While Coronavirus has ground the world to a halt. Those like me, who could, started rather uncertainly participating in the words largest work from home experiment. While lucky to still have plenty of work to do it soon became apparent that while we could still be productive a lot of the nice day to day interactions went missing.&nbsp;
So I put pen to paper

Now if all we have is a video connection and the stuff around us what kind of games/mischief could we get up to?&nbsp; While many great games already exist it had me thinking how could we make what we&rsquo;ve got a little more exciting while also staying connected?.
So what started as a nice observation has become a simple and fun game that anyone can play. Cue up a video call. Run to find objects around your home, first one back wins. A good time for all.&nbsp; Check it out here: <a href="http://www.scramble.cool" rel="follow">www.scramble.cool</a>

Forever thankful to&nbsp;Michael Wheldon for the build.&nbsp;

Scramble

Copy Scramble

Just for fun.&nbsp; The brief: Create an itinerary planner for an airline.&nbsp; Time: 4 hours. Just make a thing Step 1 Ask all the questions.Pick&nbsp;apart the brief as best as you can.&nbsp;
What is MVP? / What is an itinerary creator? - Something that can be incorporated into current flows? - What if it doesnt fit into current IA and experience? - Entry points? - How many trips can a user plan at one time? MVP = 1 - How are these details saved? Cookies? - Opportunity to push sign up? - Do we need different states? Purshased / Planning / Past trips. - MVP = Planning only if not logged in - Trip templates for inspiration? MVP = No - Bundleing results in discounts? How do we stack discounts?
MVP = Should have this - Empty state? - Products:&nbsp;Flights, Uber/Parking? Accomodation, Car rental, Activities&nbsp;and Insurance - Web? App?

Step 2: Do a bit of light investigation.&nbsp;

Look at the current flow. Think about some lean ways to test desirability. How can we prove this is a feature people want / need. How can we build on existing patterns?

A more robust MVP seems to have significant implications to site structure. All products are siloed and would need to be more fluid based on location. Users would search for an experience based on location not just for the flights to get them there.&nbsp;
Process to reach this point involved some quick sketching to sort out paths, grouping and functionality. Then I jumped right into a higher fidelity prototype to get a sense of how a user would search and start to build out their experience.&nbsp;
Click around, see what you think :)&nbsp;
<a href="https://invis.io/GCVXOQY9DX5#/404556956_Entry">https://invis.io/GCVXOQY9DX5#/404556956_Entry</a>

A technical challenge

A technique used to associate a stimulus (a thing or event) with an unconscious physical or emotional response. That response triggering a release of dopamine.&nbsp;
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that gets released during enjoyable activity.&nbsp;It promotes feelings of pleasure and drives us to seek out more of that activity. In order for classical conditioning to be effective, a stimulus that normally does not evoke a response needs to be paired with one that does.
Classical Conditiniong and its role in habit formation have found its way into the design of many successful products. The use of this technique to influence the appeal of a design or influence specific kind of behaviours is very common in our day to day interaction with things. A couple of examples&nbsp;
Images of attractive people stimulate the brain and condition positive associations with products, services and behaviours. While on the contrary disturbing images of violence, or injury stimulate pain centres in the brain and condition negative associations. For example anti smoking advertisements.&nbsp;
Another cool example. The timing between stimulus and reward was masterfully manipulated by Amazon to substantially change the e-commerce experience. The cost of the Amazon Prime membership probably doesn&rsquo;t come close to the shipping fees forgone by the company on Prime members. So, why would Amazon subsidize two-day shipping for its customers? Because Prime members will buy more, and therefore generate more revenue for the company. You see, the fact that delivery times were shortened to two days completely changed the psychological experience of e-commerce.&nbsp;
Consider instead buying something on eBay? No one wanted to pay the exorbitant cost of express shipping, so it takes 1&ndash;2 weeks to receive the package. By the time you received your package, you&rsquo;d likely forgotten that you&rsquo;d bought anything at all. It&rsquo;s exciting to open the package, but by this point, that excitement is not meaningfully tied to eBay or the online shopping experience.&nbsp;
Now compare that to the experience of Amazon. You click, you buy, and in 2 days you&rsquo;re delighted by an Amazon branded box. Your brain readily makes the association between the delight of opening a package from Amazon and the order confirmation page that you saw 2 days before.&nbsp;
The next time you click to purchase something on Amazon, your brain releases some dopamine and the habit begins to solidify. Amazon knew it had to shorten delivery time and it did that by making the necessary investments in logistics and scale to achieve that improved customer experience.&nbsp;
Classical Conditioning is a type of learning&nbsp;
There are three main types of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning, in which associations are made between events that occur together. Observational learning is as it sounds, learning by observing.
More reading / references www.verywellmind.com/classical-conditioning-2794859

Classical Conditioning

So why is the concept of drawing so daunting to people, designer or not? I believe it may be because at some point in our education we stop nurturing visual thinking and creativity and instead focus on reading, writing and arithmetic as the core curriculum.&nbsp;
Now as a designer it is part of my role to help others think freely and creatively. To facilitate groups of diverse people, subject matter experts, stakeholders, users or project teams to take the knowledge and ideas in their heads and bring them to life.&nbsp;
At one point I discovered the visual alphabet. Like mathematics and written language it is a set of simple symbols that could be easily learned, (like ABCDEFGHIJ, 0123456789) these foundations serve as basic building blocks that can be used to teach spelling, vocabulary, grammar, addition, multiplication, division, and so on. The visual alphabet serves as basic building blocks that can be used to teach drawing.&nbsp;

The set of symbols once learned should work to eliminate the excuses such as: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m no artist&rdquo;
&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t draw a straight line&rdquo;
&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t draw a stick figure&rdquo;
So if you feel a little intimidated by putting pen to paper and visualising your ideas. Start with the visual alphabet!&nbsp; References: <a href="http://www.xplaner.com/visual-thinking-school/" rel="follow">http://www.xplaner.com/visual-thinking-school/</a> <a href="https://medium.com/the-xplane-collection/in-defense-of-the-visual-alphabet-a8dcca7cf151" rel="follow">https://medium.com/the-xplane-collection/in-defense-of-the-visual-alphabet-a8dcca7cf151</a>

The Visual Alphabet

A little while ago I was stuck trying to answer the question &ldquo;What kind of designer do I want to be?&rdquo; I thought about this question a lot, as my focus today would very well influence my work in the future.&nbsp;
What I can gather is that there are many designers that want nothing more than to master their chosen craft. There are also many organisations that look for designers that have a deep set of skills and knowledge in one area only. Maybe its Branding, Art Direction, Interface Design, User Experience or Research. This by definition is Intradisciplinary: working within a single discipline.
While not wrong, I personally don&rsquo;t find much satisfaction in locking myself down to a single set of skills when I find enjoyment and interest in many areas of the design process and the thinking behind each.&nbsp;
There is also the term Multidisciplinary that gets thrown around a lot. For those unsure the definition is as follows: people from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their disciplinary knowledge. This can be a good way to describe my preferred work environment as most most product teams and agencies will be made up of not just designers but also architects, developers, product owners, project managers, strategists and testers.&nbsp;
The definition though that I think best describes how I tend to work is Interdisciplinary: integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches. For me it&rsquo;s the combination of skills from Visual Design, Interaction Design, Experience Design and Research together creating a holistic approach to solving problems. Also it is much more satisfying.&nbsp;
I believe the need for working interdisciplinary will only increase, as it is the easiest way to bridge disciplines, empathise&nbsp;and understand not just user goals, but business and technical ones too.&nbsp;
If interested there is also further reading to be done on:&nbsp; Crossdisciplinary: the ability to view one discipline from the perspective of another. Transdisciplinary: creating a unity of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives.
 Reference:&nbsp;
<a href="http://www.arj.no/2012/03/12/disciplinarities-2/">http://www.arj.no/2012/03/12/disciplinarities-2/</a>

Disciplines

One of my biggest learnings when designing for websites and applications that are content managed is around control.&nbsp;
The level of control provided by a system should be related to the proficiency and experience of the people intended to use it.&nbsp;
So in other words beginners do best with a reduced amount of control, while experts do best with greater control. A great example is when children learn to ride a bike. At the beginning training wheels are helpful in reducing the difficulty of riding by reducing the level of control. In this case eliminating the need to balance. This allows the child to develop the basic skills safely. But if a more experienced rider comes along the training wheels only get in the way.&nbsp;
May times we seem to concentrate on our end user and their goals, we also incorporate&nbsp; business goals and technical limitations but when we make the decisions to make our solutions content manageable do we stop to think about our content editors? The people tasked to maintain the integrity and longevity of the system? Have we chosen the right platform for their level of experience? What kind of design and development support do they have access to? Sometimes when you&rsquo;re so focused on creating the perfect combination of text or visual that is on brand and intuitive you fail to ask the people intended to manage your creations if they have both the ability and the capacity to select the perfect image, edit it in the right way, resize and save it for the web?&nbsp;
In summary consider what elements can be manageable and what may need to be locked down. Don&rsquo;t design something that is hard to maintain. More importably don&rsquo;t design something that is hard to maintain for other people. Because before long it will be broken by someone who&rsquo;s level of experience is exceeded by the amount of control they have been given.&nbsp;

Control 

Something that tends to get referenced more and more is the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle What it states is that approximately 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables in that system. Its origins stem back to Vilfredo Pareto, an economist who noticed 80% of Italy&rsquo;s land was owned by 20% of the population.
Some more examples of the rule:&nbsp;
80% of a towns traffic is on 20% of it&rsquo;s roads 80% of innovation comes from 20% of the people 80% of a products usage involves 20% of it&rsquo;s features. 80% of a company&rsquo;s revenue comes from 20% of it&rsquo;s products.&nbsp; 80% of progress comes from 20% of the effort
The crux of the principal lies in knowing that, within any system, only a few main variables affect the outcomes, and most other factors will return little or no impact. So if we have a set amount of time and energy let&rsquo;s figure out what matters the most and then invest our time and effort into the areas what will deliver the greatest impact.&nbsp;
Design smarter :)&nbsp;

80/20

Eighty twenty

Choices, decisions and possibilities. A principle always worth revisiting is Hicks Law.
It states that the time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases.&nbsp;
I like to remember that most tasks will consist of four basic steps:&nbsp;
<ol>
<li>Identify a problem or goal</li>
<li>Asses the available options that solve the problem or achieve the goal&nbsp;</li>
<li>Decide on an option</li>
<li>Implement the option</li>
</ol>
Hicks law applies to the 3rd step, that encompass simple decisions making. While there is an actual equation to solve for the exact time we don&rsquo;t have to get into that much detail. Instead we can take this theory and apply it to common patterns and flows, things like menus, control displays, way finding layout and signage.&nbsp;
Remember to always aim to minimising the number of options involved in a decision to reduce response times and minimise error. Or instead of showing everything at once, you can break it down. A common solution to lengthy check-out processes.&nbsp;
Other principles and theory that overlap and influence Hick&rsquo;s Law is Progressive Discolosure and Fitts&rsquo;s Law

Hicks Law

Let's take a moment to slow down. If you&rsquo;re switching from another task, forget about it completely. If you&rsquo;re doing some serious multitasking stop and focus on this. 

It&rsquo;s argued that there is a growing focus on instant action, that along with the increasing shortage of time due to the expectations created by modern civilisation makes me wonder, have we created a crazy circle which has taken a toll on the process of thinking? 

Digital products are meant to make life easier and more comfortable, but have they pushed people towards the need to complete more and more actions. The amount of activity in our daily life has grown exponentially due to the growing need for travel, communication, productivity, entertainment and being social. By squeezing in too many activities in the same amount of time are we neglecting to think about things on a deeper level? &nbsp;

Thinking is necessary for finding solutions to a new problem or devising new actions. In the absence of thinking we will choose our actions from the repository of old actions stored in the subconscious mind. Leading to the same old results. 

I&rsquo;ve embarked on a journey to better my knowledge and allow myself to think about things without the pressure of time. Because as a designer a lot of the work we do has a lot of underlying thought and strategy built into it and around it. I&rsquo;ve chosen to refresh my knowledge on some design theory because it&rsquo;s both fascinating and critical. 

Today, the world is what it is because of thinking done by few people. So let us imagine the world and what it would be like if thinking becomes a part of life for everyone. &mdash;&nbsp;Quoting someone clever. 
 More reading:&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/14/the-lost-art-of-concentration-being-distracted-in-a-digital-world" rel="follow">The lost art of concentration&nbsp;</a>
<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-smartphone-is-making-you-stupid/article37511900/" rel="follow">Your smartphone is making you stupid</a>
<a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/deep-work-cal-newport/book/9780349411903.html?source=pla&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpKfzx_mw5QIVAx2PCh1N4wCLEAQYAiABEgI2vfD_BwE" rel="follow">Deep work</a>

Love your mistakes and keep learning

IDEA

Scramble

Read

SKILL

The Visual Alphabet

Read

Thoughts

Disciplines

Read

THINKING

A technical challenge

Read

Behaviorism

Classical Conditioning

Read

Principle

Control

Read

Principle

80/20

Read

Principle

Hicks Law

Read

Thoughts

Thinking about thinking

Read

Love your mistakes and keep learning

IDEA

Scramble

Read arrow_forward

SKILL

The Visual Alphabet

Read arrow_forward

Thoughts

Disciplines

Read arrow_forward

THINKING

A technical challenge

Read arrow_forward

Behaviorism

Classical Conditioning

Read arrow_forward

Principle

Control

Read arrow_forward

Principle

80/20

Read arrow_forward

Principle

Hicks Law

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Thoughts

Thinking about thinking

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Read

Read

Read

Read

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