Designers are improvisors

“CONSTRUCTION WORKER!…. A LIBRARY!…. NEW YEAR'S EVE!”….

The above is what you’d hear at the beginning of an improv show. This is the audience responding to the request of the improvisers on stage asking for random suggestions to set up a scene. A profession, a place, and a time.

In essence, good improv can be summed up like this. “Show me the court, tell me the roles and give me the ball, now watch me play”. A paraphrase of what Keegan Michael Key (KMK) said about Improv.

Good product design is very much the same. The construction worker is our persona, the library is the medium (platform) and New Year’s Eve is on their way to the office, watching TV on their couch, while in the super market etc.

If the scene is set correctly there is no end as to what any, one, group or team of product designers can come up with, and more often than not, the outcome will be different yet the same.

I’ve heard it said that improvising is a difficult and scary art form because “I don’t have any lines, not prepared, what would I say”. Again I cite one of my favorite improvs KMK who says that it is less about going forward and more about walking backward from the anchors we set out at the offset.

Here too I draw parallels between the two. I, personally fear the “blank canvas”. If you ask me to draw something, design something from scratch then hand be an empty canvas (Figma artboard) then you’d see this 😱.

What I do love is looking at others, other products, other industries, and other Encanto illustrations (don’t ask) and try to make my own version of that. Use my anchor then walk it back to inevitably go forwards.

Designers are improvisers. Now just set the scene.