People Watching
Before the pandemic I had a draft essay titled “Designers, Put Your Phone Down and Look Around.” The idea was simple: observing the world makes you a better designer.
Then the pandemic hit, and opportunities for real-world observation disappeared. Now that a few years have passed and I’m back navigating the world, these ideas have come back to me.
As people in modern society—especially as digital product designers—we spend a shocking amount of time staring at screens. As designers, it’s important to obsess over the details of well-designed products. It’s important to seek out new apps and websites. It’s important to be up to date on the latest interactions and design trends. If you’re a writer, you should be reading great books.
But these products we’re designing serve people in the end. People with established ways of doing things, of thinking, of behaving. People that exist in a larger, ever-changing environment. And people are the most unpredictable part of a designer’s job.
My son and I take the bus everyday to preschool. Crammed next to fellow commuters, high schoolers, kids, and parents, no ride is the same. We look at everything, we talk about everything. Neighbors, signs, cars, buildings, trucks, trees, birds. It’s cliché but true—having a kid has reintroduced me to the little details I had forgotten, making me notice things I used to overlook.
People use their bus cards differently—some swipe, others tap. People hold their phones differently—some use two thumbs, others an index finger. My brother-in-law holds the push-start button in his car, thinking it works like a key turn. I once saw a guy curbside after a flight struggling to order an Uber, not realizing his phone was still in airplane mode.
How do people interact with things? What does their body language tell you? How do they react when they make a mistake? It’s people watching—not just for fun, but to study human behavior.
Designers make things for people. While studying interfaces is part of the job, studying people is part of the job too.
Put your phone down and observe. The best design inspiration isn’t on a screen—it’s out there around you.
