principles

Scott Belsky Talk at South Park Commons

• Often designs from frustration 

• Right now, greater skill is being brought by compute and developing a democratization of many things (code, design, etc.). Because of this, taste will probably be the most important skill 

• Taste is derived from culture and overlap of industries 

• Because of that

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Obsess over customers, not over competitors!

Customers rarely leave you because of your competitors. They leave you because you stopped taking care of them.

Great communication isn’t just about what you say; it’s about what other people hear.

Praise people but don’t forget to have the hard conversations.

Praising is important and so is having the tough conversations when someone isn’t giving their best. People appreciate when you have the tough conversations with them because that’s where they can draw all their future growth from.

If all you do is praise and high-five everyone, your team

One of the most intelligent case studies in design is the Chinese tea cup. They’re made without handles simply because if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to drink.

Humans naturally want to add more. Add a cardboard sleeve, add a warning on the outside of the cup, add a handle. The result of all these things never cools down the actual contents.

Win the war, not the battle

it takes us an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after an interruption, and even when we do, we experience a decrease in productivity.

7 Fundamental Principles of Design

1. Affordance

2. Discoverability

3. Feedback

4. Constraints

5. Conceptual Model

6. Mappings

7. Signifiers

Everyone has two lives and the second starts when you realize you have just one