The curse of knowledge for designers

We talk a lot about the perils of "designing for other designers"

But what does it look like to NOT do that? Most of the answers I see relate to not over-investing in meaningless details.

But that's just one part…

Designers are the only ones with the 10,000' view necessary to spot design trends that span industry verticals. This is the curse of knowledge. We see a (beautiful) design like this on Twitter and we're quick to point out "oh that's just another Linear clone."

But...

If you're designing a marketing site for a new supply-chain management SaaS...

Then there's a good chance you're positioning against an incumbent whose hero section looks like this 👇

I think it's safe to say Linear's visual style will feel pretty fresh to everyone whose opinion actually matters in supply-chain management 😬

So not "designing for designers" should also shape how we think about novelty.

👉 Because novelty is scoped by industry.

There's a good chance that what was new in a tech-adjacent industry will also be new in supply-chain management. And if a pattern/trend is taking off, that's probably a pretty good signal that something is working (and worth dissecting)!

So don't forget designers are the only ones with the 10,000' view (and at the end of the day, unless you're selling to designers... we don't matter). Don't ignore free data about what's working to satisfy your personal desire for novelty.

Been thinking about this a lot after listening to Tommy Geoco talk about the "curse of knowledge" Tons of excellent ideas in here.

If you want to play outside of the confines of your 9-5 role then this is the episode for you.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts 👇