Home improvement insights that will make you a better designer.

About 10 months ago my wife and I set out to renovate a room in our house. As the project was nearing completion I couldn’t stop looking at a set of sliding bypass doors in our wall that concealed a storage area. They were installed using a big box store, off-the-shelf kit that was perfectly functional, but far from beautiful. They detracted from the overall visual appeal of the room. I decided to fix that by building custom doors. Easy right? 🙄

I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted the final result to look like, but I was unsure how to execute on my ideas. I have a bad habit of allowing my lack of experience working with wood and various tools to leave me paralyzed by the fear of making a potentially expensive mistake.

Fast forward 5 months and that door project is finally completed. Reflecting on the process I noticed a few insights that apply to my career as a product designer that I feel are worth sharing.

1. Details matter

My room already had doors. Previous owners had installed doors that were perfectly serviceable. But it was apparent that whoever performed the installation didn’t pay attention to the details. There were noticeable gaps that varied in width on all sides of the doors, and the left door didn’t even sit flush against the opening. In terms of functionality, the job was done. But we all know there’s a big difference between just getting the job done, and getting the job done right.

Whether in your approach to consistent typography and color usage, designing thoughtful micro-interactions, or simply cleaning up your Sketch files, attention to detail is paramount. When you consider the details, you not only set yourself up for easier scalability, collaboration and future iteration, you also end up with a superior product.

“The details are not the details. They make the design.”
- Charles Eames

2. Master your tools

By definition, a tool is something that is used intentionally to magnify your ability to do something. When creating anything, there is a huge advantage to being comfortable and efficient with the tools you’re working with. Having a solid understanding of a tool’s capabilities allows you to work in ways you otherwise wouldn’t be able. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a complete novice woodworker/carpenter/handyman. So for my project, I spent time researching tutorials digging for tips from anyone that had attempted a similar project. While I ended up with some helpful insights, I did not find the step-by-step guidance I was hoping for.

I had some ideas on how to approach the project, but they required using tools in ways that I had little to no experience with. The wood I planned to use was not inexpensive and I didn’t want to risk ruining it. Cue that fear paralysis 🙀. For a few months my solution was….do nothing. I wasn’t sure how to tackle the project, so it just sat there. I had all the tools and materials I needed at my disposal, but I lacked the knowledge of how to harness them properly. Literally trying anything at this point would have been a better path forward.

I see similar things happen in the digital design world. I’ve seen designers refuse to take the time to learn how to fully harness the power and potential of their tools. They’re happy to know just enough to get the job done. Let’s take Sketch for example. You should absolutely take the time to learn keyboard shortcuts, research plugins that might supercharge your workflow, or experiment with some of the lesser known features that may unlock even more potential for creation. Admittedly, tools comprise only a fraction of what it takes to be a designer, but when we don’t master our tools we run the risk of not being able to move at the pace expected by our team and/or clients. Or worse, we move quickly but without the precision and attention to detail that separates great designers from the rest of the pack.

3. Know your subject matter

My lack of experience and knowledge made me unsure of the best way to approach my project. I spent time researching and experimenting to better understand how the particular wood species I was using might respond to various techniques. Certain woods might respond differently than others due to their physical properties and characteristics. Or certain tools might be better suited for the job than others. If I were more knowledgeable of all of these idiosyncrasies from the beginning, I would have been able to more quickly narrow my possible solutions. If I were to attempt a similar project in the future, I now have that knowledge to lean on.

Another example might be how you would use different techniques and tools when milling lumber than you would when simply cutting down a tree for firewood. At their purest form, they are both just wood, but clearly understanding the end use alters the way you approach the work.

As designers, we must consider the medium we are designing for. For example, designing native mobile apps requires a certain level of familiarity with the platforms. You need to have a comprehensive understanding of the operating systems, as well as overarching platform guidelines, standards and constraints. You also need to understand how those might differ from the way you might approach the same problem or feature when designing for the web. Each platform has unique characteristics, capabilities and constraints that you need to be familiar with to be able to create the best possible product.

4. Embrace the unknowns

Anyone who’s ever worked on any home improvement project knows all about this. Around our house, a phrase like “that should only take a couple hours,” directly translates to “We’ll be lucky if we finish it today.” Nearly every project becomes more complex as you start opening up areas and revealing things that were not immediately visible when you decided to begin the project.

A key trait for a craftsman in any field is the ability to respond intelligently to constantly changing circumstances in the work as it proceeds.

This is incredibly relevant for product designers. One could draw a direct parallel to working in an agile product environment. Every project will present unknowns at some point. They could manifest in the form of leadership mandates, undocumented service constraints, platform limitations, budget cuts, or simply a shift in priorities. Each of these scenarios presents an opportunity for you to maintain your composure and showcase the skills and experience you’ve worked so hard to develop.

When you’ve mastered your tools, and have a solid grasp on the subject matter, it becomes easier to quickly make intelligent decisions when they are needed. Not only can you lean on your expertise and experience to make those decisions, but you’ll also have the ability to quickly execute on those decisions and keep forward momentum on your project.

Of course, my project was no exception. It seemed there was a new challenge at every turn. Some were unforeseen, some were self-inflicted. But I learned to embrace them and work my way through them by using the knowledge and skills I’d gained throughout the process.

Even though the project took much longer than it should have to complete, the final product may be one of my favorite updates we’ve made to the house.