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Cognition
Rut-Roh! I’m in a Design Rut
Last week, while plugging away in Photoshop—tunes blazing through my headphones, pixels flying from my fingertips—it hit me. 
I was in a design rut. I’d grown complacent with my pagination arrows. Countless times, for vastly different sites, I’d relied on the DIN Bold arrow character. It’s a sturdy, hard-angled, utilitarian arrow, perfectly suitable if I quit web design to design highway signs in Germany, but not the quick-fix solution for all my arrow needs.
How did I know this was a rut? I hadn’t had a monumental, “I can’t design anymore” breakdown. This was subtle. A seemingly small detail showed me that even though I was still happily working, my wheels had stopped turning. I’d found a cozy, reliable solution that didn’t need questioning. Sure, this was just an arrow, but I wondered—how many of my best practices are outdated?
Relying on old, reliable ideas stops us from thinking critically and being deliberate in our work. It prevents our best ideas from ever surfacing. These ruts are dangerous.
Identify Your Ruts
“More often than not, I’ve found a rut is the consequence of sticking to tried and tested methods that don’t take into account how you or the world has changed.” —Twyla Tharp
Imagine the first time you heard a song you love. Maybe the beat was infectious or the dramatic buildup really blew your mind. If you listened to that song 52 times a day for a month, the impact would be lost. The same goes for recycled ideas. The first time I used the DIN arrow was on a website for a museum. The arrow looked like the wayfinding signs in the museum. Hey, that made perfect sense! Once.
To identify ruts, we need to challenge our instincts.
Take a moment to analyze your work and your work habits. Notice any patterns? Perhaps you’re a slave to Proxima Nova, love pointy ribbons, or have been using the same grunge brushes since 2008. Maybe you’ve found a process that’s worked for you through the years, and you’ve found no reason to switch it up. In the past, my unquestioned devotion to the 960 grid led to many redundant, subpar layouts. When our best practices lose potency, it’s time to rethink them.
Generate Lots of Ideas
Once we’re identified these ruts, we need to act on them. We need to create and test new ideas.
My belated New Year’s Resolution is to get into the habit of generating ideas. I won’t belabor the importance of sketching. We all know this is a valuable tool. That being said, I know when I’m under a time crunch, I sometimes forget about the value of producing lots of ideas.
Keep your brainstorming focused. Assign yourself a time restriction, required quantity, and very deliberate task. “I’m going to spend half an hour, sketching 60 arrows.” Don’t scrutinize until you’re done. Usually my ruts result from choosing the most practical solution first. The benefit of setting a time limit and quantity is I don’t have time to censor my ridiculous ideas. That’s where the good stuff is hiding.
Use tools that are malleable and help you generate ideas quickly. When choosing fonts for a project, I used to rely on whichever font I had on my machine because of the taxing task of surveying web font sites and purchasing fonts that ended up being less than ideal. Might as well just stick to the basics, right? TypeCast is a tool that lets designers try out font pairings rapidly. It gives me the freedom to change my mind if a font isn’t working, and has made that task way easier (and more fun).
Collaborate with Others
Of course, the best ideas aren’t produced in a vacuum. Even if I sketch for 24 hours straight, my head can’t come up with ALL THE IDEAS EVER or even the best idea. This is why I work with other people.
Ask other people to challenge your ideas. This is a great way to edit the results of your brainstorming session. Maybe someone else will find potential in a sketch and push you further.
Some of the best perspectives I get are from people outside my discipline. If I have an early sketch of a design, I run it by a developer to see if they know of any interactions that can improve my idea. Recently, I was working on making a home page carousel that was feeling flat, more playful. When Allison, on my team, suggested incorporating using Sequence, a jQuery plug in, the carousel got the joy it was missing.
How do you work on generating better, more deliberate ideas? How do you battle through a design rut?
20 Responses
Feeling stuck? In this week's Cognition, @yeseniaa shares how she battles through design ruts. http://t.co/zwKa0I62
Thu, April 19, 2012 10:37:37
Help! I've fallen in a design rut, and I can't get up.
Thu, April 19, 2012 11:51:33
Rut-roh! I'm in a design rut! http://t.co/WYE51CGR
Thu, April 19, 2012 11:55:07
From one of my heroes: Jeffrey Z. -- "@zeldman: Help! I've fallen in a design rut, and I can't get up. http://t.co/tojDkAXh"
Thu, April 19, 2012 11:56:33
"Rut-Roh! I’m in a Design Rut" http://t.co/qAb8Ek4y
Thu, April 19, 2012 11:57:34
Excellent! @geekyntall http://t.co/hPlJiqP6
Thu, April 19, 2012 12:05:11
I've definitely fallen into a design rut before. Need to check to see if I'm in on now. http://t.co/1YeMpSfm
Thu, April 19, 2012 12:06:09
This great article by @yeseniaa has me rethinking my arrow [re]usage on a current project. http://t.co/OgMK77VP
Thu, April 19, 2012 12:10:06
The best part of @yeseniaa's AMAZING article, is that it alerts you to a design rut you didn't even know you were in... http://t.co/oB2tPxsL
Thu, April 19, 2012 12:25:47
Last week I realized, I was in a design rut. I wrote about it in this week's Cognition: http://t.co/kSMk0SAa
Thu, April 19, 2012 1:00:17
Great article by @yeseniaa: Rut-Roh! I’m in a Design Rut http://t.co/1WJShfRm
Thu, April 19, 2012 1:15:34
That @yeseniaa can write, in addition to designing amazing things, rut or no rut. http://t.co/rFKRUIBr #cognition
Thu, April 19, 2012 2:00:22
Rut-Roh! I’m in a Design Rut http://t.co/kTBb9cdy
Thu, April 19, 2012 6:46:35
Relying on old, reliable ideas stops us from thinking critically and being deliberate in our work. http://t.co/mlBFBgKP
Fri, April 20, 2012 10:53:30
In a Design Rut? http://t.co/OmnGET4N via @yeseniaa @happycog
Mon, April 23, 2012 10:34:42
"When our best practices lose potency, it’s time to rethink them."
Wed, April 25, 2012 8:30:36
wondering whether asking for tweets triggers conversation like comments did...
Fri, May 04, 2012 4:21:49
Watch your step, be alert, maybe you're in a pit already? http://cognition.happycog.com/article/rut-roh-im-in-a-design-rut
Mon, June 25, 2012 10:31:03
Watch your step, be alert, maybe you're in a pit already? http://t.co/nncSYq5i
Mon, June 25, 2012 10:32:40
Relying on old, reliable ideas stops us from thinking critically and being deliberate in our work.
Tue, July 17, 2012 5:26:54