Ways to keep your design mind fresh with new ideas

Isn’t design an important part of our lives? From the design of my laptop which I am using to write this article to the design of your spectacles which you are using to read this article, aren’t we very particular about our design choices? But the person behind all this amazing work might at times come across some challenges in bringing up such creative pieces of objects. A designer who always comes up with extraordinary design ideas might lack inspiration or the energy to be consistent in regard to innovation and creativity. So, what are they supposed to do? This article is exactly the answer to all these questions. By referring to this article, a designer will get the ideas to refresh his overworked mind and get charged up to create magic with his design skills. Here is how to be a successful designer.

Transform your creative vision into reality and set-up creative boundaries

Once you come up with a great idea in your mind, don’t give it a second thought by doubting it. Instead, find a way to turn the idea into action. Due to a lack of confidence, many designers fail to present their work to the clients. This, as a result, turns out to be a hurdle in a designer's career growth. So, how do designers stay creative? Every designer should trust his design ideas and move forward in transforming his creative idea into reality.

How to overcome creative blocks? A designer should mindfully build some creative boundaries which help in bringing more creativity into his life. This happens as when your focus is upon specific things, it's easy to have clarity upon your design plans and requirements. But if you are stuck among various options, it brings confusion, and you are bewildered with what to choose and what not to. Therefore, there is a need to set some healthy boundaries for a designer to be creative for a longer time. 

Planning design goals and finding your purpose can be beneficial

If you want to be skilled in something, all you have to do is keep on learning and growing. It is essential to consistently practice by setting some smart goals to reach the desired set outcomes for your advancement. Sometimes even after proper planning, you tend to lose vision of your ambition and fail to concentrate upon your growth and progress. But by setting such goals can keep you focused upon your work aspirations and help you achieve your preferred results and performance.

You should be very focused on your work goals and ambitions. It will help you to mindfully find your purpose to do better and help you feel motivated even in your hard times. You need to be your cheerleader and keep overcoming the obstacles to accomplish your career aspirations. This will help you in keeping your design mind new and fresh. 

Enhance storytelling skills and discover your strengths and weaknesses

One of the key responsibilities of a designer is to communicate the design choices in a very convincing manner. This can be creatively done by expressing thoughts with the help of a story. So, to present an exceptional design, it is important to understand the real story behind the final product. That’s the reason why a UX designer should adapt storytelling skills and build a strong relationship with his audience. For example, a storyboard can be a good way to visually present information about the product to the users and capture their attention. 

How do designers level up? If you want to evolve as a designer, you will have to find out both your strengths and weaknesses. Many times, the designer only focuses upon the weakness and feels incompetent to produce proper designs. There is a need to understand the weakness and try improving wherever required to be more creative and innovative for a longer period. A designer should also recognize his strengths as it will act as a motivation for him to maintain the good quality of his design work. 

Attending a design conference and making reading a habit can deepen your thoughts

As rightfully, said by the author, Publilius Syrus, “Where there is unity, there is always victory.” Talking about designing, there is always a need for a community that can motivate the designers to do better with their design skills leading to exceptional design work. So, such a community can be formed by attending the design conferences where you get to connect with people having unique talents and skills where you get a great learning exposure. You get to come across the latest technologies which can open a door of whole new opportunities for you to grow and succeed as a designer.

Learning is a never- ending process and you can gain knowledge from various sources. Out of which, reading can be a good habit to expand your design vision. Referring to some of the best design blogs, magazines, books, etc can be the key to success. By following these strategies, a designer can come up with new and fresh design ideas, taking creativity to a whole new level.

Look for feedback and collaborate with peers

Seeking feedback is always a good option for continuous growth and improvement. If you receive multiple opinions regarding your work then it helps to analyze your performance and enhance productivity and accomplish better results. When feedback is given with full honesty, it can act as a motivation for any professional to take it as a piece of advice to rectify mistakes, correct them and also keep up with the existing good work.

You can find creative inspiration among your peers and co-workers who are the nearest guides. There can be an exchange of ideas and thoughts among your fellow workers in a favorite place which could be a great learning experience. 

For example, collaboration with your peers of diverse backgrounds can help you understand the basics of ethical design, what design considerations you should have with regards to web accessibility, what sort of humour is acceptable in web design, why understanding cognitive accessibility is significant, how relevant is gender-inclusive web design, how important it is to know the specifics of cross-cultural design and, lastly, how diverse design teams can encourage innovation.

And, you can also learn why communication plays a vital role between designers and developers, how designers and developers should collaborate during code review and how frontend developers can help bridge the gap between developers’ and designers’ teams.

Refresh your mind by engaging in things other than design

It is very important to refresh your mind to come up with new ideas and innovations. Here are a few options that a designer can go for and take a moment to calm their busy minds. 

Music can be a stress buster. Sometimes listening to your favorite song can be the answer to your question.

Take a break and go to a favorite destination of your choice. If it’s about connecting with nature, then walk down to a beautiful natural location and forget all the worries of life. All you need to do is just relax and get charged up for some excellent design creativity and imagination.

Having a morning routine that includes meditation, or any physical workout can be a great start for the day. By starting right, you can move towards the day with positivity and confidence helping you reach your complete potential.

Taking small breaks can rejuvenate your mind and re-energize you to be more productive at your work. Constantly, working without any breaks can make you feel exhausted and tired.

You can apply a trick to refresh your mind by starting your day with a lighter task which will further boost up your energy and get you into a working mood. 

Always try and learn different design skills

As a designer, you need to develop some skills which will help you bring more creativity to your work. Here are some of the skills you can learn to advance your design career.

You can start with UX copywriting skills. During the design process, one important thing to be kept in mind is to make users easily understand the process of using the product without any difficulties. This can be done by explaining things in a very simple language making their experience smooth and easy. This builds strong communication between the user and the digital product. Therefore, a designer should be well versed with UX copywriting skills to connect to its audience helping them to have an enjoyable experience with the product.

Having coding skills can be an added advantage. Through coding, you can make the user-product interaction more interesting by using animation and moving prototypes to conveniently explain the functionality of each design element. This will be visually appealing and will also be able to attract the audience to witness a user-friendly experience.

Environmental graphic design skills aren’t a new concept but it too cannot be avoided. It is a vast topic that includes industrial design, wayfinding, placemaking interior, and exhibition design. This is done by combining visual elements like pattern, material, image, color, and including digital technology to the natural environment to reveal some specified information or message. If you find this interesting, you can step in and do wonders with your design imagination and thoughts.

Augmented reality design skills are something that is to be talked about. It is a combination of real- life input with computer- generated ones. Pokemon Go or a Snapchat filter can be some good examples of it. By getting involved in this design skill, you can increase user-product engagement and provide an excellent user experience. 

Voice user interface design is one of the ongoing trends around the globe. In this fast-paced world, voice technologies are proving to be one of the important necessities of our daily life. So, designers can smartly take up this skill and enter into the next level of their career growth. These are some of the skills every designer should have.

For example, you can see why learning atomic design methodology can help with your component-based design approach. Or, why writing is an essential skill for the designers in so many different ways. Or, how can you go about designing a microcopy for your website.

Keep an eye on the latest graphic design trends

As a designer, a lot of different questions might come to your mind, like “How do I take my graphic design to the next level”? Or, you may think “How do you keep yourself updated with the design trends?” To stay consistent in the design industry, you will have to be flexible enough to adapt to the new design trends and latest technologies for presenting products according to the customer’s preferences. You can keep yourself updated with the latest graphic design trends that will be a great help. Check into 2021 graphic design trends which comprise three dominant themes like socially-conscious design, optimism, and dissonance. Each of these themes consists of various design techniques and styles which can broaden your design mindset helping you discover creativity.

In recent years, we have observed that certain UX elements have worked well for mobile applications, so as a result they are also seen adopted for websites and desktop platforms. Therefore, web designers now have to upgrade their skills and learn some elements of mobile design as well. This further reveals the need for designers to be versatile with their skills to go hand-in-hand with the fast-changing world.

For example, staying abreast of design trends can help in the design discovery process. It eventually helps in creating design that builds user trust, sustains attention, and improves decision making.

Above all, don’t be scared of failing

One of the most common challenges faced by any professional is the fear of failure. You sometimes doubt yourself and are scared of taking risks. But one thing which always has to be kept in mind is that it’s through mistakes you grow and learn. So, even if you fail, never stop trying until you reach your destination. 

Read this complete guide on web design and website redesign strategies to know more.

Conclusion

Design is a very creative career path that comes with a lot of challenges. A designer has to constantly think about new and fresh ideas to make users love and appreciate their customized design styles. So, to reach that user's expectations, the designers leave no stones unturned but sometimes are clueless about the required efforts and dedication. But as we all know, “When there is a problem, there is always a solution.” Therefore, there is a need for designers to look into things from a new perspective and mindfully, find some easy solutions instead of going after the complex ones. And this article tried giving some simple tips which can be easily followed and be a great help in transforming a designer’s career to new heights.