buzz and noise

In many situations, change is the only thing we can count on in any career, project, or best-organized plan. Today’s standards of success will take a different approach than what worked yesterday, and it is going to change again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. So rather than cower in fear, or reminisce about how things used to be, it’s time to embrace change (or at a minimum become respectful ‘friends’) to take advantage of all the opportunities change has to offer. 

How an innovative design and development team functions, or any team for that matter, by today’s standards of success requires a different approach than what worked a year ago. The strategy and goals of an industry’s clients, markets, and customers must be identified so everyone is aware of what lies ahead and the expectations of change to follow. It is up to each of us to outline a new path for ourselves to develop the skills (both hard and ’soft’) for what is needed in a constant transformational future.

For example, does your organization focus on Traditional Media? Digital Media? e-Learning? Marketing? Commerce? Gaming? Is your content going digital?  Have you made the decision to move your website off desktops and onto tablets and mobile phones? Are you a Mac or a PC? Does it matter? Where do your customers/users get most of their information? Has it changed? Well with COVID-19, who hasn’t had to change… and quickly. But there still remains a lot of work for each of us to do. 

If you want to be viable next year, you need to make the decision to be viable this week. Make it your mission to care, encourage, and support those around you to learn something new every day and become agile in the practice of life-long learning. 

Where do you begin? How do you assess the type of skills required in our current and future digital landscapes? Positions such as Application Developer, Game Designer, Experience Learning Architect, Mobile Developer, Scrum Project Manager, User Experience Designer,  seem to be on everyone’s “hot” list. Where can you find these people? Do you need them? The skills required for these positions— problem-solving, critical thinking, exceptional design—have always been in demand, but are now also essential for a growing number of new and developing communication channels. Many of the positions we hear about today didn’t exist a few years ago, or maybe they did but under a different name. Either way, the big problem is everyone is just beginning—there are no experts—and with technology changing rapidly, everyone is playing catch up, all day, every day. So be sure to share what you learn to accelerate the process not only for yourself but for your entire team so you are continuously updating and advancing your capabilities.

I read this article, a few years ago, in Before & After magazine (founded by John McWade the creator of the world’s first desktop studio) and was struck by something that still resonates with me today. 

From my own professional experience, I estimate that entire professional life cycles are now changing even faster to be closer to every two years.

From my empirical observations and user research over the last 4 years from a wide variety of industries, leaders, managers, and talent alike need to constantly gain new skills. And should strive to have a minimum of “three suits” they are comfortable wearing while having a “best suit” that reflects their strongest skills. To continue doing what we love in our professions we must be agile in our ability to transition from one thing to another and embrace lifelong learning to become more than we were yesterday, and better than we dreamed of tomorrow.

We have been thinking about collaborating on how to provide resources around design fundamentals and how they impact everything in how people communicate, read, learn, engage and interact whether at work, rest or play. As artists, design thinkers, software engineers and educators focused on human-centered design, we have been fussing about the industry for some time; back to the days when software came in a box, and there was no such thing as a subscription model. Yeah, that far back. We like to think we do a pretty good job of staying on top of industry trends, but let’s face it, it’s better to have LOTS of friends with different backgrounds who have the same passion as we do, but different talents and experiences so we can learn from one another. It makes problem-solving much more fun and design solutions that are much more amazing.

Some time ago (a real long time ago)  I was at a ‘Higher Ed Camp’ in Philadelphia looking to glean from the presenters knowledge I lacked so I could increase my ‘bag of tricks’ to upgrade my current digital projects. That is when I met Nick, a terrific presenter who obviously had A LOT of experience in the technology space surrounding all things digital. How did I know he had that kind of experience, you ask? Simple. His interactive samples were already 5-7 years old, but they looked like they were made with the most current technology. Nick knew how to design in an engaging way so people could interact, regardless of their age or technology prowess. Nick’s experience also came from ‘long ago and far away’ (like me), as he demonstrated how to create a drop shadow in Photoshop without using a button or effect. I knew right then we would be great friends 🙂

I introduced myself, and we have been collaborating ever since serving on industry boards, hosting talks and workshops, and even creating a corporate learning event or two.  

So where do we start when we want to show the design and development process to create amazing learning experiences? Well at the beginning of course, at the VERY beginning. Just so you know, we did not make this stuff up, the tenets of good design have been around for a very long time, people just keep forgetting to use them.

We will be sharing what has helped us launch hundreds of amazing user experiences for our customers, learners, employees who are people just like you, to help you to update, enhance or adopt a process that will enable you to continually grow and develop within your discipline. So get ready, grab a notebook (pencil or digital) and see how you might ‘level’ up your next experiences.