KonzeptioNerd

What you want (to be)

At first I thought, Paul Arden’s It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be was your average load of motivational mumbo-jumbo. One reason for this may be the misleading German title, which translates exactly to It’s not who you are, but who you want to be, putting the whole thing into a personality training context, cloaking that it’s actually about excellence in (creative) work.

But even then, It’s not … has been written by the Creative Director of a classical advertising agency. A print guy. Someone who thinks in posters and magazine ads. Totally 2D. A whole nother world. However, I did find a quote or two that should go on the list of good practice advice for Information Architects, Concept Developers and User Experience Designers across the globe (and please excuse my quoting from the German translation on my desk; obviously there are still people who think I don’t abhor translations):

[Deine Arbeit erscheint] auf den ersten Blick oft ganz clever, jedoch steckt meistens wenig dahinter. [...] [Nimm dir die Zeit] um das Problem zu finden. Dann [kommst du] auch auf die richtige Lösung. (36)

Wer die richtige Frage stellt, bekommt auch die richtige Antwort. (37)

Trittst du dagegen vorsichtig auf, weist auf eventuelle Schwächen hin, dann stellst du ein Vertrauensverhältnis zu deinem Kunden her und kannst alle Probleme lösen. (38)

Gib [deinem Kunden] was er will, dann kann er dir geben, was du willst.

Immerhin könnte er auch Recht haben. (42)

Der Böse ist nicht immer der Kunde. (79)

Wechsle die Arbeitsuntensilien, vielleicht befreit es dein Denken. (82)

DU bist der Werfer. (84)

(Although, in this context, I prefer Jeanette Winterson’s “They’re the vegetable, you’re the cook.” Sounds tougher, but makes the responsibility clearer.)

Bevor du dich also an den Pitch machst, finde heraus, was der Kunde unter “kreativ” versteht. (105)

Come to think of it: perhaps if the translation has mutilated something as important as the book’s title, then none of the above can be found in the English original?

Anyway, here’s is something that’s decidedly not useful for information architects:

Schau aus dem Fenster und mach das Erstbeste, was du siehst - einen Vogel, eine Antenne, einen alten Mann auf Krücken oder was auch immer - zu deinem Lösungsvorschlag.” (58)

In the interactive medium, the impression is not enough, you must think the process. Here’s a difference between classic (print, TV, etc.) and interactive advertising:

Check out the book(s) on Amazon: