Has worked for Twitter in the past, now is Independent and working with small startups.
We develop habits based on things that happen in their career. Others also pass down their habits to us.
We are here because we want to learn new things and be better at what we do. Sometimes that makes making change in the processes we have.
We are dealing with a changing web. Our designs need to adapt to the context our users are viewing them in. We are dealing with SO MANY different devices.
91% of Americans are cell phone owners, and most of them use their cell phones to access the internet. 32% of Americans have e-readers. 42% of Americans have tablets…
There may not be concrete data right now on how many sites are built to be fully responsive, but all you have to do is go to Twitter and do a quick search to find out how many people are having issues accessing websites and how it affects their life.
So why do we resist change?
There is an investment in change, whether it be money or time. For example, updating the software on your computer to get the newest most efficient features could take an entire day!
Reason people don’t change:
TIME
What would happen if we didn’t change?
People need to change their process and skill set or become obsolete. YOU CAN BE REPLACED if you do not keep refreshing your skills and process. You could go out of business if you don’t change.
Starbucks is always trying to integrate into their customers lives. They do that in how they sell their coffee but also in how they build their websites.
If we get too focused on things outside of our wheelhouse, you could find that your competition could easily eat you for lunch.
“He who stops being better stops being good.” – Paul Rand
It’s our jobs to create the path we need in order to make the change we want to make. Become a change champion in addition to be a _____.
Change is HARD, and is harder the larger an organization is.
How to champion change:
- Build a community of supporters. It takes a village to build a responsive design system. When you want to make a change you have to be passionate about it. New CNN design – hundreds of people who touched the redesign at many levels. You can’t just imagine a designer and a developer and a content strategist – you have to have everyone involved because we are all designers! It’s not networking, it’s making friends (with a common interest). Build a community in order to activate change. **EXERCISE – tell the person next to you a story about your name. Got to hear Jeffrey Zeldman’s story about how his first name is Luis because that was his mother’s father’s name who died when she was 11 but that he went by Jeffrey because his mom thought Luis Zeldman sounded like a gangster.
- Begin executing on those design tactics.
- Plant a Seed: Create a survey…. “If this project were an automobile, what automobile brand would it be and why?” Gets people involved in the process, makes them think a different way…
- The Already Done: also known as “just do it.” Example: Style Tiles was a good way to talk in the terms people were using like buttons and colors and fonts… it also helped move things along quickly. Example: The accessibility symbol that was just designed and CHANGED, and 5 years later was written into law as the new official accessibility symbol for the state of New York. A prototype can save you 1000 meetings (and so much bureaucracy). If you can just go and make it real, you can go farther faster. Make friends that know how to prototype to help you do this. If you can just make it happen yourself that’s the fastest way to do it.
- Money talks: Understanding business is a design skill and you can use this skill to enact the change you want to make. A process change can save money. It’s all about how you present your case. By speaking the language of those that make the decision can help get your idea passed. Have measurable goals and affect the bottom line! Process Change: Design = Time = Money. If she could convince the company she could save them time, that can be directly translated into money.
- Increase revenue
- Decrease cost
- Increase new business
- Increase existing business
- Increase shareholder value
- Share
- Talk one to one
- Participate in an event or activity with people
- Make it part of your process to share on whatever platform you use like Basecamp, Stack, etc.
- If it doesn’t exist in the wiki, it doesn’t exist
- Publicly – blog post, talk
Change is hard. You don’t do it right the first time.
“It’s through mistakes that you actually grow. You have to get bad in order to get good.” -Paula Scher
Change isn’t something you always see. It’s the environment you create, the culture around you, how a team may approach a project the next time.
Fear can come in all sort of forms. It’s our job to empathize with those who are resistant to change and relentlessly find the tactics that work to make change happen. It’s about assessing the problem and brining your solution to help people wash out their resistance to change and move forward.
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