net

VOICES
Opinion

PROFILE

Julia Roberts questions if we are giving time the

value it deserves

We have been trained to look at the

world and our lives in terms of

resources: the finite and the infinite,

scarcity and abundance. Supply and

demand is a primary driver of modern

society. Yet one of the most valuable

resources is one many overlook: time.

This is not to say that we don’t think

about time at all – as the saying goes, time

is money. Especially within the world of

e-commerce web design and development,

we go on and on about the consumer,

leveraging technology to capture their

time through new innovations and

services, push notifications and social

media. And we also design to save

them time by removing friction in user

journeys and adding personalisation and

customisation elements to streamline

their experience.

But this doesn’t mean that we are

actually valuing time. It is still primarily

seen as transactional, not meaning-filled,

and definitely not given the merit of other

limited resources. How does this narrow

perspective limit us creatively? This line

of questioning is particular intriguing

when you shift perspectives, taking a step

back to the creatives who shape these

consumer journeys and capture their time.

What’s being done to ensure that

designers’ and developers’ user

experiences with their primary tools of

the trade are being empowered? Does our

quest to save this limited resource called

time reach into their worlds, and how

much do we pay attention to the time that

designers spend doing something, outside

of the lens of the client or consumer? We

tend to look at the time they spend on

something in terms of not their time,

but the clients’ – and subsequently the

end-users’. While this makes perfect

sense from a business point of view, this

perspective may end up limiting us in the

long run.

So what kind of tech is enabling these

creatives to make the best use of their

time – or, alternatively, how is their time

being wasted and what is the ripple effect

this has on the products they are creating?

How can we value and empower them

for the sake of their creativity and time,

outside of the transactional results?

An essential part of the process is

actually diagnostic, asking: are the

processes being used creating value? How

are we measuring this value and what

role does time play? Is it empowering

our time or draining it? It means taking a

step back, and finding a balance between

functionality and productivity, quality

and creativity.

If we want to get practical, think

about something as simple as tech

compatibility. For example, our designers

have historically worked on Photoshop,

but transition over to Sketch for various

projects. However, moving from one to

the other isn’t as simple as exporting a

PSD from one platform to the other, and

barriers like these not only suck time but

limit creativity.

Additionally, we build most of our

presentations in Keynote, yet when it

comes to sharing them across offices or

with various clients we need to convert it

to a PowerPoint, which often messes with

the formatting. Yes, maybe we should

choose one tool and stick with it, but on

the other hand it’s 2018: shouldn’t our

technology be more seamless than this?

These are small, simple examples but

how much time do they waste and, more

importantly, what kind of limits do they

place on our creativity? When we get

constrained by simple things like this,

it’s easier to continue filtering creativity

through a transactional lens, which

perpetuates the cycle.

Maybe as we start to think about time

differently we will change the way that

we utilise technology to start embedding

value, meaning and intentionality in a

different way. Time has as much worth as

we are willing to give it.

Julia is a marketing executive at Like Digital.

Among various marketing-based activities,

she is passionate about enabling creative

communications in business and commerce.

A MATTER

OF TIME

WORK PRACTICES