{"id":25362,"date":"2021-02-16T16:01:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T16:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=25362"},"modified":"2021-05-18T13:05:53","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T12:05:53","slug":"how-to-steal-like-a-designer-and-boost-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-to-steal-like-a-designer-and-boost-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"How to \u201csteal like a designer\u201d and boost creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originality is the holy grail of creativity. But does true originality exist in design or is it always influenced by what came before?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest: creativity is a nebulous landscape. With the evolution of digital technologies, we\u2019re now exposed to other people’s opinions, ideas, and work on an almost minute-by-minute basis<\/a>. So whether its originality of thought or artistic brilliance, the sheer scale of visual and conceptual input we experience on a daily basis can blur the lines between where your idea ends and mine begins.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: humans can\u2019t have new ideas without prior sensory input<\/a>. It\u2019s not me; it\u2019s science, and it\u2019s how our brains work. From composers, to philosophers, to modern-day tech moguls \u2013 some of the most brilliant minds of this century have observed that great artists remix, recontextualize, and build upon ideas that already exist to create work that inspires and influences others. The great composer Igor Stravinsky once said that, \u201cA good composer does not imitate; he steals,\u201d while Steve Jobs echoed this maxim in his 1996 statement that \u201cGood artists copy, great artists steal<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cYour mind is like a collection of LEGO bricks. You can\u2019t conjure these bricks from thin air, they\u2019re accumulated through different experiences and influences\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Not convinced? That\u2019s ok, let\u2019s test this hypothesis. Try drawing an animal, or a vegetable, or a fruit that doesn\u2019t exist \u2013 you\u2019ll end up with some bizarre drawings but each of them will be an elaborate combination of elements you\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n

In short, your mind is like a collection of LEGO bricks. You can\u2019t conjure these bricks from thin air, they\u2019re accumulated through different experiences and influences, but you can copy them, transform their shape and size, and combine them in new ways to form fresh ideas. Design works in exactly the same way. The more basic elements you have starting out, the more objects you can potentially create, and the more complex each object will be. The obvious question is: how and where can I get more of these bricks?<\/p>\n

As you may have guessed from the title, the answer is \u2014 you can steal<\/em> them.<\/p>\n

Ok, ok, I\u2019m not suggesting that you actually steal them<\/em>. But I\u2019d like to explore a few tips and tricks for mining creative inspiration across the visual, functional, and conceptual aspects of design based on my own experiences as a Product Designer at Intercom.<\/p>\n

1. Explore visual elements<\/h2>\n

It may seem like an oxymoron, but taking the time to regularly study the building blocks of visual design \u2013 like buttons, objects, and the myriad uses of Gestalt principles<\/a> in layouts \u2013 will save you time in the long run.<\/p>\n

Maybe this seems irrelevant to you because you use a design system at work and rarely create patterns<\/a> from scratch, or you feel that you simply don\u2019t have the time to refine your user interface (UI) designs. While I can understand this reasoning, I disagree with this mindset \u2013 particularly when it comes to mastering the more granular aspects of UI design.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBut if you\u2019ve seen thousands of similar layouts, you can quickly assemble your collection of LEGO bricks to form an innovative and effective design in half the time it would take to start from scratch\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

UI refinement used to consume the majority of my time. I\u2019ve reduced its impact on my workload by taking practical steps to strengthen my design sensibility. Creating mock ups of designs I admire has helped me to assemble a greater collection of visual design artefacts<\/a> that I can draw on in my day-to-day designs \u2013 the more you practice, the faster you can complete your own deliverables. Time is precious when you\u2019re a designer and the little things like measuring the distance between buttons or calculating the perfect margin all add up. But if you\u2019ve seen thousands of similar layouts, you can quickly assemble your collection of LEGO bricks to form an innovative and effective design in half the time it would take to start from scratch.<\/p>\n

Absorbing other artists’ work has the same effect on prototyping. Global VP of Design at IBM, Arin Bhowmich observes<\/a>, \u201cYou might also have heard people tell you that if you\u2019re wanting to test how someone will respond in a specific scenario, the closer the \u2018test\u2019 or \u2018model\u2019 corresponds to the reality that it is simulating, the more confident you can be that their behaviour in the test scenario will be truly representative of how they would react in the real scenario.\u201d Drawing on a wider spectrum of visual artefacts to influence your work means you can render high-fidelity prototypes quicker and gather more accurate user feedback, speeding up each subsequent iteration of your design.<\/p>\n

Put simply, the higher the fidelity, the higher the quality of the feedback you will receive. I\u2019ve incorporated this \u201cstolen\u201d advice from my favourite article<\/a> by the founder of the UX Collective, Fabricio Teixeira, into my own workflows. Consuming a variety of resources and perspectives has helped me to observe work from different angles and ultimately improved my output. So how can you build your own library of resources specific to your needs? Here are a few starting points:<\/p>\n