Make Something Wonderful

"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone."

I've watched Wilson Miner's video again and again, and this quote by John Ruskin is what stuck in my mind.

When we build digital products, we build them with the intention of people using them, so you might think I'll go do market research, check competitors… do that and this, and It will be enough.

But not really, that's not enough. We want people to be impressed by those products, love them. To do that, you can't just settle with doing average stuff.

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What do I need to do that?

There is this one core skill that designers, developers, founders, builders in general should have, it's taste.

But wait.

"Isn't taste subjective?"

Who are we to say this person has good taste or built an amazing thing when, in reality, it's hard to measure what's great and what's not?

Paul Graham had some thoughts on that:

"...When they like something, they have no idea why. It could be because it's beautiful, or because their mother had one, or because they saw a movie star with one in a magazine, or because they know it's expensive. Their thoughts are a tangle of unexamined impulses."

And I think influence plays a big role in that too.

But for us people who design things, this is important because how can I get better if my core skill is subjective?

So let’s start with the idea that it’s a skill, then you will ask : Okay, how can we improve and work on this?

I've been researching that, and this week's issue is all about that.

Let's dive in. I hope this helps you in your day-to-day work.

How can we improve taste?

Let’s start with the fact people who starts creative work does it because they have a good sense of what looks or feels right.

But at first, what we make Isn’t great…

We want it be good, we know it’s bad…

It has the chance to be great…

But it just isn’t there yet.

Our good taste, the reason that got us in this fields, is also why we can’t settle with a version of a design, code, product yet.

→ To address this, Julie Zhuo suggests six steps in her Article On Taste.:

1. Believe there is such a thing as good taste
2. Identify the folks who?are?in possession of good taste.
3. Immerse yourself in their values
4. Always be critiquing
5. Calibrate your thinking with others
6. Practice the craft

We do want to improve our taste to be able to make good design,

And Paul graham has talked about Good Design and Taste in his Essay : Taste For Makers :

1. Good design is simple
2. Good design is timeless
3. Good design solves the right problem
4. Good design is suggestive
5. Good design is often slightly funny
6. Good design is hard
7. Good design looks easy
8. Good design uses symmetry
9. Good design resembles nature
10. Good design is redesign
11. Good design can copy
12. Good design is often strange
13. Good design happens in chunks
14. Good design is often daring

?? Nice Finds

• John Gruber - Auteur Theory of Design - Macworld Pulse
• Great products are triumphs of taste - Steve jobs

Thanks for reading Blueprint Drafts!

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