Perception in design

I love listening to new music.

New artists.

New styles.

It's all so interesting. Hearing what new things people come up with. But above all of that, how simple things can be so powerful.

The crazy part is that when we listen to a song, like one by Billie Eilish (or eyelash if you like to be snarky), there is always more than we think there is going on. For example, that simple beat that to an untrained ear sounds like 2 maybe 3 elements. When in reality, it's a masterful deception of 100 different layers of sound in order to create the full presence you are digesting for the next 3 minutes. It subconsciously makes you want to listen again and again because your ears love the complexity.

But behind that is a group of people writing and composing and mixing and mastering all so you will come back over and over again to listen. Which is just like how we design apps.

While they have the artist, we have the company. While they have the songwriters we have the UX researchers. While they have the sound engineers we have the UI artists. Now the super cool part is that instead of working with sound, we are working with visuals.

How do we create a whole world on a screen, while making it easily digestible and reusable over and over?

While we step into our role, and put on our designer hats, being able to take that outside step and contemplate how powerful disguise is in our work can tremendously help our final product. Shadows, and color layers, using tools like glass panels and micro-interactions. These are just a few simple examples of how we give depth to a page without being reveling to the end-user.

Using nature as an inspiration can be extremely helpful as well. Taking a walk through nature and seeing things from a design perspective, like how trees reveal themselves based on your position. Using that as a consideration for how we can present things to an end-user can create limitless possibilities as a designer. As much as I want to share my ideas from my last “design walk” I don't want to impede your own imagination and give you cluttered thoughts.

I would love to know what you took away from these ideas, and perspectives. Or even if they let you look at things a little differently.

-until next time-