Some really fascinating insights into the early explorations of a Pixar film–color studies, storyboards, clay models, test animations, dioramas, etc. Cool to see what a “prototype” looks like in their world…
The announcement about Andy Spade’s talk at Stanford, though I couldn’t make it, reminded me of an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while:
Is advertising actually an advanced form of experience design?
After all, while the viewer doesn’t actually engage in the advertised experience, a good ad can realistically depict it. In 30 seconds, or a single image, or a short text snippet, it aims to:
This seems especially similar to early-stage design work, where you’re mostly trying to compare the value of various design approaches. What if we started with the commercial for our product and worked backward?
A few relevant links:
Several years ago I read Tim Sanders’ book Love is the Killer App. In it, he argued that “Books are the complete thought-meal”. His point was that in a book, you get a complete argument, well-balanced and considered. Email, blogs, newspapers and even magazines are usually less complete and thus less helpful to read. Sanders recommends that you spend 80% of your learning time on books, and just 20% on magazines/web/tv/etc.
Of course, this sounds similar to the advice we’re given to eat our vegetables, do our homework, and mow the lawn–they’re all requirements to do things that we otherwise wouldn’t want to. What might we do to increase our desire to do the right thing?
Time might be an important factor. I’ve noticed that when I’m stressed or tired, I’m more attracted to eating unhealthy things–ice cream, pizza, and yes, candy. Similarly, I tend to read blogs, and reject books, mostly when I’m fatigued, especially late at night or when I’ve been working too hard. Changing my reading habits may require changing my lifestyle, and recognizing when I’m too distracted or tired to handle a big chunk of learning.
Even shifting certain activities to different times of day can help. My favorite William Blake quote alludes to this: “Think in the morning; act in the noon; read in the evening; and sleep at night”. When I follow this schedule, I’m more productive, less stressed, and tend to plan ahead and fill my “reading” time with books and longer thought experiences. In fact, I’m writing this now only because I set it aside “thought” time this morning. Morning works best for me because (once I’m out of bed) it tends to be my most energetic, clear-headed part of the day.
Focusing on big, long-term projects is a luxury that’s new to our culture–for most of history people have been forced to scramble from one small thing to another just to survive. It’s not surprising that small things then hold such appeal to us, but it’s exciting to think about what we might do with the opportunity to think bigger.
Ok, so [these aren't my notes](http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?676 )–in fact, I didn’t even attend the event–but they’re probably the best description I’ve seen on how to increase the strategic impact of design work within a company. Treat strategic influence like a design problem – Who is the “user” in your situation–who do you need to influence, and what are their goals? Use your existing design skills – In a meeting with business and engineering folks, you’ll never out-business or out-engineer them. Instead, focus on the unique knowledge and skills you do have. You’re a designer–design stuff! Start with the minimum you need to prove your concept – The grand vision is great, but look for ways to prove its value with quick projects. The Role of the Victim – Designers often feel like victims of circumstances or constraints outside their control. Instead, it’s helpful to analyze why things went wrong, and what might have made it work better. Selling Design – If they understand how we do our work, they’ll respect it more, right? Not if they don’t care how you do your work. Focus on what’s in it for them. Providing Leadership – Don’t wait for a mandate–just step up and do what you think needs to be done. Using Metrics – What metrics really reflect the core user experience? Which ones will influence how we do design? How might we start tracking those? Pattern Recognition – Step back, take in all the elements of the product and experience, and look for patterns. Story Telling – Design your presentation as a compelling story, rather than a set of metrics. Persuade with emotion. Visual Communication – Again, you’re a designer–design! Empathy – Bring personal stories and people’s needs into product decisions.
On my homepage, I describe myself as a “28-year-old designer”. Sharp-eyed observers will notice that’s now inaccurate–I turned 29 on Sunday. So for the past few years I’ve logged in shortly after my birthday and updated the number manually.
This morning I started to do that and remembered that last year I’d grown weary of the process and coded it this way:
I am a <? echo (date(”y”)+20); ?>-year-old designer
So while my homepage will always lag a bit behind reality, for a December birthday this works pretty well. At least until I turn 120.
I used to think that nimbleness meant only that when a new opportunity arose, you could start working on it immediately. But the ability to start doesn’t mean much without the ability to simultaneously stop doing what you were before. To be nimble, it’s more important to be able to stop doing things than to start doing them. This summer I did some of my most innovative work, and I credit it mostly to the fact that by moving to London, I was forced to stop almost everything I was doing and start from scratch. By being open to new opportunities, I was able to pounce on the best one when it came up.
In 1998 I had the chance to talk with Steve Jobs after he’d come back and turned Apple around…’Steve,’ I said, ‘this turnaround at Apple has been impressive. But everything we know about the personal-computer business says that Apple will always have a small niche position…What’s the longer-term strategy?’ He didn’t agree or disagree with my assessment of the market. He just smiled and said, ‘I am going to wait for the next big thing.’” – An interview with Richard Rumelt But when I look for advice on this, I see lots of people talking about how to start things more easily, but few talking about strategies for stopping things. Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Workweek is the closest I’ve come, and that’s why it’s one of my favorites. The world throws opportunities your way every single week. But if you’re feeling overwhelmed already, you’re not going to be able to embrace them. Keep your mind clear of these feelings of obligations so you can be open to receiving new opportunities. – David Allen, [Ready for Anything](http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Anything-Productivity-Principles-Work/dp/ 067003250) In creativity, like strategy, it’s sometimes more important what you don’t do than what you do.
Dune reminded me in many ways of Anathem, as it is set in a world with 20,000 more years of history. It’s interesting to read stories of intelligent societies that have lived for hundreds of generations, especially since we have just 6000 years of history so far. What might our world look like with 20,000 years more? I have trouble grasping the differences from less than a century… The other theme that stuck with me is scarcity. Dune, as a desert planet, demands absolute adherence to strict rations and rules. It’s sustainability with almost nothing to start with. But it gives me hope that as we move to a sustainable culture, we’ll be able to adapt our behaviors and even benefit from the focus that scarcity brings. The danger of always taking the road most traveled:
The Guild navigators, gifted with limited prescience, had made the fatal decision: they’d chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation. (472) The last words of a man who tried to unify the world’s warring religions into one “master” belief system: “Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, ‘I am not the kind of person I want to be.’ It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.” (506)
When I read The Lord of the Rings, I was endlessly intrigued by the references Tolkien made to the ancient history of Middle-Earth. What had really happened there? Why was it called Middle-Earth? How did the events of LOTR fit in with the rest of its history? So it was with great anticipation that I picked up The Silmarillion (Amazon), in which Tolkien chronicles the full history of the LOTR world. In its scope and length it reminded me of Anathem, where a single 900-page book felt like several different, but related, stories. In The Silmarillion, this is made explicit by separating the book into four separate sections. Each section uses a different level of perspective and detail, from high-level creation and deities down to personal interactions. This gives the book immense scope and the ability to give a full history of the world. It also uses the same trick as Anathem with its setting, in a world that is “not Earth”, but clearly “similar to Earth in many ways.” (Technically, Tolkien last described it as Earth “at a different stage of imagination“) As a literary work, however, it’s almost the opposite of LOTR and Anathem. While those books start small, with interpersonal issues in a small community, The Slimarillion starts very big, with the creation of the world and its deities. It sets up an interesting overall flow, as the focus shifts from large scale to very small and back again in LOTR. Tolkein gives a good description of this himself in the letter to his publisher included in the front (of my version, at least), which was at least as interesting as the rest of the book in telling how he created these works. He describes his goal as follows:
To make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story — the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendor from the vast backcloths. – Forward, xi-xii The lyrical, poetic writing style is tough to read but is appropriate for the telling of ancient stories. The Silmarillion is set as a work of mythology for the world it describes, not for we as outsiders. As such, it tells the stories to people who are already familiar with the names and places. Fortunately, Tolkien includes a thorough index and glossary at the end of the book for those of us born outside Middle-Earth. For those simply wishing to understand the history of the LOTR world, the Middle-Earth Wikipedia page is probably the best resource. But if that isn’t enough, and you want to hear the stories yourself, The Silmarillion is the place to find them.
Just a few notes cribbed here; as with Anathem, the focus is on the reading of the story itself. Tolkien didn’t write everything with the final grand scheme in mind; rather, it emerged from the writing:
The mere stories were the thing. They arose in my mind as ‘given’ things, and as they came, separately, so too the links grew…always I had the sense of recording what was already ‘there’, somewhere: not of ‘inventing’. – Forward, xii The Hobbit…was quite independently conceived: I did not know as I began it that it belonged. But it proved to be the discovery of the completion of the whole. – Forward, xii An interesting perspective on the Dwarves, which were created outside of Eru’s (God’s) grand vision by an angelic Valar and didn’t have the same respect for the earth that the Elves did. Sadly, this seems also to be our perspective in this world… Because thou hiddest this thought from me until its achievement, thy children will have little love for the things of my love. They will love first the things made by their own hands, as doth their father. They will delve in the earth, and the things that grow and live upon the earth they will not heed. Many a tree shall feel the bit of their iron without pity. – 39 And while many of the stories immediately recall similar religious stories, Tolkien says this was not his goal: I dislike Allegory–the conscious and intentional allegory–yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth of fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more life a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.) – Forward, xii-xiii
Insights from the new Nobel laureate: 1. Listen to the Gentiles – “Pay attention to what intelligent people are saying, even if they do not have your customs or speak your analytical language.” 2. Question the question – “In general, if people in a field have bogged down on questions that seem very hard, it is a good idea to ask whether they are really working on the right questions. Often some other question is not only easier to answer but actually more interesting!” 3. Dare to be silly – “What I believe is that the age of creative silliness is not past…If a new set of assumptions seems to yield a valuable set of insights, then never mind if they seem strange.” 4. Simplify, simplify – “Always try to express your ideas in the simplest possible model. The act of stripping down to this minimalist model will force you to get to the essence of what you are trying to say (and will also make obvious to you those situations in which you actually have nothing to say).” Full version here; despite his disclaimer at top that “I don’t know anything special about life in general”, these ideas seem applicable to most creative work.
Neal Stephenson’s Anathem was inspired by a Long Now Foundation request for designs of a clock that would measure time for 10,000 years. Stephenson’s idea of a societal, rather than mechanical, system was not chosen, but did turn into his next book. Stephenson cleverly set Anathem in a place that is “not Earth, but a planet called Arbre that is similar to Earth in many ways”. This allowed him to take as much as he wanted from Earth’s culture (human beings, technologies), while feeling free to change whatever he liked (like adding several thousand years of history). A clever storytelling technique. The general theme is of a society which separates out its scientists and intellectuals into convents, walled off from the world for predefined periods of time: 1 year, 10 years, 100 years, even 1000 years. The doors to these concentric conclaves are opened and closed at these intervals by the mechanics of the clocks that run them. This concept is like catnip for geeks: a culture that prizes their geeks so much it leaves them alone to work on their projects for thousands of years. It’s no wonder that programmers and engineers are the ones most excited about the book; the SF launch event attendees were nearly an exact replica of the Google population. Wired magazine did a good profile of Stephenson and the book, which inspired me to attend the Long Now event in San Francisco where the book was launched. The event ran tremendously behind schedule, which gave me time to grab a copy before it started. And as my friend observed, “these guys are building a 10,000 year clock. Do you think they’re worried about starting 45 minutes late?” It had been a long time since I’d read a book this long, and I was surprised by the sheer number of things you can do in 900 pages. Stephenson takes his readers on a huge adventure from a monastery courtyard to the stars and beyond; it seemed like at least 3 books in one (in fact, the work it most reminded me of was Lord of the Rings, both in style and scope). I’m now reading The Silmarillion, which tells the background of the Lord of the Rings story, and am developing an appreciation for this long-form storytelling. It was very engaging, though, and I read it in a weekend. I’ve discussed the book since with several others who haven’t read it, and one topic that always comes up is the concept of these monasteries being shut to the world for so long. In Anathem, the monasteries are not completely sealed. There exist systems for people to cross between them, and of course they’re open to the sky and planes flying over or skyscrapers built right next door. So while the letter of the law is violated, the spirit is kept, and the inhabitants respect the rules of an isolated society. Anathem gave me a new appreciation for the value of both long books and long-term thinking. Both are underappreciated today, and both seem like just what I need. Notes
