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Designing an Idea - How to Beautify your Inspiration
Designing a website is, as most designers would already know, a methodical process which typically requisites a fair amount of creativity, knowledge on aesthetic principles and a decent handling of code/mark-up. (primarily CSS). These steps are acquired thorough consistent practice and experimentation. But what about the creative ideas behind these designs, how can they be evolved, and transformed into effective starting points of an overall website design? This article explores how exactly designers can “design an idea”, before integrating that very same idea into the structured paradigm of a new web project.
Designing an idea is just as important as the actual design itself. It should be seen as a process that is sequentially positioned before the actual phase of designing, but just after that moment of sublime inspiration. In short, this piece will serve as a guide of what you should be doing when struck by that all-elusive “eureka moment”.
Awesomeness is not Always Awesome
All web projects germinate from a single idea or an amalgamation of various thoughts. It is thus vital to first clearly comprehend a design idea by analysing its practicality and relevance to the project at hand.
Many a times, great ideas can seem overwhelmingly amazing at first but painfully illogical upon execution.
An idea needs to be analysed holistically before it is applied to any sort of design framework.If you’ve been flirting with an idea for a new design theme for your blog, it is wise to first critically analyse the foundational basis of that idea. Why do you want a re-design and how will it affect the current visual and technical environment of your website? These reflective questions will serve as a type of self-imposed validation on your idea before it is expanded and incorporated within the design workflow. A crucially important question to ask is; how applicable is a design idea to the requirements of readers or clients (in the case of commercial projects)? If for example you are embarking on a series of illustrative comic strips for a client based project, be sure to fully explore all potentialities of how that particular idea you have could be received by the wider public. The bottom line here is to fully ensure that your “awesome idea” is truly awesome within the boundaries of common aesthetic sensibilities, or to put it more bluntly, - everyone should find your idea awesome and not just yourself.
Strip it down to the Bare Essentials
Every idea that arrives into our thought process is usually weighed down with a whole load of other mental baggage. The human mind has the innate tendency to instinctively associate a single idea with several other related concepts. While this is can be a useful mental characteristic to have in the creative industry, it can also be a distracting hindrance. Design ideas have to be stripped down to their bare essentials. More often than not, we implement an idea without ever realising and appreciating its core essence.
The trick is, when you have an idea, make sure it is coherent and understandable to yourself. It is imperative to get into the quintessence of an idea before considering its potential connections (if any) with other related concepts.
When I first had the intention to start a design blog, the whole idea of running a website independently was thoroughly overwhelming. Due to this all-engulfing experience I was initially guilty of overlooking the finer intricacies involved in starting a successful design blog, such as the actual topical niche it would cover and what sub-narrative messages would the aesthetic design itself convey to readers (would the design be humorous, whimsical or impart a blend of seriousness and intellectual authority?).
An idea is inherently deceptive; it is rarely what it first appears to be. Because of its generally fluid nature, designers must first pin down the crux or central premise contained within the idea (the bare essentials), before launching it onto the drawing board.
Latch on to that Thread of Clarity
The most compelling design ideas are usually concepts that have a clear purpose and objective, but apart from that, they also contain a single “thread of clarity”. You must be able to “mentally document” the initial stages of the design idea right up to its “point of reception” –anticipating the kind of reader or client response you wish to obtain from that particular idea. In certain circumstances, designers may be shouldered with the extra responsibility of eliciting a particular response from viewers (the comic artists behind serials such as “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” for example have to ensure a consistent comic punch line in all their skits) and as such, they must have prior knowledge of how a specific idea materialises as a functional subject. Designers have to be several steps ahead in the design process.
The Encoding/Decoding Model of Communication
Designing an idea also involves a precise understanding of how that particular idea can be potentially communicated to a targeted audience. Stuart Hall, an academic theoretician, conceptualised the communication process in a simple encoding-decoding model. He conceived that the communication process in entirety is directed by specific codes and contexts which shape the message from sender to receiver (there is of course more complex theoretical dynamic behind his work, which I will leave out for the sake of clarity).
Tripping Words, for example, is a blog primarily about design philosophy. As such, its chief message (“design philosophy”) will consistently be conveyed to the reader in a myriad of different ways and means, either through design or content. The message however is shaped by certain contextual elements. These elements include the presentational style of content, the popularity of “design philosophy” as a search engine keyword and possibly the existence of other design blogs covering the same niche area. There are a few of the several external factors influencing the design structure of a design idea (that was a mouthful!).
Concluding Remarks
Designing an idea is not a monolithic process, but a multi-faceted component of the web design field. It is hoped that after you’ve read this article, you would see design as an encapsulation of “idea-design” and “practical-design”. Do remember that a well-rehearsed idea is the groundwork for a truly engaging design.
How much attention do you pay to your design related ideas?
Editors Note: I would like to sincerely thank my readers for all the support/feedback I’ve received through emails/Twitter/on-site comments over the past few weeks. This week in particular has been an eventful one with Tripping Words receiving an all-time high number of unique pageviews (or at least according to Google Analytics). So, thank you!
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Tripping Words runs on a customized version of Expression Engine. This whole website is dynamically randered through multiple EE templates. 
Great Article Josh! However, I would like to add a few more things.
I think one must also consider his existing skills before working on an idea. I would like to share some personal examples regarding this point. I recently came up with an idea for a new pet project. However, I realized that this web project required Super Photoshop skills. Unfortunately, I didn’t had those skills. Still I decided not to abandon the idea and started working on my existing skills. But believe me, sometimes you do get frustrated because you are so much excited about the idea and still you are bound by your under developed skills.
There is also one another problem which I call as- “Idea chain reaction”. You start working on your idea and then you an stumble on something awesome. You get tempted to include this awesome thing in your idea. You work on it and then again you come across something more awesome! The process goes on as you want to come up with the best product. This same thing happened with the game- Duke Nukem Forever. They kept on reworking on it and lost all their budget in the process. I think one must also learn to let go and concentrate on building what was originally envisioned.
Great article and solid point from Adit. However, the conclusion you make that one must learn to concentrate on building what was originally envisioned is a nice idea in theory, but I don’t think that sort of thinking meshes with my process. One of my co-workers has a process like this, where he zones in completely on the idea before even beginning his design process; whereas I prefer to get a base idea and let it evolve as I find out what works and doesn’t work. Both strategies can be effective but I think it is dangerous to slip into a habbit of only approaching ideas in one way.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. We get plenty of them everyday. The key is deciding on that “diamond in the rough” and the designing and polishing it until it takes shape. Good points that you bring up, but I will have to respectfully disagree with one comment that you made. You mentioned that everyone should find your idea “awesome.” While that sounds great at first, it’s not possible in my opinion. It will be very rare that 100% of the people will agree with you. There will always be that negative crowd. I think the key with that point is as long as you really like the idea and you think it will work, not based on bias, but based on your meticulous research, then you should run with it. It’s like the “Lorem Ipsum” article on Design Informer.
By the way, great examples used. I really like the comic about sinking into the snow. It’s perfect. I’m really enjoying the thought-stimulating articles here on Tripping Words. Keep it up mate!
Hi Adit.
Fantastic response as usual!
You brought up an excellent point that I missed. Every designer has certain strengths and weaknesses in various aspects for the design process. For example, my main weakness lies in coding web applications in PHP, a language which I am still learning every day. I guess only by practice and sometimes formal learning can we overcome the deficit of skills.
You mentioned that you still continued with the project after all. That is great perseverance!
As for your second point on the “Idea chain reaction”, that is something I face very often. There is always an urge to expand and develop an existing idea which may lead to a loss of focus on the prevailing objectives. It is important thus to always acknowledge the essence of any idea, before attempting to draw relationships with other concepts. Thanks for bringing up these very well-thought points Adit.
Hello Aaron,
Welcome back! Well, it’s true that a one-dimensional perspective is never useful in the creative industry. But having said that, I think every project revolves around a few central ideas (like you said “a base idea”), so before advancing on a project I guess it important to check if all these central concepts have been properly acknowledged.
As for the actual design workflow, I too prefer to “design as I think”, rather than zone in completely on a single idea. After all experimentation is the name of the game. However, I guess when I wrote the article, I was thinking about the preliminary ideas one gets just after being inspired to work on something; that “Eureka moment” where a million ideas are rushing all at once and when you need some kind of direction. But you’ve brought up an excellent point.
Hi Jad,
Thanks for the insightful response. Yes, I have to agree with the point you made about “awesomeness”. I guess I was stressing the fact that there is a tendency for us to be too caught up with the complexities of our own idea that we often forget to check if that idea is indeed appealing to the wider public. It seems to me that as designers, we are sometimes almost instinctually “obsessed” with our own inventions, a sentiment which can be at times “delusional”. But it’s definitely true that there will always be critics and it is near impossible to please everyone, and “awesomeness” is often a subjective characteristic. I should have clarified my argument above.
Thanks for the kind words. I tried to source for examples that best reflect the various arguments that I’ve put across. Glad you liked it! Cheers
Hi Aaron,
What I wanted to convey here is that mostly our ideas are dependent on some form of existing technology. One can always develop new ideas with time, and infact it’s a good thing. However, this would require getting adapted to new technologies or building new technologies altogether, which will ask for more time and sometimes more money. For example, a developer wants to have some sort of cool effect on his website. He starts working on it in JavaScript and then on a later stage realizes that it could have been done much more easily in jQuery. Now, he can opt to make a move to jQuery, but this would take some more of his time in getting used to jQuery. jQuery also gives you the power to come up with some cool effects with less efforts. The developer might get addicted to this new tool and his focus can easily shift to include many more cool effects rather than just one. The final result would not only be delayed but could also be damaged by over use of the tool. Something quite similar happened with the team of Duke Nukem.
It totally depends on how much time, money and efforst you can devote to your idea. James Cameron took 14 years and a whopping budget to come up with Avatar because he had to develop an altogether new technology. But, you can see the result!
There is nothing wrong in developing your idea with time provided you can keep pace with the ever changing technology.
@Adit
Well said Adit. Technology certainly plays a rather influential role in idea-design and development but it can also steer a designer away from his/her intended course (especially when getting used to a new technical/programming environment). I guess if you have the time and budget to fully explore an idea thoroughly, then the end-product would inevitably be of high quality or thereabouts. I do believe that there are no fixed principles behind the actual time a designer should spend on sprucing up their ideas, but rather it depends on a variety of external factors (like time/budget).
You have a great article here, Josh! That’s worth to read your articles about design knowledge!
Thanks my friend, keep it up!
Just wanted to point out that you have some crazy linespacing/leading going on as well as some sporadic indentation. I apologize if this was a conscious decision, just wanted to let you know it was kind of painful to read. Yet the content was good : )
@Lam
Thanks Lam, for the comment. Glad you liked it!
@Sarah
Thanks for the feedback. I am actually in the process of re-designing certain aspects of this site.
Good post. You are right on about the need to understand the intricacies of the holistic design process.
Hi Jose. Thanks for the comment. The design process is really a complex subject and and all its various facets need to be explored. That is primarily the aim of this website.
Great article, Josh. When I think of ideas, my first thought is marker and paper, drawing and sketching. Actually, I think that getting ideas = sketching. I strongly believe that this is crucial for the process of transforming thoughts into designs. You get from thought to design through many different ideas, through many sketches. For me, it is the best way to move from conceptual to physical.
In order to find the “right” or “awesome” idea, you’d have to draw a lot and throw almost everything you drew. What has left is your “perfect” idea.
Anyway, it seems as if this is going to be a year of redesign, I am also in the redesign phase
Thanks Janko.
Great point. Sketching is indeed the primary developing foundation of any idea. I too enjoy pencil sketching before actually sitting in-front of the computer to design. Quite often the end result looks way different from the sketches, but I guess it is the process that counts. Sketching allows you assess all your ideas before committing to a central concept.
I tweeted this article yesterday but didn’t have enough time to leave a comment.
I am glad someone took so much time to write about the process of forming ideas.
“The trick is, when you have an idea, make sure it is coherent and understandable to yourself. It is imperative to get into the quintessence of an idea before considering its potential connections (if any) with other related concepts.”
This line is the highlight of the article for me. It really is important to understand (and explore) a whole idea before determining its value. I am not saying flesh out an entire concept, I think if you understand your idea and give it some life and credence (such as a wireframe or a sketch) you can identify whether or not it is worth pursuing.
Hi Mary, Great to see your comment on this article!
You have put it very elegantly! There is a general tendency/temptation amongst designers (or so I presume) to go straight into the design process proper, without taking time to evaluate and analyse ideas. It might be a minor step but it most certainly is a defining one.
A great tutorial. Leonardo Da Vinci said ‘He who thinks little, the wrong lot.’
@Josemi
Thanks for the comment!
Hi,
well, I tried to read the article but I couldn’t. Really bad choice of colours and font. Sorry
This post comes at a time that I am at a pivotal moment in my design career and it couldn’t have said it better.
I love how much freedom I have as an independent designer, working on my own projects.
I noticed, when I first began some of my first projects, I often went with a shotgun approach (which I still love) of developing an idea and running with it, while sorting out some of the fine details later.
The problem with this approach, at least for me, was that a single hiccup in the process could derail my entire plan.
In recent months I’ve stepped back, started reading blogs such as this one, started to get inspired and reworked my strategy.
As you covered in the “stripping down” section, it helped to identify what was my true goal of working on my projects and how I could present it to the community without only fulfilling my ego.
You may have a million ideas and many of them may be fantastic but if you don’t really take the time to understand the essence of it, you will get caught up on the design and the wizbang.
You’ll be left with a pretty design but without function.
You keep writing and I’ll keep reading
@Murlu
Hi Murlu, thanks for sharing your thoughts and I’m glad you found this article useful. You have summed up the article quite beautifully. Well I do believe that behind any design there are a few core ideas which encapsulate the entire functionality and purpose of that design. If you break them down into sizable proportions, there is a high chance that you would be able to advance that idea to its maximum potential.
Once again thanks for commenting and I look forward to reading more of your comments here for future posts.
I really like this post and my favorite part of it is “critically analyse the foundational basis of that idea” even though there is a spelling mistake there lol.
Great post!
@e11world
Thanks for the response! Haha…well I’m still stuck with the British spelling system, hence “analyse” rather than “analyze”. lol
Cheers