Everything is designed.
That basic insight is something I realized many years ago – and, while the idea that someone, somewhere, created the designs of everything around you, wherever you are maybe is an obvious fact, embracing that idea should excite anyone who does experience design.
Think about it. Your desk, your pen, that chair you sit on. At some point someone sat in front of a blank sheet of paper or an empty computer screen and made an idea EXIST. Made it real.
Which means that if someone designed all that, you can design stuff like that too.
Excited yet?
So, if your a UX designer, or an aspiring designer, why does this matter? It matters because we have case studies on good and bad design all around us. As was famously written in the seminal book Don Norman The Design of Everyday Things, we can learn from this.
I have read interviews with many very award-winning authors where they have basically stated that if you want to become a good writer you need to be a good and/or voracious reader. Beyond just writing (and doing it every day), writers need input – different voices?they can appreciate and use to hone their own work.
Like writing, UX Design is equal parts skill and art. Expose yourself to the experiences all around you – architecture, industrial design, marketing, packaging, what-have-you. Interact with different devices beyond your current mobile device or computer. Increase your input.
Finally, don’t be a design snob – no matter what you think about a particular company, don’t let that stop you from trying out their products and exposing yourself to their designs (most obvious example: Apple fanboys, play with Windows 7… There’s some interesting stuff in there).