Karine Sabatier

Good advice from Viget

Posted May 25th, 2009 by karinesabatier

Reading this post from Viget, I found it hard to make a smaller selection since every bullet point is a truly good advice but my fave list would be

Tuning out:

Sometimes, consuming design is a convenient excuse for procrastination, so be careful about how much you’re watching vs. how much you’re doing.

Sketching:

Sketching is cool in interaction design, very cool. Whether with good ole’ pen and paper, or sketching in code, designers are prototyping, exploring, and iterating faster.

Build it:

You’re not going to succeed as an designer if you don’t know the medium. Learn HTML, learn CSS, learn Javascript, learn Ruby & Rails. Knowing how to build quick and dirty prototypes, or production ready build outs, will make you a more effective designer.

The Design of Everyday Things:

Design on the web is as much about human behavior as it is about visual design. Read The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman and you’ll begin to appreciate just what it means to design for human behavior.

Go Crazy When You Concept: (the most difficult for me)

Don’t start a project by giving the client what you think they think they want. Cast your creative net far and wide. Reach for ideas and concepts that stretch your clients comfort-zone and encourage them to come along for the ride.

Inbox zero:

Learning to manage your virtual work spaces is nothing new but recently I’ve seen a big trend in keeping your your inbox at ‘zero.’ The idea here is to create folders to organize, sort and route your email. Moving important to-do’s, urgent replies, work requests, etc into appropriate folders. Managing your work flow and inbox can save you a lot of time and help you stay efficient.

Trend : Speed. (This is oh so true)

There seems to be a trend of “more for less” going around. That includes less money, less time, and less people. Customers are more and more used to getting things quickly and cheaply. Think taking your car in for service. It shouldn’t take long to fix your car, right? Wrong! There’s no magic formula for all the service you need. It takes time and labor to service your car appropriately. Though it’s not an apples to apples comparison design isn’t much different though compared to getting your car fix it can take MUCH longer. It takes people and it takes time to do an effective job.

Be sure to read the full post…

Tags :