I had a great meeting today where the conversation of course turned to being passionate about the work you do in the context of web stuff and user experience. You know, one of those dorky conversations that most people roll their eyes at except for the people who "get it".
I don't mean to sound exclusionary, but there's definitely a clear dividing line between those who get it and those who don't.
So, one of the people in the room took the conversation to heart and sent me this great link to a post from the Creating Passionate User's site: How to Be an Expert.
I'd like to challenge those who don't get it to strive for excellent-kickass-ness, rather than mediocre-suckiness. It's all about practice, time and dedication.
Is it in you?
I was listening to Eric Meyer’s keynote message, given at the @media conference this past year, during my morning run. Something he mentioned struck me. He was talking about the creativity of a respected colleague, and how he had come up with a unique way of using CSS to create a diagonal line – no images! Both Eric and Jeffrey Zeldman were duly impressed with his creative and simplistic approach.
The story made me think: creating simple, yet useful designs is where it’s at; especially when it comes to Web design and, more importantly, user experience. It’s sort of like the paperclip. This simple useful design is something all of us use and instinctively understand. Oh, and it’s reusable too. Someone (I really should look it up) invented this small wire coil that today is ubiquitous.
The exciting part was when I realized how fortunate we are to be working in such a young science. There are paperclips to be discovered at every turn! It’s up to us to open our minds to possibilities; to look past the complex at the simple solutions. Often, it’s the small things that make the biggest difference.
So I say: Go ahead. Discover your paperclip. Share it. Who knows, your paperclip may inspire the binder clip, and the binder clip may inspire the binder, and so on. People who “get it” inspire others who “get it”.
Thanks for the post Hello Happy Pitbulls!
Posted by: Anne | August 09, 2006 at 06:54 PM