Design thinking, and not just ‘design thinking’
I’m on the train, leaving New York after a pretty amazing week. It was the perfect time of year to be in New York. The weather was flawless and I got to attend the 99U Conference for the third time. I’m getting spoiled by the whole thing at this point.
Left: My conference badge with fancy designed 9 — Right: Near Grand Central station at sunset.
“The 99U Conference is a one-of-a-kind live experience that inspires creative professionals to bring their ideas to life and shape the future of the industry.” – this is their words, not mine. But, it’s a admirable goal and they do a great job of bringing together a diverse group of people and disciplines. The mix of people and content is why I keep coming back.
Pre-Conference Kickoff Party
Why not get started a day early? A lot of the attendees gather to pre-register and hang out for a few hours at a nice hotel with a lot of fine cheese and cured meats. Some of the sponsors get to show off their new toys and tools. Google Tilt Brush was running live demos, allowing people to put on the headset and paint in 3D. Adobe was running a live collaborative drawing experiment. People were encouraged to draw something, scan with the iPads and then the drawing leader was grabbing elements from the public for inclusion in the final drawing. Posters of the result were given out on day two.
Left: My joystick scribble made it into the final piece — Right: The final, slightly wrinkled poster
Day 1: Morning––Defining the Creative Career
Farai Chideya (@farai on Twitter)
The conference started off with a solid and thoughtful presentation by Farai Chideya. She examined the changing landscape of work and presented some clear methods for getting ahead in this uncertain professional landscape. She described these as ‘work/life freedom strategies’ and she laid out three key tactics: Do a skills audit & industry audit, be a translator (someone who can bridge areas of expertise and bring people together) and lastly, give yourself wiggle room. We all have plans, but don’t beat yourself about it.
Liz Jackson
I have tried to explain this a few times verbally to friends and have failed miserably–let’s try again…
Liz Jackson is a disability advocate and told some of her story about how she came to this field. Her passion and intelligence on this subject needs to be heard by more people. Culturally “we are trained to look away” from the disabled. She believes that this attitude undermines the value that “disabled ingenuity” brings to the rest of us. Many popular products were developed by the disabled and then brought into the mainstream, she sighted the bicycle for example. “Disability is a social construct” and if we continue to view different abilities and less we only undermine our own value. As accessibility in web design has grown in awareness, hopefully in product design the same thing can happen–thanks to people like Liz Jackson.
Mike Perry (@mikeperrystudio on Instagram)
This talk was a somewhat rambling but entertaining tour of Mike Perry’s work, studio and thought process. He talked about his studio as a ship and his love of Star Trek the Next Generation–and how in his studio on any given day they can decide what the next adventure will be. He went into detail about his project around drawing naked people and how the goal of learning to draw people led him to some interesting new experiences. He showed some of his commercial work as well as explained (loosely) how he’s gone from illustration to animation.
Day 1: Midday — Navigating the Unknown
Bryan Lamkin (@bryanlamkin on Twitter)
An interview style chat with one of the leaders of Adobe’s product group. He talked about the importance of mobile and social and how it’s changing people’s consumption of content (photography and video). My ears perked up when he talked about experience design as a vehicle for “holistic problem solving.” The last key point for me was how Adobe is tackling AI and where it’s embedding machine learning into its products. He sighted content aware fill as one example of this.
Julia Kaganskiy
The director of the NEW INC at the New Museum gave a detailed look at her work developing this art and design incubator. This process is similar to what every project, startup or growing business deals with and she gave some great guideposts for managing the chaos.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
“Getting comfortable with uncertainty”, is something, as a self admitted control freak, she’s been learning and taking to heart.
On navigating the unknown
• Start with why
• Find your tribe
• Make a plan
• Be ready to learn and adapt
• Focus on process vs. result
• Approach challenges with honesty
Rick Webb
Best known for his work at the Barbarian Group, he gave a detailed history of how that all happened and then the aftermath. I can’t really explain the details of his adventure, but one thing that did resonate with me was that creating a company is like giving birth to a child. It will exist with or without you and there will be times that you’ll need to step back and let it go.
Scott Belsky
The founder of 99U finally hit the main stage–and he made it count. He jumped right in with his phased approached to making things happen.
Phase 1: Make Ideas Happen–Mission centric medium agnostic
Phase 2: Collaboration–Powerful enough for pros but accessible to everyone
Phase 3: Supporting Mission Driven Teams–The first mile is neglected
Collaboration and reliance on your team builds and grows your team’s strength. Most products do one of two things: save you time or spend your time–he views this duality as a battle.
The last section of the talk dove into how a user interacts with your product in the first moments (15 seconds) and how lazy, vain and selfish we can be when evaluating a new product.
- Users don’t want to make the wrong choice
- Prioritize new user needs over power user’s experience
- People rely on relationships and trust over data
- We favor novelty but gravitate towards the familiar
- Familiar is the enemy of innovation
If we “stay grounded by the new user’s experience” we can keep focused on the metrics that matter and ultimately deliver a better end result.
Day 2: Morning — How to Fix Design
Irene Au
When the designer becomes the client everything is flipped and she explained what she learned during the process of working with Architects.
1. Choose your projects intentionally — don’t spread yourself too thin
2. Present multiple alternatives —bring your stakeholders in early
3. Prototype: from low to high — there is fallacy in the fidelity, every launch is a prototype
4. See the opportunity
5. Get the details right — find the right talent at the right time
6. Be the arbiter of taste
7. Approach the work mindfully
I will state here that this list pales in comparison to actual talk.
Natasha Jen
The talented designer started with a bold statement, “Design thinking is bullshit.” She went on to point out her key problem with the current trend of the design thinking buzzword–the missing element is that we have omitted critique. Intuition is a key element of the designer’s skillset and not something that post-it notes or flow charts can easily replicate.
Ian Spalter
The ‘Head of Design’ for Instagram jumped right into the data vs. design debate.
Data lies — it’s more complex than simple metrics but data keeps you honest. Data can inspire but data won’t save you. He then went into an interesting examination of how comics develop their craft and its mirror process in making. Beyond just getting laughs, when an artist decides what the goal of their work is and works relentlessly towards that end.
Day 2: Afternoon — Invention & Reinvention
Paul Ford
A machine for inspiration (his title)–how tools become part of us and our process. He talked about his process for writing a book, which was three years overdue and the experiments and misadventures in completing that project.
When you need to do a thing everything is about what you are not doing
In the process of completing his book, he built two separate writing tools (software) and started a company around one. This is not an ideal process, he admitted, but everyone’s process is a personal journey and we all should follow our path.
Steve Selzer
AirBnB’s ‘Experience Design Manager’ talked about ‘Designing for Friction’ which seem counter in this world of seamless, frictionless apps and tools.
As designers who work under the premise of human-centered design we are all deciding what the the future should be.
If we design with these elements in mind we might be able to make more conscious design decisions
– Skill building: how are we helping users grown
– Self-discovery and personal growth
– Self reflection
– Collisions — creating opportunities for personal growth with positive confrontations
What do we lose when we remove this friction from the experience?
Debbie Millman (@debbiemillman on twitter)
The famous podcaster and designer finished the two day event with her podcasting history and some encouraging advice on how to keep pushing ahead despite the challenges. I like the Design Matters podcast but if you were already aware of her story, this talk wasn’t anything new. With that said, it’s always helpful for me to hear about someone who through the endurance of 10 years of podcasts, over 300 episodes that she’s finally getting recognized for her efforts.
Post-Conference After Party
Dance party at the MOMA, yeah–who wouldn’t want to do that.
Two and a half days of design nerdery is a clear and amazing luxury and I am very lucky and appreciative of the opportunity to learn and meet the amazing community at 99U. I’ve been to three and I hope to return as often as life will allow. The 99U conference is an amazing event and the people who are there are equally amazing–and I don’t just mean the speakers. You will meet an international, broad creative spectrum of talented, motivated and friendly people.