{"id":4309,"date":"2017-09-15T09:36:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T08:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2022-11-28T16:24:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T15:24:28","slug":"designers-need-creativity-practicality-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/designers-need-creativity-practicality-succeed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Designers Need Creativity and Practicality to Succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_83 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/designers-need-creativity-practicality-succeed\/#Practical_Matters\" >Practical Matters<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/designers-need-creativity-practicality-succeed\/#When_Creative_Solutions_Turn_Practical\" >When Creative Solutions Turn Practical<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/designers-need-creativity-practicality-succeed\/#The_Practical_Approach_to_Design\" >The Practical Approach to Design<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/designers-need-creativity-practicality-succeed\/#You_Need_Both\" >You Need Both<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>One of the lasting messages we see across the world of web design is the idea of inspiring creativity. Designers everywhere are encouraging us to find our inner artist by any means possible.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, that makes perfect sense. Our jobs require a certain level of creativity \u2013 we probably wouldn\u2019t be in this line of work without it. But that doesn\u2019t mean endless creativity has to flow through our veins. It\u2019s just not realistic.<\/p>\n<p>What we never hear mentioned is another essential skill: Practicality. I know, it sounds like something your grandparents would talk about. But I\u2019d argue that it\u2019s just as \u2013 if not more \u2013 important than being creative.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Practical_Matters\"><\/span>Practical Matters<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Being practical may mean different things to different people. For designers, it\u2019s all about doing things in a safe and well-thought-out manner. The results show up in things like placing navigation where users are most likely to expect it and making sure websites are <a href=\"https:\/\/speckyboy.com\/web-accessibility-101\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">accessible<\/a>, among other things.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, our job is to carry out the main mission of virtually every website: Build something that allows users to access the information they need as painlessly as possible. You can\u2019t do that without being at least a little practical.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the early days of web design, practicality wasn\u2019t often a consideration. Since the web was a new medium, the philosophy was often more about throwing a bunch of components together and seeing what would stick.<\/p>\n<p>I think about the first websites I built and how little consistency there was from page to page. There wasn\u2019t a whole lot of thought put into why I did things \u2013 I just did them.<\/p>\n<p>But as the web has matured, we have seen the light of what practicality can do for design. What the best designers have found is that all the crazy special effects in the world mean nothing if they take away from the purpose of the website. Being practical means that we\u2019re only adding bells and whistles that <em>enhance<\/em> the user experience \u2013 not take away from it.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_Creative_Solutions_Turn_Practical\"><\/span>When Creative Solutions Turn Practical<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Where creativity comes in is not only about aesthetics, but also finding solutions to potential problems. For example, some wise soul out there decided that mega menus were the answer to helping people navigate a site with a large amount of categorized content.<\/p>\n<div id=\"quads-ad1\" class=\"quads-location quads-ad1\">\u00a0But the interesting thing is that sometimes a creative solution can grow up to become a practical one. In the case of mega menus, we now see that as an acceptable way to implement vast navigation structures. In the right circumstance, it\u2019s the most practical thing to do.<\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say we don\u2019t still have room for a more unbridled type of creative work. There are still designers out there working to build experimental interfaces and pushing the boundaries of what works on the web. Those renegades are still an important part of the overall picture.<\/p>\n<p>Their risk-taking is an essential part of moving things forward. And, their successes may very well become the next mainstream solution to whatever issues we face.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Practical_Approach_to_Design\"><\/span>The Practical Approach to Design<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>How, then to add practicality to your design arsenal? The good news is that you\u2019re most likely doing some practical things every day \u2013 even if you aren\u2019t really thinking about it in that way.<\/p>\n<p>The process of planning out a project, for instance, is a very practical thing to do. Figuring out content structure and the specific needs of the site you\u2019re working on are the first steps. From there, you move on to prototyping, revision and implementation. It all sounds like a pretty well-thought-out way to do things.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, the key is to think about the challenges you face and how to best approach them. Think it out rather than go for the first idea that pops into your head. Look deeper into the potential issues each idea can resolve, along with any unintended consequences that will go along with it. In the end, make your decision based on what makes the most sense for users.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, it\u2019s time for your creativity to kick in. Implementing the choices you\u2019ve made will require a creative touch. Going back to the earlier example, if we decide that using a mega menu is the best route to go, we then need to carry out the task of building it using our imagination. The menus will need styled, organized and any special touches can be added in from there.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re working on a problem so unique that it either doesn\u2019t have a practical solution or the ones out there aren\u2019t so great, you can then use creativity to make things better. Remember that everything now considered practical was once radical to someone out there.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"You_Need_Both\"><\/span>You Need Both<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While creative inspiration may be the sexier subject, a practical approach to web design is just waiting for someone to give it some love \u2013 and rightfully so. It, after all, is a big part of the overall equation when it comes to creating a great website.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, this is my ode to practicality. Let\u2019s celebrate all it does and can do for us. Alright, now it can go quietly into the background. Bring on the creative inspiration posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the lasting messages we see across the world of web design is the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[206,207,181,132],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general","tag-creativity","tag-practicality","tag-webdesign","tag-website"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-manager.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}