Don’t design with “something to prove”

I’m wrapping up a long-term design project, and, after two years working on the same thing, I’ve learned a lot. A lot about myself, a lot about design, and a lot about people.

One of the things that I notice over this time was that different designers on my team took design criticism differently. Some of them would be completely open to feedback and respond collaboratively. Others… well, it was worse than saying that their children were ugly – they acted as if you were trying to actually KILL their children. They responded loudly… and sometimes aggressively. Any criticism you provided was unfounded, and you were stupid to provide it.

That’s the response I got when I dared suggest another way of thinking of the design. And these were people who, in the structure of the project, worked for me.??For a while, I thought it was a reflection of these people’s maturity and experience. Nope, that wasn’t it. Some junior designers were a lot more professional in dealing with criticism that the senior ones. Maybe that was it… Maybe the senior people felt that they were above criticism. But no, that didn’t explain it (not fully at least).

I think I finally figured it out. The key was a conversation that I had with one of my designer about a design I had done late last year. Because of some aggressive deadlines, I had to take over a feature that needed someone with my reputation of “getting things done” to come in and finish it. I did my work – quickly – and then went on vacation for the Christmas holidays.

I returned to see that work had, of course, continued to take place in my absence. The designer had inherited my work, and had changed some things I had done. Here’s the thing: I’m never precious about anything I do, creatively or professionally. Some of my best work has been done when I had someone who I could collaborate with, and that someone often made good work better because they cast a critical eye upon it. So my initial response was “let’s see what he did,” not “how dare he change what I did!”

We did a design walkthrough, and, sure enough, the good design I had done was made better. Extra steps and options that distracted the user from the core task were removed. It was now something that was easier to learn and use. I thanked my colleague and complimented him onthe good work… and that is when I realized why some designers couldn’t take criticism well.

They lacked confidence in what they did. In every instance over the past two years, I could look back at why the designer was defensive… and it was because he or she were insecure. Not just in the designs they did, but they lacked confidence in themselves. They could not separate themselves from the work because they’re sense of self was wrapped up in what they had done. They weren’t designing to solve problems, or focused on the the users, and instead they were trying to prove themselves… TO themselves.

This is not criticism of them, personally… we all have our faults (mine’s in California). But as I have written before, the work is a reflection of us… it’s not who we are. We need to have a healthy separation. Be passionate, absolutely… but don’t lose the proper perspective. That way, when the work is done and responded to (and often criticized) we can react to what people say appropriately, and professionally.

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