Creative Bulletin n.99
We keep on working on Fabula for Editing’s illustrations (the tool might be named Vademecum) – what do you think?
🦊🦊🦊 What we’ve been up to this week
- We launched the distribution platform for independent libraries and we had to put it on hold right away cause we realized there were some things we had to work on 😂 (it happens quite often with digital products).
- Ken Follett’s ghost came back to haunt us: we had to deal with quite a few logistic and organization issues that just popped up like mushrooms, luckily we solved them all.
- We were contacted by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission who asked us to develop a tool to facilitate teachers’ lives as they arrange their teaching programs so that they can access key skills that aren’t often available in classrooms. Andrea’s dream in a nutshell, wow 🎉
🐈🐈🐈 What we would like to do
- We’re gathering info to buy an office in Turin. There’s a place we like a lot right behind the Maglio Courtyard (❤️) and we’d like to turn it into an office/livingroom, a place where we can hold workshops but also get together to have a glass of wine. Cross your fingers with us!
🍒🍒🍒 Methodology: test it
Years ago, Matteo, who’s an expert in UX design, had the idea to create a tool for UX, but he let it go when he realized that the only true and worthwhile advice would have been: «Test it».
👉 Problem. We design a chair, or a website, or a laundry machine, or hospital signage. Everything looks perfect, we’re ready, we’ve studied. However, someone buys the chair, stands on it to clean the windows and gets hurt, or a user once in the website doesn’t click on the button we thought, bottomline users will make mistakes that we couldn’t have foreseen.
👉 Solution. Build prototypes and test them as much as you can. Hi, do you feel like going on this website and trying to do this? Hi, this is the laundry machine's new button, how would you use it? There’s no other way. No designer will ever create a product and get it at the first try. Always work on prototypes and test them (otherwise you’ll risk wasting a lot of money 😂)
👉 Reality. Even if we tested the distribution platform, after the launch, when our collaborators and clients started using it for real, we registered a dozen small issues and a couple of big problems that we had to solve immediately. It’s normal, no one should get desperate about it, actually the more problems arise at the beginning, the better it is. A good product is built by iterating, so you observe the holes and then you fill them 😉
🍓🍓🍓 What we’ve learned
We were nervous and furious at the beginning of the week: we had an asphyxiating long list of tiny issues to deal with, we wanted to set everything on fire, so we were gloomy and bitter all day. That evening Matteo went on a shamanic journey focusing on this anger problem and asking how to channel it. He saw himself in a flowerbed as he patiently got rid of weeds surrounding a big, beautiful flower. When he asked his guide «Where do these weeds come from?», he answered: «From the rain. And they’ll keep on coming».
🌈 Takeaway: keep your garden tidy
We tend to focus on things we like and we think are important (the flower) and we postpone all of the small nuisance that end up building up (the weeds) and we get furious because they build up (😂).
It’s necessary, and worth it, to be patient and with the same love felt while planting the flower, we should keep the garden nice and tidy.
With ❤️,
Matteo and Andrea
*** Sefirot’s Creative Bulletin ***
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