Just Simple

Whether you are a web designer or developer I can’t stress how important it is to check, double check and then re check again. As a designer it’s important to be paranoid about the work going out for publishing. After all one mistake and it’s your reputation that could be on the line. I have to admit I have made a few mistakes in my career due to my carelessness. However it is important to learn from these mistakes rather than make them again. After all making the same mistake twice is liable to get you fired.

As an example to avoid uploading a pricing page to the company website, I have come up with a checklist (as with most things I do) to make sure I don’t upload the wrong page or upload a page where a dealer / importer could change the prices. A typical checklist could look like this:

• After receiving excel file – check naming convention
• Page setup – print to one page only
• Protect excel file sheet
• Save as – naming convention + date
• Upload to websites media library – publish
• Link pricing page to website
• Seek out manager to check if satisfactory

Although it’s only a small job, if gotten wrong it could potentially cost the company thousands of dollars. It’s developing checklist like these that help avoid mistakes. The idea is to gain as much control as possible over the project or task. If I know what is happening or where it could go wrong and if it does I know where to look back.

They are time consuming but once understood can save you time on costly mistakes.

Lately I’ve been reading on cognitive bias due to further research into “intuition”. I came across a recent study called “The Dunning Kruger Effect”

The Dunning Kruger Effect is described as overconfidence in unskilled people of their abilities to perform above and beyond what they can do. This allows incompetent people rate their skills much higher than their competent counterparts.

What is interesting about The Dunning Kruger Effect, the people with the competent skill set rate their skills lower than average.

The Dunning Kruger Effect in essence is:

• Incompetent  individuals who overestimate their level of skill
• Incompetent  individuals who fail to recognise skills in others
• Incompetent  individuals who fail to recognise their own inadequacy

It has been proven if these individuals are trained they do adjust their skills sets accordingly. Where they once thought they were 10 / 10 , they would now think they are a 6 /10 with training.

In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt- Bertand Russell

After reading about The Dunning Kruger Effect I could see points in my own life where it had effect me. Before tertiary education I was over confident in my abilites, now even at work I second guess everything.

I think everyone, in any work place or tertiary institute has come across The Dunning Kruger Effect.

A link to the science show article on The Dunning Kruger Effect:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2010/2893602.htm

And a blog which explains the Dunning Kruger Effect:

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/05/11/the-dunning-kruger-effect/

As a web designer, I constantly ask myself will I break the archetype or not? Is there a need for something new? Despite what the above clip is saying there is some comfort in staying within the archetype.

What is an Archetype?

Although I say the word archetype what does it actually mean? Archetypes are found throughout society. As an example a chair;

The chair on the left conforms to what we as a society consider to be an archetype. While the chair on the right breaks the archetype.

An archetype refers to an underlying theme and pattern which has been hard wired in the brain over years. Chairs thoughout all cultures look similar, as do tables.

Archetypes can be found in every culture around the world. As an example Hungry Jacks are aligning themselves with the blue collar worker archetype. In commericals Hungry Jacks shows a blue collar worker eating their products, typically on the work site.

As a designer, the question about aligning your design with the archetype comes into place. If you align with the archetype your design may have more success, but you would not be creating something new. Going against the archetype you could create something new but your design may not be commerically successful.

While at tafe I never really had a good look at youtube videos, something I regret doing now. I have found some videos to be a great resource in understanding and remembering the fundementals of design.

Below is a video of interaction design which has been broken down into 3 parts. I found this easy to understand and will build on this knowledge.

A few weeks ago we were introduced to the term “lateral thinking”. As a student I wrote down the term and forgot about till I watched last week’s episode of The Gruen Transfer where the term had come up again about toothpaste. I felt this term needed more exploration.

Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward De Bono. Lateral thinking is part of the creative thinking process. Something we all seem to struggle with at one point or another.

Lateral thinking is a critical process thought that explores other options within problems. It does not use the step by step process which is used in logical thinking. An example from the Gruen Transfer was:

Problem – “How can sell more toothpaste?”:

A logical solution would be to rise the price of toothpaste

A lateral solution would be to increase the size of the hole in which the toothpaste comes out.

From that other solutions would be thought out. In other words the creative thinking process would never end, it is always continuing. According to De Bono there are four types of thinking tools which are:

1. Idea generating tools that are designed to break current thinking patterns – routine patterns, the status quo
2. Focus tools that are designed to broaden where to search for new ideas
3. Harvest tools that are designed to ensure more value is received from idea generating output
4. Treatment tools that are designed to consider real-world constraints, resources, and support

From just these tools we, as designers should be able to get multiple solutions to the same problems. Already in this project we’ve come up with many solutions to a problem.

I plan to get a copy of Lateral thinking by Edward De Bono later in the year.

For futher reading on Lateral thinking:

http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/lateral.htm

http://www.folj.com/lateral/ <– Lateral thinking puzzles quite fun actually.

I came across an interesting marketing term today called psychographics. I came across it while researching the demographic for the current project.

What does psychographics mean?

Demographics refers to age, gender, income etc of the person. This is where we as designers and marketer’s try to paint picture of who the person is.

Psychographics on the other hand refers to the psychological needs of the demographic. This is where we have to find out why they would want that particular product over 100′s of others that are similar. When looking at psychographics we’re looking for patterns in the demographics spending habits. We are looking at how they feel towards a product, act towards a product.

This is where a lifestyle board comes in. From it we can asses what the demographic likes to buy, are they brand directed, what is their social class and status. In other words the lifestyle board is a tool we can use to asses the psychographics of a demographic.

For further reading on psychographics:

http://money.howstuffworks.com/marketing-plan14.htm