💎 Friday Gems (Stability of Uncertainty, Anatomy of an Exhibition, UX Smells, and more)
You are the seagull above the whirlpool of your life. - Toby Ouvry
Hello dear readers,
I’m a bit late in publishing this week’s Friday Gems so I’ll keep it short. Have you ever come across an article or a post that you needed in a specific moment in your life? The first gem this week, The Stability of Uncertainty, was that article for me.
When you’re world is swirling around and you feel like you’re in a whirlwind of emotions, it’s good to remind yourself that there is opportunity to be still and reconnect with yourself and show up with inner strength to make the most of each moment, whether good or bad.
On to the this week’s gems!
Today's Gems
Mindfulness: The Stability of Uncertainty
The Mindful Designer: The Anatomy of an Exhibition
The Mindful Designer: Introducing UX Smells
Color: Mindfully curated color palettes
Mindfulness
The Stability of Uncertainty
When you have an attitude that resists change that wants things to always be the same, this attitude rubs against the natural processes of reality, creates a lot of friction and upset simply because we want and desire things to be one way (certain and fixed) when in reality they are fluid and changeable.
Change is a constant, we know that, but still when we are face to face with change our inclination is to resist it and push back on it. We want things to go our way otherwise we aren’t satisfied.
To ride the waves of change without them blowing us over we need to bend and be flexible so we ourselves don’t break.
Uncertainty, change, failing, feeling out of control, and nervous about what will happen are part of life and not only happening to us. Instead of pushing back we can learn to harness that energy to use it for our benefit.
We can find the good in the bad. The strength within the fear. The aliveness in the uncertainty to become like the seagulls above the whirlpool knowing we have weathered so many storms and will stay grounded through the next.
In the sky and above the whirlpool you live, confident in your ability to find what you need to survive, and able to enjoy what comes your way in the moment. You have made tension your friend, and so you feel free, relaxed, the sovereign of your world. You are connected to your natural intelligence and dignity.
Source: Toby Ouvry
The Mindful Designer
The Anatomy of an Exhibition
Awareness is the first step to change.
Looking at anything from the outside makes things seem like magic but once we spend a little time learning about how things function, the shared vocabulary, and the method to the madness we step into the realm of understanding and grow as a result.
In Anatomy of an Exhibition, Alya takes us casually looking from the outside to inside her world of exhibition design to better understand…
the sheer volume of thought, time, work, and resources that go into putting a show together.
Exhibition designers, artists, and curators orchestrate a wide range of elements to create the wonderful symphony we experience when we visit a show.
Just look at everything that goes into the planning of a successful show. From the placement of the art, the flow of traffic inside, the color of the walls behind the art, temporary walls, the objects used to display the art which include pedestals, vitrines, platforms, the lighting. Then there are the people critical to the show which include the registrars, conservators, exhibition managers, construction team, fabricators exhibition designers, artists, and curators, phew!
Alya helps us appreciate all the work done behind the scenes by dedicated professionals who make it possible for us to enjoy an artist’s creation.
And to remind us
Nothing here happened by accident. Nothing here happened by magic. Every single detail was someone’s job.
Source: Alya in Object Labels
The Mindful Designer
UX Smells
Imagine you’re in a design review looking at a design being presented. As the designer walks you through the design you get a sense that something is off. The design fits the story requirements but still you can sniff an issue with the design.
Maybe there are too many modals, or too much reading for the user, too many form fields or maybe too many steps in a process.
Even though the solution being presented works in isolation you have this nagging sense that over time this would degrade the overall experience.
In the coding world there is a term for similar situations when something just feels off in the code, it’s called a code smell. Code smells aren’t wrong in and of themselves, they only hint at something being wrong. Ideally the code smell would be fixed before the code is reviewed, tested, and put in production, saving time, effort, and rework.
Perhaps we can apply the coding smell metaphor to the UX process?
We could call it a UX smell to indicate something is off in the design and define a UX smell as a design solution that appears to solve a problem but ends up undermining the user’s task.
I’ll explore the idea of a UX smell, it’s boundaries, what it is and isn’t, what sets it apart from similar concepts some more in an upcoming post but I wanted to share the concept with you to see what you think about it.
Love the idea or hate it? I would love to hear your thoughts about UX smells. Share them in the comments.:)
Color
Mindfully curated color palettes
Color makes me happy. It’s soothing to the soul and scrolling through this collection of curated color combinations is a joyful and heartwarming experience.
Check it out.😍
Source: MyMind
Did one of the Friday Gems resonate with you? Please consider commenting, restacking, or sharing it with a friend. This is the simplest and most generous ways to support creative work.
It only takes a moment, but it makes a real difference.❤️
That’s it for this week’s Friday Gems.
In stillness, find your next step.✊🏽
