I have always had a strong desire to design even way back when I was growing up. I would spend hours on video games building cities, zoos and amusement parts. Even further back I played with Legos and cutting up and using whatever materials I had to build my imagination. But I was also very efficient in making these. This was long before internet was as fast and accessible as it is now. So I had to come up with shortcuts all myself.
Now I have spent the last few years designing and modeling products that my clients have come to me with. I have probably have designed well over a thousand. With this experience, I learned many ways to cut the time down on modeling. I did the usual stuff of upgrading my hardware and using better mouse and keyboard but this can only go so far.
What motivated me to share my techniques and skills is that there is opportunity to improve your skills much faster than it took me. Learning ten techniques may not seem like much to improve your skills but it will make a difference. I believe in something called Aggregation of Marginal Gains. To understand this you must go look into the coach of the British cycling team.
Dave Brailsford was hired to the British Cycling. He took the team and improved every area of cycling, even if it meant a one percent improvement, it was worth doing.
As Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.” (Matt Slater, “Olympics Cycling: Marginal Gains Underpin Team GB dominance,” BBC)
One percent may not seem like much but doing so can lead to big gains over time. He did the usual stuff like the bikes hardware and the clothes the cyclist wore. But it went further to the pillow the slept with and even the soap the used to wash their hands.
The results were astounding. Britain won their first ever Tour de France and did it four times in a row and dominated at the Olympics. With such proof, there is no doubt we can apply these aspects to our designing skills and even our daily life to make ourselves better. But there is one caveat to this. these changes can be almost unnoticeable. Like a plant growing its change can only be measure over long periods. This is not your great life changing decision turn around that you can boast about. This is your slow boring change that will only be noticeable in retrospect.
So it is my duty to spread the knowledge and skills I have gained. So you can put a foot hold in your one percent gains. But with these tips and technique, you will hopefully do it ten times and make a difference in your everyday designing.
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