Write to Think: Overcoming Creative Blocks

Designers often face creative block—or, as I sometimes call it, thinking block. One of the hardest challenges for both emerging and experienced designers is breaking down complex problems and finding the best possible solutions.

When designers encounter a wicked problem or a concept they've never seen before and need to translate it into a design, they experience ?????????????????????????thinking block. This block is so subtle you might not even realize it. You reach a point where it feels like you can’t think anymore or wrap your head around an idea, and most of the time, you just throw in the towel and decide to come back to it later. Yes, that sometimes works, but then you have to face the block some other time. What if you're faced with a design problem that you can’t simply leave and revisit later? That would be disastrous. Imagine if that project had very high stakes—what would you do then?

There's a popular saying by Jordan Peterson:

"The best way to teach a person critical thinking is to teach them to write... if you can think, speak, and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way."

What if all you had to do to boost your critical thinking was to write down your own thoughts? What if, by simply jotting down ideas as they come, you could slow down your mind enough to process, reason, ask questions, and evaluate whether what you’re writing makes sense? I do this with a paper and pen every time. In Resonans' webinar on Saturday, Dr. Richard Larson from MIT explained how moving away from your devices and grabbing a pencil and paper can help you solve problems more effectively.

You might wonder: how can a designer benefit from this? Have you ever tried sketching out your ideas? I find it much more effective for ideation. You might ask why.

Here's how it works:

A friend once asked why I always take notes on a piece of paper instead of using a note-taking app. I replied, "I think better when I write. I don't have to worry about going to the next line or tapping the right keys—I just write. And as I write, I focus solely on what I’m writing about."

The same applies to design. An emerging designer I worked with in 2023 thought my rough paper sketches were very funny when I shared snapshots with her to explain an idea I had during a brainstorming session. I told her, "Inspiration flows better when I sketch. I don't worry about how many pixels my frames are, the size of my text, or whether everything is perfectly aligned. I just sketch, scribble, tear off pieces of paper, and sketch some more."

I know some might disagree with my approach, but what do those two examples have in common? Concentration. For some, inspiration flows better when they type, but I bet those people have mastered their keyboards and can type with their eyes closed. I'm not saying you won't find inspiration while typing; what I'm saying is that when your concentration is undivided, inspiration flows faster.

So, whenever you're experiencing a creative block, write. Write down your confusion, your thoughts, your questions—scribble that idea. Before you begin wireframing, sketch those concepts. As you begin to put your thoughts and ideas on paper, you'll begin to see amazing results, not just in your designs but in how you think and process things.

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