Couldn't Fit This On My Hand

This is amazing and I must share.  I am far too willing to work for free, thankfully there is an amazing flowchart created by Jessica Hische to help.  Sadly it doesn't fit on my hand but that isn't stopping my today.  My blog, I can do what I want.

For the original big version go here! 

Quit Compaining

Today's common sense came from an epiphany post yoga.  When I'm getting paid, enjoy when your boss wants you to put in more hours to change something.   He gives you great feedback and values your work.  Be thankful.  It's rare to feel valued working some jobs, when you have work and a great job, look forward to the feedback and changes you can make.  You rarely get it right on the first try, enjoy the journey.

Yoda, Definitions and Catching Up

Last night I liked the idea of the difference between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.  They are not the same.  Often times people use trans-disciplinary, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary as the same thing.  This makes me peevish.  Having people in multiple disciplines is different from people working together across disciplines, which is slightly different from working between disciplines.  I think design thinkers flourish when they understand the difference and how to work within each group. 

 Today I picked the quote from Ray Bradbury, "You can't try to do things.  You simply must do things."  It is a little yoda-ish.  Still, my productivity soars when I just do things.  I can do miraculous things when I just throw myself into them.  Piffle is what comes from trying.  Or thinking about trying.  

Just doing things makes me feel impulsive and ridiculous, but I think I must embrace that.  The freedom it comes with requires that I move past fear and procrastination and my entire life should be lived that way. 

Well Defined Projects

If only projects came with all these clearly labeled.  They usually don't, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.  I hate it when projects take time to develop these.  However, the more projects I work on should hone my skills at finding, establishing and developing these quickly. 

If clients don't have them, I need to find them so time and money isn't wasted.  I've done a lot of that with numerous projects already.  Time to move on and grow up. 

Einstein on Design

Okay, so not only is that man brilliant in general, his observations on life were astounding.  My roommate told me about the fish one recently.  "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

 
But back to the point, while using Stumble today (my new favorite obsession although I am a few years too late) I was sent to a page of Einstein quotes.  To me, this quote, speaks well to the idea of ideal design.  We love making things more complex than they should be or dumb things down.  Dumbed down ideas in an overly complex product looks cool but is just a waste.  It's easier, like most wasteful things.   

Dieter Rams has what some people call the 10 commandments of good design.  The last one is "good design is as little design as possible."  Simplicity is hard, annoying hard.  It's hard in mathematical proofs, it's a pain in education and just as annoying in design.  Ideas and design should not be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, just expressed as simply as possible. 

K.I.S.S.  - Keep It Simple, Stupid!