I was struggling with a design problem today at Jumpspeed Ventures. A founder was having a difficult time trying to express what was bothering him, and he kept coming back to just saying he wanted it to be different than the other businesses in this category. He wanted his product to look different than anything else out there.

A lot of new designers fresh out of school come at their first project with tons of enthusiasm, eager to demonstrate how gifted they are, and show off their big ideas. I’ve seen some really interesting UIs created  by some really talented young designers. Many of them were completely unusable and broke too many rules and conventions. Rules can be broken when you understand completely why the rule exists, and you’re breaking it for a reason. Breaking a rule “just because” might create something interesting, but a designer shouldn’t be out to create something interesting. Our job is to create something with purpose and intention- to solve a problem with design.

So back to my confused founder at Jumpspeed. I kept pushing him to explain what was bothering him. Why was he looking to be different. Different in what way. What was the feeling he got from the competitors out there, and what was the feeling he wanted users and customers to have on his product. I kept pushing for the “why” trying to understand what he was really after. After a lot of intense, heated conversation, we had a breakthrough. Sometimes I feel like a therapist trying to get to the founder’s unconscious locked away memories. But in the end, by pushing against what I was being told, to “be different,” and fighting to get to the root of the problem, we’re on a better path with our product.