The importance of a fresh perspective

Recently, I finished up on a 2-year project.

When you’re working on the same thing for that length of time, you can get too close to it. Meaning, you forget to take a step back and look at what you’re doing from a different angle.

I firmly believe that this can disrupt the quality of your work, and squashes opportunity to improve what you’re designing.

If this resonates with your designer brain, I’ll give you some advice that’s worked for me.

How to disrupt the angle

  1. Speak to outsiders
    Once a month (or more), have a call with a couple of designers and get them to look at your work. Choose people that haven’t seen work from this project (or haven’t for a long time).
    That way, their brains will not be hindered with limitations of scope or time. They will share brand new ideas and thoughts, which will spark new ideas for you.
  2. Think about the why
    Why are you building this thing? What are the big problems you’re trying to solve? Who are you doing it for? What do they need most?
    Take a brief step back from that one pain point you’re trying to fix, to see more clearly. Sometimes, this can re-frame your thinking.
  3. Get a fresh, expert brain in
    As designers, one of the most rewarding parts of our roles is learning from others. If you’re feeling stuck, sometimes you need to get another designer on your project calls to use their expertise.
    I did this a few months ago, when I knew we were stepping into risky content territory. I asked one of my incredible colleagues to provide their thoughts in a call, on some trauma-informed content we were developing.
    While we could have slowly navigated our way through this ourselves with multiple rounds of testing different content, we may have caused trauma for research participants if we weren’t extra careful. Why would we risk this, when we were unsure?

Why change is good

Towards the end of the 2-year mark, I felt that I had nothing left to give. It was an incredibly intense project with many hurdles to overcome.

If it gets to this point, you can begin to question your abilities. Self-doubt creeps in, when actually it’s just because you’ve become too close to what you’re doing.

What I find helps with this, is to support others with their work when they ask for your thoughts. Turn your mind off that big piece of work for a while. Get involved in side projects, or have your own mini design projects on the go (if time allows).

Switching off from your big, complicated pieces of work helps your brain switch back on when it needs to. It reminds me of sleeping after a tiring, big-brain day, and waking up with a clearer idea of what to do next.

My main advice to you

Always learn from those around you, those more experienced than you, and those who think differently to you.

Remember to take a step back from your work to look at it differently.

And keep your design brain alive by getting lightly involved in a variety of creative work (outside your main project).

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