Ground Rules
Keep Calm and Make it Intuitive.
Ground Rules
Fewer Assumptions
More Research.
Ground Rules
Usability Eats Aesthetics for Breakfast.
Ground Rules
Make Design Great Again.
Ground Rules
Don’t Don Quixote.
Ground Rules
Check Your Work.
Because Someone Else Will.
Ground Rules
Impossible is the Kryptonite of Innovation.
Ground Rules
If You Only Have a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail.
Ground Rules
Spot Bullshit and
Say It Aloud.
Ground Rules
You are a Brand.
Make It a Good One.
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Ground Rules
Keep Calm and
Make it Intuitive.
A user interface is like a joke. If you need to explain it, it is probably improvable. Think about the details you talk about when explaining. Can you reflect these to your design and create a better version?
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Ground Rules
Fewer Assumptions
More Research.
No entrepreneur or leader is wiser than the collective mind of their potential customers. So talk to your (potential) customers and validate your assumptions. You’ll be surprised how many of them will turn out to be untrue.
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Ground Rules
Usability Eats Aesthetics for Breakfast.
Have a good reason for every item you put on a blank page. Does it contribute to the user’s goal? What happens if we remove it? Keep in mind that form always follows function.
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Ground Rules
Make Design Great Again.
Whatever design task you are working on, add brains and essence from your unique perspective and experience. There are thousands of copy&paste works on portfolio sites like Behance and Dribbble. Avoid creating another one.
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Ground Rules
Don’t Don Quixote.
Refrain from attacking a design challenge just by yourself. Instead, leverage AI's collective brain, take time to research, and get inspired. Identify keywords around the topic, and check similar products and interfaces produced by other creatives. These are necessary to avoid creating something similar and enrich your ideas.
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Ground Rules
Check Your Work.
Because Someone Else Will.
Errors spotted, at first sight will diminish the value of your work. Moreover, they will negatively impact your reputation no matter how hard you have worked. Unfortunately, reputation is a house of cards; very fragile and hard to restore.
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Ground Rules
Impossible is the Kryptonite of Innovation.
Nothing is impossible today. An API, framework, or AI tool could help. Try to say less "no, we can't but more "let me try." Research, dig deeper, prototype, ask, and pretty soon, you will see it all start coming together.
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Ground Rules
If You Only Have a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail.
You might be excellent at using a specific tool or applying a method. However, staying open to new products and techniques is essential to avoid getting outdated. Monitor developments in your domain, try out new tools and add them to your skill set if you see the value.
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Ground Rules
Spot Bullshit and
Say It Aloud.
Creating awful stuff is part of the creative process. Don’t hesitate to spot and say it aloud. Get smarter by involving other people, change the approach, tools, and sometimes even the teams.
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Ground Rules
You are a Brand.
Make It a Good One.
All your communication, be it sending an email or arguing during a meeting, contribute to it. Remember, colleagues, clients, and partners will remember your brand. How it sounded, reacted, and made them feel.