#1NLab16 - Overcoming Creative Hurdles: "I Hate Yellow" and Other Lane Violations

NOV 2-4, 2016

Overcoming Creative Hurdles“I Hate Yellow” and Other Lane Violations

NOV 2-4, 2016

Nathan Denton@NateOneNorth

NOV 2-4, 2016

“I hate yellow.”

NOV 2-4, 2016

“I hate yellow.”

“Make it pop!”

“I’ll know it when I see it.”

“Make the logo bigger.”

“Let’s fill in that white space with something.”

“It’s really liney.”

“That image isn’t speaking

to me.”

“This is a really dark black.”

NOV 2-4, 2016

“I hate yellow”

NOV 2-4, 2016

“I hate yellow, but I understand

why you chose it.”

NOV 2-4, 2016

5 Ways To Improve Your Chances of Design Success

NOV 2-4, 2016

NOV 2-4, 2016

IdentifyStakeholders

Tell the Story

IterateKnow When to

Step Away

Do YourResearch/Use Your Research

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify Stakeholders

1

NOV 2-4, 2016

Do this at the very beginning

- Usain Bolt9-time Jamaican gold medal track athlete

Identify Stakeholders

NOV 2-4, 2016

Do this at the very beginning

- Usain Bolt9-time Jamaican gold medal track athlete

Identify Stakeholders

Early involvement benefits:

• Less complicated in the long run

• Accurate planning

• Avoid bringing latecomers up-to-speed

• Lessens the risk of derailment

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify what you need from individual stakeholders, then inform them of that

- Phil Jackson11-time NBA Championship coach

Identify Stakeholders

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify what you need from individual stakeholders, then inform them of that

- Phil Jackson11-time NBA Championship coach

Identify Stakeholders

Example stakeholder involvement:

• Overarching approach sign-off

• Design feedback

• Specific insights

• Progress check-in

NOV 2-4, 2016

Different stakeholders require different setups

Identify Stakeholders

NOV 2-4, 2016

Don’t include anyone that isn’t necessary

Identify Stakeholders

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify the most important voices and use them as champions

- Vince LombardiHall of Fame NFL coach

Identify Stakeholders

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify the most important voices and use them as champions

- Vince LombardiHall of Fame NFL coach

Identify Stakeholders

Your dream team:

• Leader(s) of marketing

• Leader(s) of practices

• Leader(s) of organization

• Your experts (us)

NOV 2-4, 2016

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

2

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify and understand your users and their needs

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify and understand your users and their needs

Do Your Research / Use Your ResearchUnderstand user priority:

1. Clients

2. Recruits

3. Media

4. Internal

Often times when it comes to design approval we see this order can change into:

1. Internal

2. Clients

3. Recruits

4. Media

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify the design goals

- Ed HochuliStrongest NFL official of all time

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

NOV 2-4, 2016

Identify the design goals

- Ed HochuliStrongest NFL official of all time

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

Example goals could include:

• Unify the brand

• Create a minimalist and modern interface

• Develop image-driven content

• Differentiate us from all of our competitors

NOV 2-4, 2016

Test your designs

- Barry BondsAfter steroids

- Barry BondsBefore steroids

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

NOV 2-4, 2016

Test your designs

- Barry BondsAfter steroids

- Barry BondsBefore steroids

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

Ways to test:

• Client testing

• Agency testing

• Unknown testing

• Guerilla testing

• Internal testing

This gives you qualitative and quantitative data you can leverage to sell your design decisions.

NOV 2-4, 2016

Otherwise it becomes a fruitless exercise in subjectivity

- John McEnroeTennis great and world class complainer

Do Your Research / Use Your Research

NOV 2-4, 2016

Otherwise it becomes a fruitless exercise in subjectivity

- John McEnroeTennis great and world class complainer

Do Your Research / Use Your ResearchWants

• Needs more blue

• Too dark

• I don’t like that picture

• Needs more pop

Needs

• Illegible

• I can’t find what I’m looking for

• Doesn’t work

• Loads too slow

VS

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Iterate

3

NOV 2-4, 2016

Removes pressure

- Tatiana KashirinaRussian weightlifting champion

Iterate

NOV 2-4, 2016

Avoids overconsumptionIterate

- Joey ChestnutCompetitive eating champion

NOV 2-4, 2016

Provides continued momentum

- U.S. Olympic Relay Team

Iterate

NOV 2-4, 2016

Provides continued momentum

- U.S. Olympic Relay Team

Iterate

Momentum flow:

• Ideate

• Low-fidelity sketch

• Wireframe

• Style tile / mood board

• Hi-fidelity Concept

• Prototype

• Test

*Not all are necessary for every project

NOV 2-4, 2016

Brings decision makers along for the journey which ends in more efficiencies

- U.S. OlympicBobsled Team

Iterate

NOV 2-4, 2016

Brings decision makers along for the journey which ends in more efficiencies

- U.S. OlympicBobsled Team

Iterate

You – “We think we can come up with some really compelling case studies for the site. Plus, we want to make this page more about what we’ve done for our clients as opposed to focusing on internal members of the organization.”

Agency – “That’s a great insight. We can easily make that work. Give me just a sec...”

Sample Iterative Scenario Between You and Your Agency

NOV 2-4, 2016

Brings decision makers along for the journey which ends in more efficiencies

- U.S. OlympicBobsled Team

IterateSample Iterative Scenario Between You and Your Agency

You – “This is exactly what we need. Great job!”

Agency – “Thanks! Wanna grab a beer?”

You – “Absolutely. First round’s on me.”

Agency – “You mean something like this?”

NOV 2-4, 2016

Tell the Story

4

NOV 2-4, 2016

Sets up the researchTell the Story

- U.S. Volleyball Team

NOV 2-4, 2016

Sets up the researchTell the Story

- U.S. Volleyball Team

We want users to explore important thought leadership on the homepage.

Need

Example of telling a story to frame the solution

NOV 2-4, 2016

Sets up the researchTell the Story

- U.S. Volleyball Team

We want users to explore important thought leadership on the homepage. In our research and testing we discovered that less than 5% of users clicked beyond the first item in a homepage highlight carousel.

Need

Insight

Example of telling a story to frame the solution

NOV 2-4, 2016

Sets up the researchTell the Story

- U.S. Volleyball Team

We want users to explore important thought leadership on the homepage. In our research and testing we discovered that less than 5% of users clicked beyond the first item in a homepage highlight carousel. Therefore, we avoided a carousel and instead designed a longer page scroll that exposes all of the thought leadership we want users to engage with.

Avoid:

Our page is long because carousels don’t work.

Need

Insight

Solution

Example of telling a story to frame the solution

NOV 2-4, 2016

Mitigates subjective knee-jerk

- Anderson SilvaMMA Champion

Tell the Story

NOV 2-4, 2016

Makes the stakeholders feel more involved

- Canadian Synchronized Swim Team

Tell the Story

NOV 2-4, 2016

Makes the stakeholders feel more involved

- Canadian Synchronized Swim Team

Tell the Story

Perceived involvement leads to:

• Feeling part of something greater

• More empathy

• Better understanding

• Higher investment

• Design evangelism

NOV 2-4, 2016

Validates decisions

- Chuck Norris6-time Middleweight Karate Champion

Tell the Story

NOV 2-4, 2016

Know When to Step Away

5

NOV 2-4, 2016

Avoid concept fatigue

- Mo FarahMost successful British track athlete in modern Olympic history

Know When to Step Away

NOV 2-4, 2016

Stay focused on your goals

- Ki Bo BaeKorean Olympic archery gold medalist

Know When to Step Away

NOV 2-4, 2016

Stay focused on your goals

- Ki Bo BaeKorean Olympic archery gold medalist

Know When to Step Away

Sally – “I was just checking out McFly & Tannen’s website and noticed they’re using a lot more color. It feels warm and makes me happy inside.”

You – “Thanks for sharing. Our new visual identity system focuses on using sparse splashes of color to draw the users attention to key content and keep a fair amount of white space as an essential composition component.”

Sally – “But it looks drab.”

You – “Through our discovery phase a key goal was to incorporate a sophisticated and reserved use of color that reinforces interactivity and drives the users to more content. We tested the design and found that using color in this fashion increased the click rates by over 25%.”

Sally – “I never would have guessed that. I like what McFly& Tannen are doing but it doesn’t sound like it aligns with our brand and goals. Thanks for helping me understand your decision.”

You – “Anytime Sally. Quesadillas tomorrow?”

Sally – “For sure. My treat.”

Conversation Between You and Practitioner (Sally)

NOV 2-4, 2016

Go with your gut

- William “Refrigerator” Perry1985 Super Bowl Champion

Know When to Step Away

NOV 2-4, 2016

What Can Happen If You Let a Committee Run Awry

NOV 2-4, 2016

COMMITTEE FEEDBACK ON THE CREATION OF EARTH.

Hi God,

Thanks so much for the latest round of work. Really coming together. Few points of feedback:

1 – Really liking the whole light thing but not totally sure about the naming system. “Day” and “night” are OK but we feel like there’s more we can do here. Thoughts? Definitely need to nail this down ASAP.

2 – Re: the “sky”… not really feeling the color here. Would like something that pops more. Please send additional options.

3 – Appreciate the work on the sea and ground, but right now there’s way too much sea. The ground is getting lost in it. In general, sea does not resonate well with our users. Was talking with the team and the idea of having no sea at all came up. Thoughts?

4 – Are the winged birds final, or placeholder? Some kind of weird stuff going on with those. Just want to get some clarification before giving more feedback.

5 – Seas teeming with life is fine, but again, we need to reduce the sea. This is a showstopper for us.

Realize it’s Saturday and you were planning to be OOO tomorrow to admire your creation and everything, but I’m hoping you can keep rolling on this through the weekend. Looking to you and your team for a big win here.

Thanks!

NOV 2-4, 2016

So In Summary…

NOV 2-4, 2016

“I hate yellow”

NOV 2-4, 2016

“I hate yellow, but I understand

why you chose it.”

NOV 2-4, 2016

IdentifyStakeholders

Tell the Story

IterateKnow When

to Step Away

Do YourResearch/Use Your Research

NOV 2-4, 2016

Overcoming Creative Hurdles“I Hate Yellow” and Other Lane Violations