How Writing Can Help You Become a Better Designer
As Designers, we know we have to work on our visual craft and problem-solving, but we’re easily missing the benefits of writing.
To find what morning routine works best for me, I’m writing an article each day to see whether this kicks off my day well. This morning I woke up much earlier than usual due to the noisy boiler, fortunately warming the house after a chilly night.
Upon waking, my mind began to shift from dreaming to thinking, wondering what I was going to write about today. In my sleepy state, my internal monologue spoke to me:
I don’t write because I know everything. I write because I don’t.
It seemed like a profound idea at 6am. Still, I decided to use this thought as a prompt for writing, explore it further, and expand on what I feel are my subconscious beliefs about writing.
My Experience with Writing
Writing allows me to share my thoughts, ideas and the challenges that I’m currently at in life. Even though I’m a visual designer, I’ve always found writing as an easy method to think and talk about my work. Blogging through university was a better way to share what I experienced than writing by hand in my sketchbooks. I felt my sketchbooks should be solely for experimenting and testing visual ideas. In contrast, blogging allowed me to write at length unrestricted.
I’ve always been self-conscious that I wrote more than I drew. This is because I was so aware at university of the classic phrase ‘Show, don’t tell’. However, to show first, I must tell you in words what I’m trying to do or achieve. To some, it’s a weakness for designers to avoid visualisation as their primary communication method. However, writing has benefited me as a designer in multiple ways.
The blog I started at university and the Twitter posts I shared off the back of it landed me an internship without me seeking it out. But, being online, sharing how I worked and thought about the design world brought people to me.
This post will explain why it can be beneficial to write as a designer and how it could help you improve in other areas of your role.
Better Communication Skills from Writing
Though writing is an important skill for designers, many of us struggle with it. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, people have asked me how I do it and how I know how to structure content or write clearly. So naturally, it comes down to practice.
It can take a lot of work to write down our ideas or thoughts in a straightforward manner. However, the struggle is what forces us to become better communicators. It’s easy for us to talk about our ideas verbally, but it’s easy to go on a bit of a ramble and go off-topic. Whereas with writing, you’re forced into clarity (especially if you’re using a tool like Grammarly to help you write, as it will tell you you’re writing is unclear).
Writing our ideas or arguments down first allows us to practice communication. Writing as a practice enables you to talk with clients or teammates about your wonderful ideas more efficiently, as you’ve already rehearsed explaining your concepts in writing first.
Writing Helps You Think Your Ideas Through
Writing can also help designers think through their ideas and develop better solutions to design problems. Taking part in writing activities like journaling or freewriting* can be a brilliant way to help you think through issues or discover new connections. For me, journaling and free writing allow me to find out what areas of a project I’m actually struggling with. Still, it lets me explore possible avenues or solutions in word form before jumping into sketching or Figma.
When working on a complex problem, it can be easy for us to get overwhelmed and our minds to feel like a tangled ball of yarn, with the end of the thread lost in a mess. However, writing can help you organise your thoughts and devise creative ways to solve design challenges.
*Free writing is traditionally regarded as a prewriting technique practised in academic environments, in which a person writes continuously for a set time with limited concern for rhetoric, conventions, and mechanics, sometimes working from a specific prompt provided by a teacher. Wikipedia
Sharing Your Writing Connects You With Others
For years people have used writing as a way of connecting with others. Whether that’s through letters, newspapers, or books. Writing has been a way to share. Sharing my writing with the world allows me to connect with others. Whether that is people reading my articles and commenting with feedback or people on Twitter saying they felt or experienced the same. Ultimately sharing connects me to other sources of ideas which helps me learn and discover more.
Writing Publically Helps People Learn About You
Finally, writing can be a tool that allows designers to show off their skill set. Of course, I’ve already mentioned the phrase ‘show, don’t tell’. But telling others through writing how your mind works and how you feel about the world is a great way to give others insight into what it would be like working with you.
Showing your thought processes and attitude in just a 45-minute job interview can be challenging; we’re complex beings, after all. However, you can build a reputation by writing to showcase more than just your fantastic UX skills or the beautiful UI that you create. As a result, future hiring managers or clients will get a broader sense of who you are and how you approach the challenges in the world.
Writing publicly gives others a glance into what inspires you and helps others see how you’ve become the designer you are and what they might learn from you when working with you.
Are you a Designer that writes? Have you noticed any benefits to writing? Is there a benefit I’ve missed? Let me know!
Fancy a chat?
If you have any questions or want to talk? Drop me a comment or send me a tweet at @lizhamburger
