Issue 13

WELCOME

Designerly habits foster creativity, and this issue of Being Designerly focuses on creativity, including the creative process, the nature of creative people and a creative environment.

Read about how you can boost creativity by simplifying; how Workday is making their products better through accessible design, Coke's new designs, and NNG's 2021 Intranet Award Winners.

And finally, for the times your smartphone distracts you: tips to reclaim your focus.

FEATURE

Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?”

I'm making an exception with this not-recent essay on creativity by Isaac Asimov from 1959. It describes not only the creative process and the nature of creative people but also the kind of environment that promotes creativity.

To Instantly Boost Your Creativity, Think Subtraction, New Study Suggests

Researchers found that whatever the problem, people tend to add elements rather than take away existing ones, even if subtraction was the faster, easier way to solve the problem. And it was particularly true if study subjects were rushed or distracted.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: Ignorance and Overconfidence Affect Intuitive Thinking, New Study Says

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias leading people to believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are.

In today's infotech age, the ability to make correct intuitive decisions is a critical skill. To test the Dunning-Kruger effect on intuitive thinking, researchers used the “cognitive reflection test” (CRT) to measure a person’s ability to override an incorrect intuitive response and engage in analytical thinking to find a correct answer.

An interesting read even if you don't feel smarter or more capable than you really are!

VISUAL

Coca-Cola unveils “refreshed” packaging design system

The new look removes “added elements” from cans and is an evolution of the One Brand strategy, the company says. The process began in February when the company launched the new pared-back packaging for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. The other drinks in its Coca-Cola trademark range will now similarly adopt the simplified approach.

UX

Users Love Change: Combatting a UX Myth

NNG's latest UX Design Principle: Frequent major redesigns and changes throughout the interface support users’ need to learn and adapt to new situations.

As shown in the image: Removing navigation labels from a single navigation bar encourages users to click around until they hit a target.

J/K - this was their April Fool's joke this year....

VERSA turns website design on its head with an AI twist

Looks like design agency VERSA took NNG's April Fool advice to heart and removed it's navigation, but it turned out to be one of those attention-seeking press releases. They "replaced their navigation with a chatbot", but it spurred some questions for me:

How usable is this design? (see screenshot)
How discoverable is the content?
Is this really easier than the navigation it supposedly replaced (no, the hamburger menu still exists, because I suspect it isn't much easier)
Would love to see the before and after usage details (apart from the novelty-seeking traffic)

What do you think?

Accessible Designs Make Better Products: Workday’s Story

How Workday’s Productivity Technology Design team learned to use accessible design practices to ensure they were designing products that everyone could use.

TOPICAL

Designing for uncertainty: How IBM created a vaccine passport

If you look past all the negative press regarding vaccine passports, this FastCompany article talks about some of the design aspects that went into the Excelsior Pass (for NY):

"Perhaps the most impressive parts of the Excelsior Pass are the pieces of work that you don’t see. These are related to both speed and privacy, and range from the front-end UX that people experience, to the very guts of the system powering it."

INSPIRATION

Smartphone too distracting? Here’s how to reclaim your focus

Read about the approach Nir Eyal, author of “Hooked” and “Indistractable” used to reduce smartphone distractions and to focus on work.

The most difficult for me will be offloading apps from my phone. "Hi, my name is Lyndon, and I'm an app hoarder with 418 apps that have yet to be updated on my phone. This does not include apps I use regularly."

7 famous landmarks reimagined with biophilic design

Florist Bloom & Wild worked with architects and graphic designers to reimagine seven famous landmarks using biophilic design — principles that aim to improve our connection with nature as a way to reduce stress.

The concepts show how creating healthy spaces can improve our physical and mental wellbeing. Covered in beautiful flowers, the reimagined buildings are more colorful and vibrant than before, providing a real feast for the eyes.

Head over to look at the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sagrada Familia, the Taj Mahal and the Tower Bridge.

NEWS

NNG's 2021 Intranet Design Annual Winners

If you design intranets, NNG's Intranet Design Annual 2021 report is a must read. Until you get approval to buy the detailed research report, make sure you read their summary.

" The pandemic raised intranets’ level of importance and influence. As more work, collaboration, sales, meetings, and coaching needed to happen online, the best intranets rose to meet the challenge.

3 lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to apply in the future:

1. Be prepared: if the intranet was a mess before the challenge, adapting will likely be harder than when working with a well-designed and well-structured system

2. Pivot: recognize that the previous way of doing certain things (or even most things) may not be the best, and be willing to sacrifice some sacred cows and quickly adopt new ideas

3. Centralize resources: usability may increase if information and tools that relate to the challenge are pulled together and made accessible from a single location "

UNTIL NEXT TIME

I hope you enjoyed this issue, and the articles about creativity, simplicity, accessibility, award-winning intranets, and reclaiming your focus from distracting smartphones.

If you think someone would benefit from Being Designerly, please forward it to them.

I'm looking for feedback, of the brutally honest kind, so this can improve over time. You can reach me at lycerejo (at) gmail.com - thank you!