“Perhaps the easiest way to explain the problem, as we’ve come to understand it, is through the phrase we used above — manage “through the team.” By that we mean you should use the social dynamics of the team to manage individual members, rather than managing members primarily one-by-one. This is a critical distinction that many managers miss. Though they extol the benefits of teamwork, they insist on managing their teams individual-by-individual.”

I think there’s quite a bit of truth there. Accountability to a boss or manager is one thing. But a shared sense of responsibility amongst co-workers, to the goal and to one another, is much more effective.

Read More: http://blogs.hbr.org/hill-lineback/2012/04/good-managers-lead-through-a-t.html

Why is a powerful question because it undermines our basic assumptions about the design solutions we choose.

Ryan Singer posted a helpful brief on design patterns and decision making. In it he identifies patterns as snippets of ui/design conventions that we mentally stockpile and reuse in later scenarios. Essentially, our mental library of design patterns is where our design decision come from.

Singer wisely takes time to look not just at the patterns but at the user-conventions and forces that caused them to be created in the first place. I think this is a helpful observation:

When you are aware of the forces that motivate your decisions, you can be conscious of whether you are designing by habit (“this is what I always do here…”) or whether you are actually applying the most fitting solution to the problem at hand.

Many designers neglect this practice. We just go with our gut because it’s convenient. But everyone has a gut reaction and they’re generally unreliable. It’s the designer’s job to be discerning amongst all the possible solutions. An art director or PM is proves valuable when they ask designers why they made the decision they did. If you as designer have no answer other than, “it felt right” you should rethink your decision making process.

My sketch book has been a bit neglected of late also. No longer! With Christmas on it’s way I’m working on a new set of prints to add to the Heartwares shop.

To prove I’m actually doing work here’s a peek at some rough sketches.

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

“[The Internet is] the friend of information, but the enemy of thought.”
Alan Jacobs