In this guide about bringing design to life, we are going to have a look at a few ideas on how to get your ideas of the drawing board. Whilst, bearing in mind, that having a great idea is one thing, yes. But, getting that idea off the drawing board and into the hands of consumers is another matter. Thus, follow this advice and you should be able to realize your dream quickly.
And then, thereafter, you’ll be able to turn your idea into a successful product — bringing your design to life! To begin with: “Instead of wondering where your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from” — Seth Godin. When we really think about it, most of us want a life with meaning. But, what does bringing design to life really entail?
Well, bringing design to life simply means designing the lifestyle you want to live every day. In other words, this is where living becomes a creative process and not just an escape from the basic reality realms. Designing your life is the challenge to always ask “what if” and continuously be open to possibilities. That said, let’s learn more, shall we?
The Simple Steps To Start Bringing Design To Life
By all means, in order to start bringing design to life, most web content designers use design thinking as a toolkit to plan their creation in advance — while, in essence, trying as much as they possibly can to have a clear understanding of the target and potential web user’s needs and wants. So, designing your life is understanding yourself + what you want out of life.
Particularly, by using design thinking as the main element that guides the way. By the same token, professional web designers also know that it’s not just about the final product, but the process of making it. And, as such, they are constantly taking feedback and adjusting their designs accordingly. Design is about problem-solving; which can be applied to anything in life.
Whether it’s a career, relationships, or personal achievements bringing design to life is very possible — with the right mindset and the correct toolkits in place. Ultimately, design thinking is a lifetime-based attitude — it makes us fit into the flow of life, and not against it. So, how can you start bringing design to life and become successful? Well, let’s learn more below…
1. Get Your Mindset Ready
First of all, designing your life isn’t about changing who you are, but changing how you live your life. Technically, it starts by understanding yourself and knowing what you want out of life. Furthermore, lifestyle design will be different for everyone based on their unique experiences + personalities. Not just setting goals, but designing the right persona around them.
Secondly, design thinking is accepting reality, understanding that no one’s perfect + getting better every day — while trying to make small changes of improving yourself. It isn’t planning everything out in advance correctly for it to be successful. Rather, it involves letting go of the life you planned for-to design — the life that works for you and what you really want.
Equally important, it means living an intentional lifestyle based on your own values + desires. Remember, your life isn’t a perfect picture of what it’s going to be, it is about constantly working towards your goals. Bringing design to life means designing our life using design thinking — by developing ourselves as individuals — while evolving with the world around us.
2. Create A Prototype
Once your mindset is ready, it’s time to create a prototype. Whilst, keeping in mind, that the first place your idea exists is in your mind — make sure that you get everything down on paper. With a rough design in place, the next step is getting a prototype made. Without this, you will not be able to fully assess the critical design knowledge and principles.
Neither will you be able to challenge the merits and discover the weaknesses of your design. To enumerate, a prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product or system built to test a concept or assumption or to act as a thing to be tested and learned from. In this sense, an initial “prototype” is the first complete solution to the original challenge.
A good example is BitBox where you can seek support from. After all, BitBox has decades of prototyping experience and their rapid prototyping process can get your design in your hands quickly. They also have the ability to ramp up production numbers, so if your idea works you can have multiple test articles in your hands in no time at all.
In nutshell, BitBox is an emerging software package that allows the identification, reading, and writing of internal flash memory of control units for various purposes. Whenever ready, you can check out their ECU reflash software with all the features and pricing details per your needs. As well as the BitBox hardware wallet by Shift Crypto for crypto enthusiasts.
3. Get Some Feedback
Once you have a prototype in your hand you can start doing some early market research. You are going to be biased in favor of your design, you cannot help it. Taking an idea, realizing it on paper, and getting a working model made are likely to fill you with pride and a sense of achievement, and so they should. The downside is you can become blinded so quickly.
Especially, in terms of your product’s inefficiencies and limits. Getting some third-party feedback from friends and relatives is a good idea, just take any criticism constructively. We all know procrastination is bad for us. It leads to missed deadlines, decreased productivity, and can even make us feel anxious and stressed. But, despite knowing all of this, we still do it.
The problem they found was not that executives don’t already know what they need to do, but they don’t do what they already know. Therefore, in order to stay ahead of the competition, that’s where gathering some credible, tried/tested, and sufficient feedback comes in handy. What’s more, a generalized measurement can also obstruct good judgment.
Suffice it to say, we may even get so caught up in trying to meet deadlines or quotas that we don’t take the time to do the work properly. This can lead to subpar work, which can then lead to more procrastination as we try to avoid the work altogether. Getting feedback from verifiable sources can be a great way for us to work smart, and not work hard for design success.
4. Look For Some Funding
Having a prototype and a design on paper are two great first steps towards a working product on shelves in-store and online in shopping baskets. Without funding and investment, however, you have a long road ahead of you. Your prototype can help you to secure investment. People with money to invest in potential products often feel better when they get partners.
For one thing, they have something in their hands they can hold and test for themselves. A good idea will sell itself, but having something tangible that you can point to will help. In reality, both internal and external competition can turn friends into enemies. If we’re constantly competing with others for ‘scarce’ resources, we may be less likely to help them out.
We may also not get along quite well to collaborate with them. This can lead to a vicious cycle of procrastination and competition, which can be difficult to break out of. This means, that given all factors are constant, before looking for funds elsewhere, the very first place to look is friends and family — that’s why they didn’t lie that ”charity begins at home.”
Be that as it may, if you’re struggling with some funding source procrastination, it’s important to understand why you’re doing it. Once you know the reasons, you can start to put in place strategies to overcome them. Talk may substitute for action, but only action will get the work done. So start taking small steps by asking for a hand from those within your inner circles.
5. Research The Marketplace
In addition to finding some funding, you should also make sure that you stay relevant and informed at all times. Read, read, read + do quality research on a variety of topics that will expand your mind. Not forgetting, bringing design to life is all about designing yourself too — constantly learning new things; it’s a great way to stay inspired + motivated every day.
Before you take your product to market you will need to find out more about where it will fit in and what demand exists for it. You may have a fantastic and useful idea, but if people are not looking for it and do not want it, the product will not sell. The first rule of commerce is to supply the demand, without any demand your product will not go any that far as intended.
Otherwise, they will just stick around from the drawing board to the shop shelf and no further. According to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action, the problem isn’t that we don’t know what we need to do, it’s that we don’t do what we already know.
In the 1990s, Pfeffer and Sutton undertook a four-year study into why organizations had achieved so little real-world change. The problem they found was not that executives don’t already know what they need to do, but they don’t do what they already know. As a matter of fact, they found out that there are five basic reasons (the knowing-doing gap) why this is the case.
6. Choose A Credible Outlet
Moving on, depending on your idea and the resulting product you may want to sell it to wholesalers or sell the product yourself to high street shops and through online vendors. Eventually, you will need to assess the product and its market to decide which is best for you. With that in mind, selling to wholesalers may sound easier yes, but it cuts down on your profits.
If you want to make the most money from your very own critical thinking and creative mindset ideas you need to sell them yourself. Whilst, for instance, by trying to start supplying orders from big chain stores and online shops by yourself. Unfortunately, we often substitute talk for action. We often tell ourselves (and others) that we’ll start our projects tomorrow.
Or rather, we make excuses for why we haven’t started it yet. This talk does nothing to actually get the work done, but it makes us feel better in the moment. Fear can also prevent us from acting on knowledge. We may be afraid of failure, or of what others will think of us if we don’t succeed. This fear can paralyze us and prevent us from even starting, even with a clear path.
Fortunately, when it comes to marketing or selling products online, there are a variety of digital apps/options available that enable your business to start selling products online. But, we recommend to most customers that they use a fully hosted eCommerce Solution. For instance, a hosted eCommerce Solution aka “Cloud” or “Software as a Service – SaaS.”
Some Quick Tips To Help In Bringing Design To Life:
- Whichever way the reality dawns on you, set up some realistic expectations first
- Let go of perfection, and also accept that there are some things you can’t change
- Start by designing both long-term goals as well as short-term ones in your board
- With your goals in place you can constantly check in on how close you are getting to them
- Of course, you can’t solve problems with the same thinking that created them — go above and beyond
- Design a solution for your problems and observe your thought patterns. What changes will you need?
- Always remember, that as you design content, it should also bring out the joy in your personality too
- Make sure that you also fulfill your own happiness — start creating a life that brings you joy daily
- It’s good to fail, but it’s not worth giving up as you constantly bring new design perspectives to old problems
- Keep learning new things and taking in different opinions from other like minded professionals.
Ultimately, besides all the above to do thing, it’s always good to give yourself small challenges daily — reward yourself for them later on. Likewise, design small rituals that produce big results; it’s a great way to take conscious action.
It’s, important to realize, that the future is now, and not tomorrow. And, in that case, you should design the life you want by living your life right now. Moreover, designing your life is about living with intention and not getting stuck in the past or what could have been… Design it today + live it every day like it’s a masterpiece. And, in the long run, you’ll become real proof.
Last but not least, it’s also good to design your life with patience, and not with any pressure. Bringing design to life needs living in the moment —while taking every opportunity that comes your way. But, as you also start designing your life, make sure that you stay open to new ideas and always be flexible — you’ll design your life by living it rather than just existing in it.
Conclusion:
Summing things up, it’s very easy to start bringing design to life as per your unique heart desires — the possibilities of doing amazing things are unlimited. It’s also worth mentioning, that design thinking is neither just for literal content design creatives nor does it require any technical service solution skills — it is for your own life progress too! So, get busy designing!
As you can see, with the help of the above tips, some luck, and a lot of determination anyone can turn their idea into a working product that people can buy in high street stores. Notwithstanding, nothing is as good as bringing design to life as you still design your very own life in the process — and, all in all, while enjoying the whole design and growth process on equal terms.
Whatever the reason or the needs are, remember that our team of Web Tech Experts Taskforce is always ready (24/7) to see that you succeed in whichever project you have at hand. Not to mention, you can also share your additional thoughts, suggestions, opinions, and recommendations, or ask contribution questions to get all FAQ answers in our comments section.
