86 Making It Work
three people responded in that 20-year range and two said they
were happy, 66% would look disproportionately significant. The
sampling of respondents with such experience is small, however
65 individuals responded in this range, making a 78% positive
response small but still worth considering. People take a while to
figure out what works best. There’s frequently a satisfaction curve
in careers. Stick with it.
Experiment and learn.
Doesn’t it always come back to this for us? Users who reported
positively on questions dealing with new skills and inspiration
(were more interested in learning a new skill or looking for sources
of inspiration) were more likely to be happy. We’re wired to enjoy a
certain amount of change and variety.
Share with others.
Design has taken on a strong social vibe in the last decade. We’re
not artists or technicians in isolation anymore. There are a hundred
ways to share your design work and works in progress: Dribbble
and Forrst, just to name a few. Respondents who reported working
with others or participating in social forums were generally more
happy. What’s more, it can generate feedback that can help make
you a better designer. Vitaly notes:
“
Don’t be afraid to experiment and publish something
that is wrong or will fail. In the very beginning, I was
experimenting a lot, yet I was never brave enough
to publish those experiments online to get some
feedback and learn from that. Instead, I was learning in
my small dark room, playing around with things alone
and losing quite some time to get a firm grasp of what I
was doing. It would have saved me a lot of time if I just
posted about my findings and my problems.
”
If you’re a bit unsure of how to share your work online, don’t worry.
There’s no right or wrong way to share your work and receive
