5 Uber-Basic Ways to Simplify Your Next Creative Project

Everything should be made as simple as possible

In honor of Albert Einstein’s birthday, who is often attributed to the above quote, I’m dusting off some old presentation notes about simplifying web projects.

I gave this presentation about a year ago to a client who was starting to take on more website management projects. Balancing the moving parts of a website project, like the team, design, coding and content— with the influences and constraints of a budget, schedule, client preferences, audience subjectivity and external trends, can be a massive undertaking, especially for big sites that get touched by lots of hands.

My client was struggling with just how quickly these projects can grow unruly. For my presentation, we wanted to brainstorm practices that would help us simplify our work.

As I’m looking over my old notes, I’m seeing that the five uber-basic principles we came up with can be applied to any creative project, or perhaps any other undertaking, to help avoid over-complication.

They are:

  1. Follow a clear process
  2. Don’t make users think
  3. Get inspired
  4. Tell a story
  5. Understand the building blocks

In upcoming posts, I’ll detail these five basic principles further. So please check back, or sign up for my notes below to get an email when this little series is complete.

A caveat and a request

There is no cookie-cutter approach to anything in life. Except for maybe cookies. Every project is different, every team is different, and most work pushes new boundaries. Like you, I make judgment calls in the moment, and I try to do my best. So, the caveat here is to apply the practices and theories that help you do your best work. And my request is that you please share your ways of keeping your projects simple with me in the conversation below. I’d love to learn from you!

Next up: 1. Follow a clear process

3 Responses

  1. Nice! And exactly what I needed to read for a big project that I am currently working on (of which I’m about to send you an email to seek your guidance…)

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