Is it better to begin knowing that it won’t be as good as you hope – but know that it’s another step on the path; or to begin believing that what you make will be perfect this time – and then face inevitable disappointment?

UPDATE – Holly & Eunice commented on this post originally, but I lost your comments when I upgraded the site… Sorry.

There are already tons of lists of tips and how-tos for designers and wannabe designers all over the web. Tons. Too many. I’m going to try to steer clear of the stuff they already bleat on about and mention some ideas that I haven’t seen mentioned quite so much. I’ll try to keep them bite-sized and tasty.

So… tip #1 is Make Space.

I don’t care what software package you’re using to do your design work — Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP or the original MS Paint — I recommend always making the canvas bigger. No, even bigger than that. Give yourself multiple screens-worth of lovely space.

Done? Now feel how all that space makes it much easier for you to relax about editing your design. Drag bits and pieces freely in and out of the working design. Now you’re never in danger of losing anything so you’re free to create little copy-paste groups where you can freely explore different versions of every element and cast your eye over them both in and out of context. I often now create several versions of a whole design simultaneously within one big document – it’s easier to compare them, easier to drag parts from one to another, easier to explore all the possibilities.

The underlying principle is to do as much as you can to make exploring and evolving your design easy. I realised that if I didn’t have any thinking space around what I was designing, I’d get blocked. I wouldn’t want to change anything unless I was sure that I’d be improving it, so I’d end up not changing anything. I’d fiddle around with insignificant things and feel dissatisfied and uneasy. Then I’d end up surfing blogs instead of finishing the design. I was falling into the fool’s trap of waiting for a bolt of inspiration to hit. But as soon as I did nothing more than making the canvas really big, I was freed up to try all sorts of stuff out and shuffle it all around. Suddenly, I was getting through design work faster and feeling more satisfied with what I’d done.

By the way, also make sure you’ve got a fresh sketchbook page or crisp sheet of A4 in front of you too. And a nice sharp pencil.

Got all that? Now, off you go and get back to work.

x

I was recommending it to a non-design-geek friend recently and realised again what a tough sell it is. It’s ostensibly about a font, which must be off-putting for a lot of people. Spend nearly two hours of my life watching a film about a subtle variation in the shapes of letters? Er… I’ll go and see Toy Story 3 again, thanks very much*.

But I’d say it’s not really about that at all. Yes, it is indubitably a hymn to Helvetica (font-porn, anyone?), but the typeface is actually a clever device that allows the filmmaker to explore the differences and the tension between the broader modernist and post-modernist movements. He interviews enough industry movers and shakers to make up a whole fantasy graphic design team and they’re split down the middle between the two movements. Broadly speaking, the modernists love Helvetica and the Post-Modernists hate it. The resulting discussions cut to the heart of the tension between these inextricably interrelated movements better than any text-book explanation could. As in the best haiku, the most insignificant subject matter communicates more than a grandiose epic could.

It got me to thinking though. What movement are we part of now? I’m talking about the movement towards data-driven decision making, ever deeper understanding of our users and customers and the focus on their experience with our services and products. The movement towards continual growth, learning and agile adaptation.

In one sense it’s just modernism, in that it rejects the traditional way of doing things for new ideas and methods enabled by cutting edge technology. But that doesn’t really do it justice: every movement from the 20th Century onwards can pretty much be lumped under modernism. So what’s the specific ideology of the web right now?

Empiricism is already taken and doesn’t really cover it anyway. How about Optimalism? Experiencism? Suggestions, please.

* I really do want to go and see Toy Story 3 again.

The same type of story happens too often in the web world:

Simon is what we’ll call one client of a web agency. He runs a business that can benefit in many different ways by improving their website and web-based technology. Their current site is outdated and they’re all sick of it. So he spends time with the agency thinking of all the things it can do and all the scenarios that might happen. Together, they plan the ultimate system that will solve all his problems and achieve all his goals.

So far, so good.

After a month of planning, the agency hands Simon a thick specification document describing the perfect system. They say it will take 3 months to build. Simon signs on the dotted line and the build begins. Spirits are high.

5 months later, the grand launch has been rescheduled twice and the agency are battling to get the system working. Eventually they get the thing live and everyone can drink the champagne.

Unfortunately, there are a few issues. While there’s plenty to like about the new system, the developers have divided their time between so many different features that nothing works quite as well as Simon had imagined. He begins to realise that his ideas of what the specification document meant were rather different from what the developers were thinking. And his staff are a little overwhelmed by all the changes, and they’re not happy with the new demands suddenly placed on them or the new tools they don’t know how to use.

But the biggest problem is that Simon’s business is now 6 months further into the future and the system that was perfect for his business at the start of the process doesn’t really match what they need any more. He’s not sure he even likes the colours he picked any more.

Oh well. Time to start specifying another complete rebuild…

If you’ve been involved in a web project of any scale, chances are you’ve experienced at least some of this before. If you haven’t, you can consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

In with the new: becoming agile

It doesn’t have to be like this. There’s another approach being used by savvy web entrepreneurs and web professionals all over the world.

It’s about continual, small improvements that add business value at every step. It’s about smart working, using the powerful analytical tools that are cheaply available today to optimise the performance of your site. It’s about being realistic about the flaws in the traditional approach and not fighting them but, like a skilled martial artist, coming at the issue from a slightly different angle. It’s an agile approach.

The word agile suggests moving quickly and lightly, being nimble and flexible. Agile with a capital ‘A’ is a software industry term for a family of development processes which share a common ethos:

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

This ethos has borne myriad Agile methods and practices. They were originally developed with software development in mind, but they are extremely successful when applied to websites. The results can be seen in the success of companies like Netflix and Amazon.

Try it:

• Find the core goal of your site. If it can only achieve one thing, what would that thing be?
• Begin with the smallest fragment you can launch to deliver business value and get it live
• Track everything and analyse
• Launch quietly and launch often – continue to improve on and add to the site in bite-size chunks
• Reassess and re-prioritise regularly with the stakeholders
• Improve what works, change what doesn’t work and adapt to take advantage of new opportunities
• With this approach, your website becomes a living process that continues to grow and adapt with your business.

This approach recognises that effective websites aren’t put live and then left to gather dust. They function through regular attention and work. There’s always room to improve your conversion rate or to increase your traffic. There are always new online strategies to explore. I urge you to think of developing your website as just another of your ongoing marketing activities, to be considered regularly and updated continually.

Another way of looking at it is to see it as carrying out several small, low-risk projects, instead of one large, high-risk one. You spread your online budget over a longer period but get results faster.