I just added a new article to northtemple.com, exploring the question: “What is the one skill that can make the most positive impacts in your profession?”
Give it a read and let me know what you think.
133 April 30, 2008 · comments: 4
© 2007 John Dilworth (http://www.johndilworth.com)
Can you teach me how to learn? I need that skill.
Great post! has me thinking and will probably keep me thinking for quite some time now. It’s tough to narrow down your skills when you’re just a hack. Maybe that’s my skill!
Thanks for putting those thoughts together John. I think one of the frustrations of embryonic designers is the lack of clarity in the answers to questions like, “how do I be a good designer?” I think one thing that your post has done is explain a little bit why we don’t get more clear answers.
Great article. Even though it was simple it was very profound and gets you thinking about the most important skill. One attribute that was repeated in your article was “listening”, which is hard for most of us to do, especially when the one you have to listen to doesn’t always know what is best. I guess that ties into the learning part of it.
that’s a long list of skills, that i say could all be summed up in two words “problem solving”. when you boil it down to its essence, whether interactive or print design, it’s nothing more than problem solving.
@Matt
Thanks for commenting. I’m going to have to disagree with you — I don’t believe that Design is always about problem solving. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. I also don’t think there’s one skill called “problem solving” that can summarize everything. There are lots of different problems to solve, and some of them require different skills. There are also lots skills which are required for design that have nothing to do with problem solving. Just look at Paul Rand’s definition of design: content+form = design. That may or may not have anything to do with problem solving.
I’ve been thinking about this topic (Problem Solving) quite a bit lately, and wrote a little bit about it in another post about opportunities.
Maybe that one will give you a little bit more information about where I’m coming from.