4 ms·

After posting my first comment, I found another angle: Design can only do so much to make something bigger and better than it actually is. I'm sure many novice

by dictum 13y ago

After posting my first comment, I found another angle: Design can only do so much to make something bigger and better than it actually is. I'm sure many novice web designers have dreamed of making a groundbreaking website for a mom-and-pop business like a deli, but when they got to make the website, they noticed how futile it would be to make an incredible website for a small shop. Online orders—who's going to order online? Contact page—a phone number should be enough, list the working hours so people know when to call. List of products—why, a single paragraph is enough. Keep going and all you get is a single page with a logo, a terse description of the place, some pictures, and a phone number. Few small business have the magic you'd need to tell a story, and if you can't tell a story, you're left with a generic thing, desperately trying to embellish it. I've seen many restaurant websites. I've allowed Flash to run countless times just so I could open them, and I can tell: they all look the same, and all of them lack soul. But I'll be honest: I don't think there's much that can be done with a small budget, and knowing how small the audience is. A novice designer wants challenge, recognition, and the feeling of working for the big players. You don't get this from working with most small local businesses. At best, a website for a deli is just a stepping stone to a more exciting project. I'm not sure you can convince a young person they just have to keep working on boring projects (as morally good as they are) until they get enough clout to work on what they fancy.

karjaluoto 13y ago
I often hear such arguments, but the reality is that these smaller projects/clients are just the sorts of projects new designers are going to work on. They won't get the big assignments, and even if they did, they'd be part of a much larger team, and few of their ideas would likely ever get past all the others involved. And, a good designer will find the story, even when working with a small client. The problem with design jobs is almost never the client, or the seeming lack of excitement in the project, but rather in the designer's ability to tease out that story and give it form. Look at a project like the design of Mailchimp. The subject matter might not seem exciting, but the designers found a way to engage with the audience and present the story in a compelling fashion. A lot of designers would look at that project as a drag; they'd be sorely mistaken. I once met with a young designer who was very frustrated by how boring his job was. He complained about how all he ever got to do was design boring charts. This seemed strange to me. He had the opportunity to take data and make it intelligible to his audience. This was a hardcore design opportunity that he was squandering because it seemed beneath him. A project is only as boring as the designer chooses to make it.
- chestnut-tree 13y ago
  I'm not sure why you've been downvoted because I think you make some perfectly valid points. I agree that a design job is what you make of it and approaching a project with the mindset that it's just another run-of-the-mill project will only produce run-of-the-mill output. Everyone needs variety in their work to keep learning and feeling like they're facing a new challenge.
chestnut-tree 13y ago
I hear this (rather pretentious) phrase about "telling a story" quite often in the UX field. Many of the "big players" have hundred or thousands of employees and "telling a story" can often feel manufactured or contrived. Sometimes you don't need to "tell a story" and just because you don't pursue that line of thinking doesn't mean you have a "generic thing". It's the designer's skill to take this "generic thing" and give it an honest, usable and creative design makeover. I agree all designers want challenge and recognition. Do they all want to work for the big players? Perhaps, if they happen to admire the design output of the company in question. In the end, every designer is different and makes their own choice about what appeals to them.

by dictum 13y ago

karjaluoto 13y ago

I often hear such arguments, but the reality is that these smaller projects/clients are just the sorts of projects new designers are going to work on. They won't get the big assignments, and even if they did, they'd be part of a much larger team, and few of their ideas would likely ever get past all the others involved. And, a good designer will find the story, even when working with a small client. The problem with design jobs is almost never the client, or the seeming lack of excitement in the project, but rather in the designer's ability to tease out that story and give it form. Look at a project like the design of Mailchimp. The subject matter might not seem exciting, but the designers found a way to engage with the audience and present the story in a compelling fashion. A lot of designers would look at that project as a drag; they'd be sorely mistaken. I once met with a young designer who was very frustrated by how boring his job was. He complained about how all he ever got to do was design boring charts. This seemed strange to me. He had the opportunity to take data and make it intelligible to his audience. This was a hardcore design opportunity that he was squandering because it seemed beneath him. A project is only as boring as the designer chooses to make it.

chestnut-tree 13y ago
I'm not sure why you've been downvoted because I think you make some perfectly valid points. I agree that a design job is what you make of it and approaching a project with the mindset that it's just another run-of-the-mill project will only produce run-of-the-mill output. Everyone needs variety in their work to keep learning and feeling like they're facing a new challenge.

chestnut-tree 13y ago

I hear this (rather pretentious) phrase about "telling a story" quite often in the UX field. Many of the "big players" have hundred or thousands of employees and "telling a story" can often feel manufactured or contrived. Sometimes you don't need to "tell a story" and just because you don't pursue that line of thinking doesn't mean you have a "generic thing". It's the designer's skill to take this "generic thing" and give it an honest, usable and creative design makeover. I agree all designers want challenge and recognition. Do they all want to work for the big players? Perhaps, if they happen to admire the design output of the company in question. In the end, every designer is different and makes their own choice about what appeals to them.