A presentation at Refresh Conference in in Groningen, Netherlands by Stephen Hay
Stephen Hay I don’t care what Airbnb is doing. (And neither should you.)
“Hey, can we do that like Airbnb does?”
Photo: Alex E. Proimos. https://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/4199675334/
“Hey, can we do that like [insert any name from the greener grass on the other side] does?”
Design sameness. Image: Dave Ellis. http://www.novolume.co.uk/blog/all-websites-look-the-same/
We rely on conventions because they will often give us an acceptable solution with a minimum of effort.
You never know for sure. You have to follow the link to find out. We’ve made a convention for the form, but not for the content.
We’re developing expertise in choosing rather than in thinking.
As choosers of existing solutions, we’re not the ones thinking up the solutions to choose from.
Trying to be different by imitating “different” won’t make you different. There’s nothing in the comfort zone that doesn’t belong there.
Photo: Shal Farley. https://www.flickr.com/photos/99525316@N00/8464433312/
“But… my work is based on tried and true conventions. That’s good for users. What’s wrong with that?”
Our work doesn’t need to be different. It should be appropriate.
Appropriate design offers creative wiggle-room. Convention, by contrast, doesn’t care about your specific problem.
Stop focusing on the solution, and start focusing on the problem.
Getting to appropriate design: one approach → Learning Critical thinking Explore/Exploit → → → Search for evidence Expertise
Learning → Expertise → → → Search for evidence Explore/ Exploit Search for evidence Be wary of information cascades
“With many individuals, with virtual certainty a point is reached where an individual rationally ignores his private information and bases his decision solely upon what he sees predecessors do. The accumulated evidence from predecessors outweighs his private information. The decision of this individual n is uninformative to later choosers. Thus, individual n+1 is no better informed than individual n, so she joins the cascade.” — David Hirshleifer, 1997.
How do they know? How do I know? How do you know?
“Misunderstanding no. 1: General, theoretical (context independent) knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical (context dependent) knowledge.” — Bent Flyvbjerg, 2006.
Ask yourself in what ways solution x applies to your scenario, and in what ways it doesn’t. What assumptions does the solution make?
Learning → Expertise → → → Search for evidence Explore/ Exploit Learning & Expertise Write about what you learn
Learning → Expertise → → → Search for evidence Explore/ Exploit Learning & Expertise Keep a notes archive
Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten
https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/
Learning → Expertise → → → Search for evidence Explore/ Exploit Explore/Exploit Know when to explore new ideas, and when to exploit existing ones.
More time = explore Less time = exploit
Learning → Expertise → → → Search for evidence Explore/ Exploit Explore/Exploit When exploring, do zero-based (aka first principles) thinking.
Learning → Expertise → → → Search for evidence Explore/ Exploit Search for evidence, again How did your solution work? How didn’t it? Document it!
When someone asks you to follow a certain convention, get the evidence. Ask Tufte's most important question, and see where it leads you.
No matter where you end up, you will have learned. You will have sidestepped simple choosing, and followed the harder but more rewarding path of critical thinking.
Thank you! @stephenhay
"Hey, have you seen that thing that Airbnb did? Let's do something like that."
When thinking about how to solve our design problems, we often look to what others are doing. And when we don't, our stakeholders do. We call this "inspiration". But at the heart of it is a focus on solutions rather than problems. We fall in love with a solution to someone else's problem and try to make it fit our own. We contribute to design sameness, and confuse it with reasoned convention. In making things easier for ourselves, we might miss opportunities to really make a difference.
Stephen will explore the why and how of deeply understanding design problems. We'll look at why it's important to think outside of the box, when it's appropriate to look at the work of others, and what to do with it when we do.
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
for free. You
can too.