored by Brad Frost
Brad Frost | Sciencx (2024-09-12T16:10:16+00:00) Creative Exploration. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/09/12/creative-exploration/
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