More Input = Better Output

Second, I took the FOUNDATIONS course with my teenage boys. Not only was it fun for me to revisit the exercises as a participant, I learned a TON about what parts of the course might be most relevant from the middle and high schooler perspectives. The parts that caught their attention pointed directly to the essential messages in the course. This is incredibly valuable information for Deb and me for future course development, marketing and in-person delivery.

Third, (mini reveal here!) I shared the outline of the book I’m writing with a friend. By explaining how I set up the outline in spreadsheet form and what the various rows and columns meant for the intended book structure, that structure became more clear to me. Her careful listening and input set me up to have a very productive session reworking the outline to be simpler and more coherent for the reader.

Finally, in designing a newsletter masthead recently, my team asked about 10 people which of 7 fonts looked the most like a loose, hand-written script that could have been written by the same person who did a drawing that would appear next to it. They noticed lots of things I wouldn’t have thought of, like the way one of the letters “k” was hard to read as a “k.”

It can be tempting to keep our creative projects under wraps until we feel they are “ready for prime time,” but sometimes taking a lesson from the agile approach can help you complete a better project in less time. Get the idea formulated just enough to share. Then allow those multiple perspectives to improve, test and expand the idea, hopefully before excessive resources are spent going down a path that might prove less than ideal because not enough audiences were at the design table.

The WAYS we interpret patterns and assign meanings are variable. This is why we need to seek out a diverse set of opinions if the goal is clear communication.

Now you try! Here are just a few ways to gather more input.

1. Draw something/someone new - bring a mini sketchbook to a cafe, library or bus station. Fill a few pages with sketches of people, things and lettering styles you notice.
2. Turn some of your sketches into simple icons to expand your visual library.
3. Show your icons to a few people without explanation and ask what keywords or titles they would give your icons. Keep notes. Boom. You’ve just expanded your visual vocabulary.