Last year some time I read a post about how we should be spending less time browsing other people’s [creative] work and more time doing the type of work that we find brilliant. One week into my competitor research that post has floated to the top of my mind.
There is so much brilliant work out there and internet has placed it at our finger tips. We can spend hours admiring other people’s work. Gallery posts of the “The 50 best so and so” are really popular. The same goes for design pattern libraries. Personally I really like them and I find great inspiration in them. But, there is some truth to the post about how we should be spending less time browsing other people’s work.
Now, this is where I should remember exactly what the point of that post was, only I don’t. And I can’t find it either (tagging fail). Instead I’ll give you this.
Blindingly beautiful
I love the little details in design and thought through functionality. It makes me genuinely warm on the inside and it makes me smile. But, it’s also rather dangerous to be spending too much time looking at other people’s work. At least when you’re in the situation I’m in right now where I’m exploring an idea that already exist.
Looking at other people’s beautiful work can be rather intimidating and it is to me at the moment. Not because I don’t think what we’d do wouldn’t be able to match it, but because right now I’m at the threshold of making a decision on whether to go ahead or not. If it’s a go it will mean a lot of work so I have to be sure and there’s already a feeling of being one step behind. Add to that competing in a market when someone has already launched a beautiful and well thought through product. It’s easy t think that it might not be worth it. And perhaps it isn’t. But the point is that looking too much at what other people have and are doing can be blinding, and misleading.
Looking beyond
The decision to go ahead or not shouldn’t be based on glossy design and whether someone else has already come up with a beautiful product. Instead you have to look at the idea behind your product. What the differentiator(s) are. That, in the end, together with how you execute your product is what will make the difference and is what should help determine if it’s a go ahead or not.
Tomorrow – Day 015 | Week 2 summary
Image source: The book cover of ‘Information is beautiful’ by David McCandless
