Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Jess Eddy

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.” — Ira Glass (read more)

I co-taught a UX Immersive class for 10 weeks at General Assembly a few years ago. We used to tell students, “don’t play the comparison game” because basically it’s crushing. When you’re a designer — or any creative type for that matter, in the beginning it’s easy to see where you are and compare that to where you want to be and feel void of hope. It’s easy to compare your skills or creative output with others who have been doing it for a lot longer and feel like you will never get there. It’s easy to feel like a terrible designer — for what can be an eternity; building confidence is a long, long road.

Fall of ’14 UX Immersive students at General Asssembly, Aaron, Malik and Maca.

Generally speaking, comparing yourself to others is not good practice, it makes you feel bad about yourself and at the extreme end, can make you want to give up. But what if we changed the framing…what if we framed it in a way that helped propel us?

When looking at a remarkable design, you might think to yourself “I’m not that good.” Instead, acknowledge the difference and think to yourself “that’s where I want to be and I’m going to work towards being that good.”

Zero bad feelings about yourself or your work; only recognition that you can improve and that you will improve.

Understand that this type of self improvement is a journey that takes time. Be patient but persistent.

The only things that matter are your drive, passion and determination. If you have these and you are consistent in activities and pursuits that enable you to become a better, you will reach your goals — it’s just a matter of time.

Some Rules for the Journey

Recognize where you are and accept it without feeling bad about it.
Set an intention to become a better designer; think of this intention everyday, on every project.
Collect examples of designs that are inspirational to you; designs that represent where you want to be; reference them when you’re working on projects as a reminder of the bar you set for yourself.
Be relentless in refining designs you’re working on and iterate until you literally cannot find a way to make them better.
Don’t rely on others to push you; push your own boundaries, push them so hard that you surprise yourself. You and you alone are responsible for your evolution as a designer.

Understand WHY

It’s not enough to look at good design and correlate with where you want to be. You must understand why the design is good. In order to do this, you need to spend time looking at designs through a very analytical lens. When you do this, you will start to notice the nuances in fonts, colors, iconography and visual embellishments. How font styles and copy convey a certain personality that suits the audience; how color can set an appropriate mood or tone and how icons help to provide real context into helping users understand a user interface. In design, it’s all the little details that form the bigger picture that are important to pay attention to. One cannot design a cohesive user interface without first paying attention to the tiny details. Master the details.

My journey as a designer has led to me becoming extremely detail-orientated. I used to think this was the mark of a crazy or uptight person! It’s a sign of someone who is thinking about the details.

You may not be able to control many things in life but you can steer the ship. You can work hard and you can work towards becoming the designer you want to be. You don’t need to be the best designer in the world but you need to be the best you can be today and everyday after that. This type of commitment has a snowball effect that will steadily and incrementally make you a better designer. Remember the big picture!

Check out Ira Glass’ THE GAP video.

Photo by Fab Lentz on Unsplash

Designers: Use the Comparison Game to Your Advantage was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Designers: Use the Comparison Game to Your Advantage

Cool stuff, every week

More Articles