How I Find Inspiration as a Designer

Finding inspiration as a designer is more of a function of your state of mind than where you go looking. With the right mindset, you can find inspiration in the most unusual places. The trick is to try to make connections between concepts as much as possible — even the most unusual and unrelated concepts. This is called lateral thinking, and Edward De Bono wrote a book about it.

The best type of inspiration is the type that hits me when I least expect it. However, I have a list of places I go to and things I do to increase my chances of finding inspiration.

1. Online creator networks

Online platforms like Dribbble and Behance are referred to as social media platforms for designers and creatives. Dribbble is a good place to search for UI inspiration while Behance offers more UX inspiration. I find myself spending more time on Behance because I am more UX focused.

2. Inspiration collection websites and blogs

Muzli and Abduzeedo are two of my favourite places to visit for UI inspiration. However, if I have nothing in mind and I just want to know what other designers are doing within and outside the UX space, I visit websites like Awwwards, Yanko designs, Design Milk, Design taxi, Creative Bloq, Designspiration, Dezeen and FastCompany Design

Pro tip: Check out Innovation by Design from FastCompany Design.

3. Nature

Nature’s designs are the product of continuous improvement and evolution. They are functional, sustainable and often aesthetically pleasing.
From flowers to forests, water droplets to oceans, deserts to outer space, nature balances colours, shapes and textures in awe-inspiring ways. The universe is breathtakingly appealing to the designer’s mind.

By observing nature, I can create colour palettes, identify aesthetically pleasing textures and decode why certain shapes make us feel joyful or relaxed, and others make us serious or anxious.

4. Architecture and Design

Observing well-designed cities, buildings, interiors, street and airport signage, posters and banner ads, furniture, windows, doors etc and how people interact with them provides wonderful insights into what is aesthetically pleasing, what works well and which ones do both.

A few questions I keep in mind when I observe any of these are; why is this like this? Does it work and how can it be better?

https://www.pexels.com/

5. Well-Designed Products

Apple designs some of the best designed phones — Starting from the iPhone 5 to the X and recently the IPhone 14 Pro. The Tecno Mandorin is a beautiful device and so is the Oppo Find X 5.

Spotify has a wonderful song recommendation feature, i.e. apart from the beautiful user interface. Netflix’s percentage match feature is a really great feature and the way Google translate pronounces words more slowly when you tap the audio button a second time is just amazing — Chances are you were not even aware of that last one. That is where design becomes magical.

6. Books

Some of the books I have read on design are;

1. The design of everyday things by Don Norman
2. Don’t make me think by Steve Krug
3. Lateral thinking by Edward De Bono
4. Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan
5. The way to design by Steve Vassallo
6. Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon
7. Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden — currently reading this

7. Shows and Documentaries

1. Abstract: The art of design
2. The creative brain
3. The Pixar Story

8. TED talks

1. Designing for all five senses by Jinsop Lee
2. Why you should make useless things by Simone Giertz
3. How Airbnb designs for trust by Joe Gebbia
4. The first secret of design is… noticing by Tony Fadell
5. The simple genius of a good graphic by Tommy McCall

9. Learn from other designers

This includes great classics like
Dieter Rams, Paul Rand, Massimo Vignelli, Michael Beirut, Peter Saville, Jan Tschichold to contemporary designers like Zaha Hadid, Steve Jobs, Jony Ives, Sagi Haviv and Chris Do.
I also like to study the works of industrial designers with Nigerian heritage like Ini Archibong, Uji Terkuma and Funfere Koroye.

10. Sleep

Good sleep helps me retain and process information better. I am also better able to form more positive connections between ideas when I am well rested. Sometimes, I even get ideas in my dreams and then I wake up with a marvellous aha moment.

11. Talk to someone

Talking to someone about concepts I have in mind helps me process my ideas. Hearing myself talk helps me connect the dots faster than if I kept trying to do so all by myself. Oftentimes, the other person does not even have to say much or anything at all — just allowing me to bounce ideas and concepts off them does the magic.

12. Write

Writing helps me articulate my thoughts more clearly. It is similar to talking to someone about the concepts I have in mind and I am able to find new inspiration from new concepts by writing.

13. Take a walk

Taking a walk helps me immerse myself in my thoughts and explore them as if I were in another world. That time alone helps clear my mind off unwanted elements and helps me find my creative spark.

14. Observe children

Children are humans in our most basic forms. Most of the things that hold true for us as children remain even when we become adults. We are just better at hiding the parts that embarrass us. Watching children freely express themselves provides insights into what adult humans like but may be too embarrassed to admit.

15. Take a break

Remember when I said inspiration likes to find us when we are least expecting it? This is why I take periodic breaks from work. I explore new fields of human endeavour by reading and watching videos, doing less design-related work and allowing my mind to absorb totally new concepts. Soon enough, I discover new ideas or rediscover old ones with fresh perspectives that I can combine to fire up my creativity.

Honourable mention — Podcasts

I particularly do not listen to many podcasts because I am a visual learner and I like to see things so I can better appreciate them. However, occasionally, I listen to podcasts or snippets of a podcast especially when the topic interests me.

Final thoughts

I do not limit my sources to just UX design inspiration. I like to revel in good design generally so I look at spaces, gadgets, architecture, fashion etc.

A good designer knows that inspiration is every and anywhere and tries to create an environment that continuously breeds creativity.

If you want to talk about finding design inspiration for your next project, or you need someone to bounce ideas you can reach out to me on Twitter @ChikeMD or LinkedIn.