WELCOME
Being Designerly Turns 2!
Two years ago, the first issue of Being Designerly was published with the intent of sharing curated designerly articles every other weeks to help readers think, feel and act like a designer. I hope you've enjoyed reading the articles which ranged from light reading, to deep analysis.
This issue of Being Designerly has the top articles from the past 12 months. These articles focus on creativity, problem solving, empathy, curiosity, design thinking, accessibility requirements documentation, top visualizations, design best practices, and resources.
Enjoy!
FEATURE
Setting the stage for creative performance
The challenge for organizational leaders is to know what they can do, and how much they should do, to shape that ecosystem, to provide the space for their organization to be creative. Leaders need to think carefully about where to focus their and their organization’s efforts to create a more creative ecosystem, and how to be sure that these efforts are worth the investment.
If nothing else, read the article for the definition of creativity in terms of novelty and usefulness.
deloitte.com
Six problem-solving mindsets for very uncertain times
(1) being ever-curious about every element of a problem; (2) being imperfectionists, with a high tolerance for ambiguity; (3) having a “dragonfly eye” view of the world, to see through multiple lenses; (4) pursuing occurrent behavior and experimenting relentlessly; (5) tapping into the collective intelligence, acknowledging that the smartest people are not in the room; and (6) practicing “show and tell” because storytelling begets action.
Read the article for additional details...
mckinsey.com
CURIOSITY
Tweet by Jehad Affoneh on Twitter
Twitter thread on what makes questions good and how you go about learning to ask better questions
twitter.com
EMPATHY
Ideas & Empathy: How to Design and Communicate with Others in Mind
This podcast episode features Sarah Stein Greenberg, Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka the Stanford d.school, and author of Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways.
She discusses how design and communication require seeing things from more than just our own point of view, and the tools we can use to broaden our perspectives.
stanford.edu
VISUAL
Top 21 Visualizations of 2021 from Visual Capitalist
These visualizations were selected because they reached a wide audience, sparked lively conversations, or broke new ground in design and data-driven reporting.
My favorite is #2, which was covered in Being Designerly #24 - The 20 Fastest Growing Jobs in the Next Decade...
visualcapitalist.com
UX
Nick Foster On Design Thinking
Nick Foster (head of design at Google X) has been bumping up against Design Thinking for over a decade, and has developed strong feelings about it. Rather than continue to blurt out his thoughts as half-formed soundbites, he captured them in this article: 1. Design Thinking is reductive 2. Design Thinking diminishes the value of Design 3. Design Thinking fetishizes solutions
Design Thinking works as a framework for creativity, or a means to bring some of the most basic elements of Design into enterprise environments.
medium.com
INCLUSIVE
A Designer’s Guide to Documenting Accessibility & User Interactions
This is the article version of a talk presented by Stephanie Walter this week at axe-con. Accessibility is unfortunately still an afterthought on many projects. User interaction and accessibility requirements are poorly documented, at best. Or forgotten, when handing over designs to developer teams. And fixing it later costs a LOT more than building it right to begin with. Great documentation helps teams implement accessibility requirements the right way. Stephanie describes why, what and how designers can document different aspects of accessibility and user interactions requirements, to build better more inclusive products.
stephaniewalter.design
MOBILE
Apple unveils the winning apps and games in its App Store Awards 2021
Ranging from weather reports, through video editing, and on to games, Apple has announced the 15 winners of its annual App Store Awards.
appleinsider.com
TOOLS
100 essential free resources for graphic designers in 2022
An extensive collection of free resources for your design projects, including stock imagery and videos, illustration templates, icons, typography, mockup templates and design inspiration resources.
creativeboom.com
INSPIRATION
Checklist Design - A collection of the best design practices.
A collection of the best design practices by @george_hatzis
checklist.design
Top 20 Best Graphic Design Blogs for Creative Inspiration in 2022
Despite the fact that they listed their own blog in the list, find some blogs to follow in 2022 for inspiration.
weandthecolor.com
