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From Tools for Design To Designing Tools

My career in interface design started when I wrote my first software review.

I don't remember what that article was. But I can tell you that I co-authored it with Photoshop and multimedia legend David Biedny for MacWorld or MacUser in 1994. I can tell you that I was scared and intimidated. I can tell you that I used two spaces after every period. And I can tell you it was surely some creative piece of software that I'd never used before, and I had to learn it inside and out in two weeks.

It was the first time in my limited career that I had to learn how complex software is organized and presented to its users. 3D applications have long been the worst offenders of having totally different core metaphors, layouts, and interface paradigms between them. Having done two or three consecutive years of 3D-application shootout articles forced me to really look long and hard at the art and science of interface design. Many articles and years later, and after having helped write books on Photoshop and After Effects, I've found that technical writing was a great entry into assessing and critiquing interface design.

I've found that a deep understanding my software tools is also critical for honing my ability to design other interfaces. Look at Photoshop, for example. One of the reasons it's so widely used is that it allows the user to employ their own approach to a problem. If you want to increase the contrast in a photograph, there are no less than four or five ways to do it. This is one of Photoshop's core strengths: creatively-minded users won't do the same task the same way, and Photoshop accomodates this by providing many ways to ultimately accomplish the same result.

Inspirations from Other Disciplines

Audio software is another rich source of interface inspiration. Audio software is always at least two to five years ahead of any other creative discipline when it comes to digital innovation, whether that's the (increasingly outdated) MIDI, or the initial implementations of the physical modeling of circuitry in applications like the now-discontinued ReBirth, or the completely-digital workflow of the professional studio. Much of the same thing applies to audio interfaces...it's certainly pretty apparent that the Adobe After Effects team looked to applications like Ableton Live for UI inspiration (this has been verified through the application of intense pressure using wine and tapas at FlashForward 2006).

Even computer games are a field to study for interface design. The best example of the ultraminimalist yet utterly discoverable game interface I've ever seen is Myst. The best heads-up display I've ever seen is in Counter-Strike...but even so, having your money (used between game rounds to keep you equipped) closer to the center of the screen than how much ammo you have (used during game rounds to keep you alive) could still use some work.

Think about this more broadly, as well, and you could potentially argue that marketing and information architecture both have borrowed heavily from the testing techniques of psychology. Examples like these abound in all disciplines.

Good artists steal. Great artists steal and then hack like hell to build the better mousetrap.

Finding Your Inspiration

What I'm really talking about here is getting inspiration from other design disciplines to fuel your own ideas and innovate design in new ways. The key is to notice solutions in other related fields that could help solve a challenge you're facing.

Look in front of your hands every day and interface design inspiration is everywhere, and not necessarily in your native design discipline. Check how close are your car's controls to your focus of attention while driving. Think about tactile affordances, like detents in the sweep of knobs and faders, that you feel on a mixing board. Ask a pal in special effects or games how they track project progress or chart asset workflow. Study your own usage patterns with everything from bicycle pumps to kayak paddles to tents to websites you use. Look at the applications you use every day. Can you operate your digital camera blindfolded...why or why not?

Who knows...like me, through really studying one aspect of a discipline, you might someday find the tables turned. Now others are judging my interface designs...