I used to have a very clear design process that I follow fanatically, but somewhere along the way, I abandoned it. Not entirely, but I cut corners. I skip steps and fail to ask questions.

As I struggle to come up with a concept for the next version of my portfolio site which will be a representation of my mixed skills, experience and passion, I realize I do not have a clear concept of what I am going to create because I skip the first step: ask questions to understand what I'm really trying to communicate.

I've been looking around for other portfolio sites and I've gathered styles and interaction models that I like. All those are good, but if I don't know what I'm trying to communicate, putting cool effects, styles and interaction models together will be like taking parts from different types of machines and put them together. The end product might work, but it will be a frankenstein-like piece.

Often times I skip steps in my design process due to necessity. I need to deliver and I don't have the luxury of doing every single step. So I just have to finish the deliverables. And yes, I've gotten better at it so I've adapted the process to still deliver decent quality work within tight turnaround time. I know how to design something that looks nice, but I've lost the clarity of my design process which hurts my ability to create an effective design that communicates.

I need to implement this discipline back in my own design process first, then impart it to my designers. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 11:53 pm and is filed under work, design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.