William Lidwell: Becoming Leonardo, How Great Designers Think

How do great designers think? Imagine if you could crawl inside the minds of great designers to see what makes them tick: how they go about solving difficult problems, how they deal with adversity, and how they ultimately pull it all together to create successful design. What would you see?
Author and designer William Lidwell discusses his research exploring the top 10 defining heuristics-the cognitive strategies used to make decisions and solve problems-employed by great architects, designers, engineers, and innovators that enable them to achieve breakthrough design.
UPDATE: Check out William Lidwell's updated Third Edition of his book Universal Principles of Design released May 2023. www.amazon.com/Universal-Prin...
These heuristics turn out to be as counterintuitive as they are compelling, and contradict much of the prevailing wisdom of design thinking and user-centered design. By understanding, practicing, and ultimately mastering these heuristics, you will be on your way to becoming a modern-day Leonardo.
0:00 William Lidwell - How Great Designers Think
4:37 Heuristics
7:15 10 Heuristics of Great Designers
9:15 #1 Elegant Simplicity over Conspicuous Featurism
18:35 #2 Inside-out Craftsmanship over Bait-and-Switch Craftsmanship
24:38 #3 Embracing Failure over Fearing Failure
30:03 #4 Never Leave Well Enough Alone over If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix it
35:56 #5 Reframing Problems over Accepting Problems
42:16 #6 Customer Doesn't Know What's Right over Customer is Always Right
51:21 #7 Analogical Insights over Analytical Thinking
56:40 #8 Eat Your Own Dog Food over Observe Dogs Eating Food
59:52 #9 First Principles over Fashion Trends
1:04:29 #10 Zealous Missionaries over Indifferent Mercenaries
1:07:02 10 Heuristics Full List

Пікірлер: 138

  • @novembrine29
    @novembrine296 жыл бұрын

    0:32 William Lidwell enters the stage 2:06 Great Designers per discipline 4:37 Heuristics 5:05 Chart of Great Designers plotted against Heuristics 6:36 Heuristic Histogram 7:15 10 Heuristics 9:15 Elegant Simplicity over Conspicuous Featurism (#1) 18:35 Inside-out Craftsmanship over Bait-and-switch Craftsmanship (#2) 24:38 Embracing Failure over Fearing Failure (#3) 30:03 Never Leave Well Enough Alone over If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix it (#4) 35:56 Reframing Problems over Accepting Problems (#5) 42:16 Customer Doesn't Know What's Right over Customer is Always Right (#6) 51:21 Analogical Insights over Analytical Thinking (#7) 56:40 Eat Your Own Dog Food over Observe Dogs Eating Food (#8) 59:52 First Principles over Fashion Trends (#9) 1:04:29 Zealous Missionaries over Indifferent Mercenaries (#10) 1:07:02 10 Heuristics list

  • @StrukturSociety

    @StrukturSociety

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for the breaskdown!

  • @ruthlessgriz3340
    @ruthlessgriz33405 жыл бұрын

    My left ear enjoyed every minute of this.

  • @JoeSnodgrassworks
    @JoeSnodgrassworks8 жыл бұрын

    This is a really important video and it can't get enough credit. A lot - a LOT of most important things for designers in this video. So tired of design videos that are full of what equate to "Live, Laugh, Love" messages for designers. This is video is important. Probably the most important design based video I've seen.

  • @itsbonakim
    @itsbonakim Жыл бұрын

    I’ve been a designer for 20 years now and this is probably the best talk about the topic ive watched. Can’t believe I just found this now.

  • @StrukturSociety

    @StrukturSociety

    Жыл бұрын

    William Lidwell just published an updated Third Edition to his book Universal Principles Of Design this May 2023. He's amazing. Check it out!

  • @itsbonakim

    @itsbonakim

    Жыл бұрын

    @@StrukturSociety amazing. Thanks for letting me know.

  • @kehkeh92821
    @kehkeh928216 жыл бұрын

    The more I watched the video the more I started to understand his sense of humor. Dude really grew on me...awesome presentation

  • @goldenmath4091
    @goldenmath40916 жыл бұрын

    Played this to my 13year old son who wants to be a product designer, gotta say its one of the best i have seen.. Design has many properties, each serves its own purpose, and this talk Explains that well

  • @paulatreides6779
    @paulatreides67796 жыл бұрын

    "Simplicity is complexity resolved" - Constantin Brancusi

  • @IR240474
    @IR2404745 жыл бұрын

    1611 Minutes - 3028 Word and 50 pages of a word file that I made taken notes and screenshots. I have already become a better designer and I didnt get passed number 5. Now that I am finished I can see my work in a new light. 10 Ways are brilliant. Thank you.

  • @darkhannausharipov6038
    @darkhannausharipov60386 жыл бұрын

    How great great designers think: 1. Elegant simplicity over conspicuous featurism The key to a great design is simplicity. It's easy to complicate and hard to simplify. Design should be most advanced yet most acceptable. Design goes to simplicity. Progressive reduction is when a thing becomes less and yet better. When you cut away the excess and yet make a product better. The beauty is in simplicity. 2. Inside-out craftmanship over bait-and-switch craftmanship Crasftmanship really matters. The great designers are fanatical about the execution all they way through. The quality lies in details, so try your best to make your product perfect. Don't let flaws to be normal. You can't hide flaws, one day they will finally reveal themselves. 3. Embracing failure over fearing failure Failure is just a part of a process. It's inevitable and it's going to happen again, again and again. Expect it, accept it, own it, but don't fear it. They are just steps in the journey to finding the solution. You work on it until it's right. Build a culture that's ok with failures. Fail fast! Instead of theorizing, tinkering with something for a long time and then see it crumble, realize that you're eventually going to fail many times. Get these failures out of your way and move on to success. Switch your focus to rapid prototype, so you can learn quick. 4. Never leave well enough alone over if it ain't broke don't fix it World is constantly moving forward, so your design has to constantly move with it. You are constantly changing, improving, tweeking. Constantly reinvent. Don't wait until you forced to change, change on your own terms. It's an amazing "never really well enough" proactive mindset. Fast, continious, never ending improvement. There is always a way to improve, nothing is perfect. 5. Reframing problems over accepting problems Go to the core principles of a problem. Conceive the core problem, abstract it out, reframe it. Think out of the box. Think different. Don't accept the default constraints. Ask "Why?" 6. Customer doesn't know what's right over customer is always right Always make it right for the customer. Customers can't tell what they really need. I'm making this product and I know what's best. Take both customer needs and world of possibilities into your account 7. Analogical insights over analytical thinking Almost all great designs come from analogies, not pure rigid structures. Constantly analogize. 8. Eat your own dog food over observe dogs eating food Use your own product. Look from a customer's perspective. 9. First principles over fashion trends First principles are like laws of nature, the most basic laws that govern a problem. The great designers always firstly go to first principles. Ask "What is absolutely true about this problem?" 10. Zealous missionaires over indifferent mercenaries The great designers are zealous missionaires and pitchmen. It is a skill they have to have. You need to really believe in your idea and move it. P.S: The guys that only noticed "rights" in this video have missed so much! This is guy shares extremely valuable knowledge.

  • @billp4379

    @billp4379

    6 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for capturing the Heuristics

  • @MM-TheEnd

    @MM-TheEnd

    6 жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much for summarizing the key points. I was hoping that there would be some kind of downloadable document for this talk, but you've solved that problem x

  • @lihas008

    @lihas008

    6 жыл бұрын

    I do not normally reply to comments. But I had to thank you. The video is no doubt amazing distilled chalice of wisdom and you did a great job of capturing the essence so cogently. This is going to be a poster at my desk. Thank you again.

  • @R0U573D
    @R0U573D8 жыл бұрын

    Way to "Progressively Reduce" sir. A presentation for the ages! Well done.

  • @cth1950
    @cth19506 жыл бұрын

    Give credit to the speaker to say something great about how designers tick simply for a layman to understand!!Hats off!!

  • @JackieDElia
    @JackieDElia8 жыл бұрын

    Wow. Amazing presentation. Learning how to approach design with analogies, reframing the problem and abstracting it. Powerful way to approach design.

  • @pratheepch
    @pratheepch9 жыл бұрын

    This is one of the best pragmatic design approach.

  • @monadamus42
    @monadamus427 жыл бұрын

    One of the best talks I've ever experienced! Enjoyed every second! Thank you for sharing, Struktur Event and William Lidwell

  • @schuniversal154
    @schuniversal1544 жыл бұрын

    Thi9s is the best design video I have seen till date

  • @francoiskrugerpersonal2985
    @francoiskrugerpersonal29856 жыл бұрын

    Such a valuable talk to any field. It is amazing that we are living in a time where information like this is actually free.

  • @SuperStevestan
    @SuperStevestan9 жыл бұрын

    Definitely one of the best talks I've seen regarding design an innovation. Thank you so much :)

  • @pietsteyn7900
    @pietsteyn79006 жыл бұрын

    I'm 24 and still believe (some might say naively) that I will influence the world at a grand scale. This video shows how greatness eludes us when trying to achieve it, but analyzing greatness in hindsight, is almost, somewhat quantifiable. The idea of balance comes across the most to me in this video, where its always a constant balance between two things in each heuristic. But this balance can only be achieved by understanding the scale varies in each scenario. Sometimes less needs to be more to achieve balance (or the perception there of) and other times less is a bore to achieve balance. If we understand how the scale is tipped for a given scenario, the greats before us has given us the insight into how to achieve balance.

  • @StoriesWithGR
    @StoriesWithGR6 жыл бұрын

    2000th Liker here! A really really "well designed" talk. I usually lose interest over 20 mins into such long talks but William has given a truly arresting talk that made me relish it till the very end!

  • @ManhattanTina
    @ManhattanTina7 жыл бұрын

    This fella is off-the-chain awesome.

  • @hullstar242
    @hullstar2425 жыл бұрын

    Mostly with the simplicity stuff this is what I think. The problem which this theory that the future is simpler is that there is a finite amount that you can simplify these everyday objects and it gets to a certain point where there is no humanity left in the design and we have such a set number of principles that we could program a computer to design the new iPhone and that is not a future that I want to champion He’s making a lot of generalizations too, I find these big talks love this kind of talk. “Nobody like this. Everybody finds this more pleasant” people don’t work like that. There are thousands of albums and works of art that most people don’t like but a small sect of people find them life changingly good and this sect is ignored by this minimalist school of thought. One gigantic flaw in his entire base is he is looking solely at what has worked before to figure out what will work in the future. He is basing the future off of the past. If I’ve learned anything it’s that people and time and art are incredibly unpredictable and trying to find a throughline is not only impossible, it’s unhelpful. When these people did what they did many of them were the first to do it. If they followed this way of thinking that assumes what worked before always works in the now they would never have done what they did. We need to learn from the past but we cannot just keep reiterating what has already been mastered.

  • @NiloRiver
    @NiloRiver8 жыл бұрын

    ThankYou! I can see the design principles applied even in the organization of the presentation. It is a huge pack of useful information. Really appreciate, thank you.

  • @stealthypirate318
    @stealthypirate3184 жыл бұрын

    This is a gold mine. Thank you

  • @arthurderas
    @arthurderas3 жыл бұрын

    Amazingly well articulated presentation. Beautiful

  • @pm_davidjones
    @pm_davidjones4 жыл бұрын

    I wish I would have heard this speech 30 years ago. I would be on a completely different path. It's fun to think this way.

  • @TheRudyred
    @TheRudyred9 жыл бұрын

    Amazing talk! I enjoyed it so much! Very inspirational and interesting! Makes me proud to be designer as well as makes me feel how responsible I am for what I do.

  • @ELPLAK
    @ELPLAK8 жыл бұрын

    I think that all of this invaluable information is an awesome resource for all king of people who not just design, but create. Thank you very much for the kindness of share all this knowledge to us.

  • @oleksiiboiko8740
    @oleksiiboiko87402 жыл бұрын

    Watching this Great lecture for a number of years, now I'm clearly understand that the most crucial design rule is missed - one must always use timestamps in KZread videos

  • @UjjwalDubey1994
    @UjjwalDubey19948 жыл бұрын

    That was a great presentation. Thank You Sir!

  • @ycls1981424
    @ycls19814246 жыл бұрын

    So love this series. Great minds.

  • @visionaryprem
    @visionaryprem6 жыл бұрын

    i dont have words to describe.... its awesome speech.... opened my blind eyes ..... thank u sooo much

  • @ShagariGuity
    @ShagariGuity7 жыл бұрын

    This is so RAD! Love it!

  • @darkkhof
    @darkkhof6 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this beautiful lecture and we the world hungry for more and educated about design and innovations

  • @codeChris
    @codeChris6 жыл бұрын

    This was Fantastic and Really opened my eyes. it wasn't just some "motivational you can do it" attitude. It was a educational video that really helped my build something new and different for my business. Great Share!

  • @allanmetto4661
    @allanmetto46616 жыл бұрын

    Just 13 minutes into the video and I must say this rings true. I find myself pausing and looking up some of the things he says ( can't just buy everything, RIGHT?). Mind opening to say the least, I'll definitely share with my fellow Arch undergrads

  • @The-Rain-Ninja
    @The-Rain-Ninja6 жыл бұрын

    Great lecture!

  • @harshadkasbe
    @harshadkasbe6 жыл бұрын

    Right is always right for proving wrong things right.

  • @itsthisguy88
    @itsthisguy887 жыл бұрын

    I learned so much from this video thank you so much

  • @MrArmondRey
    @MrArmondRey6 жыл бұрын

    This is an amazing presentation

  • @badooral-holibi2281
    @badooral-holibi22816 жыл бұрын

    Woooow .. Changing thoughts

  • @hermesgoldenage2485
    @hermesgoldenage24858 жыл бұрын

    Great Presentation !

  • @rajeshpatel195
    @rajeshpatel1957 жыл бұрын

    incredible !!

  • @iamrai
    @iamrai7 жыл бұрын

    William Lidwell, YOU ARE GOOD.

  • @David-sq2en
    @David-sq2en5 жыл бұрын

    All my life I though "Heuristics" was an 80s Pop Band. Now I know better.

  • @SogMosee
    @SogMosee6 жыл бұрын

    This is just great

  • @loveyourselves3877
    @loveyourselves38776 жыл бұрын

    Very helpful really

  • @elvasway
    @elvasway8 жыл бұрын

    very helpful!thank u

  • @yohiioni1973
    @yohiioni19732 жыл бұрын

    I do all of this naturally but I have two severe mental disorders and a few moderate ones. Also analysis and analogy goes hand in hand. The more data/images you have in your mind means you can make more analogies and connections that you never reali,Ed were there. Observing and recording is critical lmao da vinci had so many notebooks of analysis.

  • @jamizanjalaluddin1302
    @jamizanjalaluddin13028 жыл бұрын

    well done.A door of many great opportunities.Jamizan

  • @MNMNT_OG
    @MNMNT_OG6 жыл бұрын

    Funny how this guy constantly says "right" and the video is mono and only on the left..

  • @JanneWolterbeek
    @JanneWolterbeek3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you, I need this right now! Subscribed, even though I don’t know this channel.

  • @StrukturSociety

    @StrukturSociety

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Janne! William Lidwell is such an intelligent and lovely person. He was a great guest at Struktur Event. His talk continues to inspire people years later. So glad this talk was helpful and we hope you can find more inspirational content on our channel!

  • @JanneWolterbeek

    @JanneWolterbeek

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@StrukturSociety Thanks, will check out the channel and likely rewatch this excellent talk again!

  • @PullthaleverKronk
    @PullthaleverKronk6 жыл бұрын

    On point #7 right away I thought of biomimicry, what a brilliant way to design.

  • @synio2492
    @synio24928 жыл бұрын

    Right. right. right...

  • @joshkornish9279
    @joshkornish92798 жыл бұрын

    Right

  • @jeffvalencia7656
    @jeffvalencia76566 жыл бұрын

    Simplicity is key. Took an hour to explain it.

  • @DarioMiticocchio

    @DarioMiticocchio

    2 жыл бұрын

    🤣

  • @rezaakil
    @rezaakil8 жыл бұрын

    right

  • @Iftekhar9mahmud
    @Iftekhar9mahmud9 жыл бұрын

    may be It is the best speech and one of the greatest suggestion I get. May be I missed his name, What is his name?

  • @YujoeMych
    @YujoeMych8 жыл бұрын

    Niice!

  • @sanaaw4377
    @sanaaw43775 жыл бұрын

    valuable talk, though I wish he simplified it!

  • @DrLightyearsWoes
    @DrLightyearsWoes4 жыл бұрын

    Is this book and video still relevant today in 2019?

  • @diogomoraes6790
    @diogomoraes67907 жыл бұрын

    Is there a place where I can access the written or summary of these ideas?

  • @sepidehaghazadeh8709
    @sepidehaghazadeh87097 жыл бұрын

    right. great points. right?

  • @BuriedinDisguise
    @BuriedinDisguise6 жыл бұрын

    Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right? I'm sure this is a great video, but after about the 1200th right, I couldn't take it anymore.

  • @picosdrivethru
    @picosdrivethru7 жыл бұрын

    the distribution of the verbal phrase "right?" exponentially increases as this video progresses, right?

  • @trueblueguy88
    @trueblueguy887 жыл бұрын

    Great but brilliant from 42min

  • @pratikjain1310
    @pratikjain13105 жыл бұрын

    Plz plz addd eng subtitle.f or the sake of universality.so that one cn get clear phrases n words without wasting time in rewinding...

  • @amorimromao87
    @amorimromao878 жыл бұрын

    nice way to get me out off my smartphone

  • @jamesheath2782
    @jamesheath27826 жыл бұрын

    lm a fan your a 98 ovr

  • @joshgibson7527
    @joshgibson75276 жыл бұрын

    After watching this video, I found myself saying “right” all the time when talking to other people. Weird... right?

  • @harshadkasbe
    @harshadkasbe6 жыл бұрын

    Leo nardo died, right.. But he is alive in heart right.. No its in left side Right..

  • @adrianaghaie2593
    @adrianaghaie25936 жыл бұрын

    This was a good video...am I right?

  • @kamilfrag
    @kamilfrag9 жыл бұрын

    Does anyone know the website with these japanese prosthetics

  • @JayBowles

    @JayBowles

    9 жыл бұрын

    If you search for "fairing prosthetic" on Google you'll find some info.

  • @kamilfrag

    @kamilfrag

    9 жыл бұрын

    thx

  • @cropsey7

    @cropsey7

    8 жыл бұрын

    +Kamil Fedorow planning on losing a limb? Do you think the prosthetic helps with the phantom pains?

  • @kd-bv4my
    @kd-bv4my7 жыл бұрын

    So what do you do when there's no more to chip away?

  • @o3bvv

    @o3bvv

    4 жыл бұрын

    You start adding cameras then, right? 🙃

  • @saikopiratos
    @saikopiratos4 жыл бұрын

    isnt it weird? our tools get more complex but our designs more simple.

  • @Joelmaquera
    @Joelmaquera6 жыл бұрын

    great video ... Right?

  • @ferj
    @ferj7 жыл бұрын

    Frank Lloyd Wright... right?

  • @RyawnProdu

    @RyawnProdu

    7 жыл бұрын

    lol good one

  • @KaBenow

    @KaBenow

    6 жыл бұрын

    hahaha

  • @Bukulmus
    @Bukulmus6 жыл бұрын

    Great content. Would read his knowledge in book form, but I can't get more than half way through this video because of this obnoxious repetitive RIGHT.

  • @Andrii_G
    @Andrii_G6 жыл бұрын

    my right ear felt lonely at first

  • @AVSdesign
    @AVSdesign6 жыл бұрын

    I encourage a full listen! But if you need to review, as I have, I took note of the times. :) 1. Elegant simplicity over conspicuous featurism- 9:15 2. Inside-out craftsmanship over bait-and-switch craftsmanship- 18:39 3. Embracing failure over fearing failure- 24:33 4. Never leave well enough alone over if it ain't broke don't fix it- 30:04 5. Re-framing problems over accepting problems- 35:56 6. Customer doesn't know what's right over customer is always right- 42:16 7. Analogical insights over analytical thinking- 51:21 8. Eat your own dog food over observe dogs eating food- 56:37 9. First principles over fashion trends- 59:48 10. Zealous missionaries over indifferent mercenaries- 1:04:27

  • @TheMostHype
    @TheMostHype7 жыл бұрын

    you said right too many times right?

  • @codiguedesign9614
    @codiguedesign96143 жыл бұрын

    !

  • @thecraicpirate3745
    @thecraicpirate37458 жыл бұрын

    Right? Right? Right? 😑

  • @sepidehaghazadeh8709

    @sepidehaghazadeh8709

    7 жыл бұрын

    :))

  • @UNCLEBILLYTEE

    @UNCLEBILLYTEE

    7 жыл бұрын

    Brian Duffy wish I never read this before I watched lmao!

  • @mikejohnson6904

    @mikejohnson6904

    7 жыл бұрын

    right

  • @phantomKE

    @phantomKE

    6 жыл бұрын

    I actually didn't notice it till I read your comment

  • @anemoia2661

    @anemoia2661

    6 жыл бұрын

    Break away from the crowd, don't be a sheep, set your soul free... don't be right, be *LEFT*

  • @prazk1658
    @prazk16584 жыл бұрын

    Amazing things to learn here in this video. But his habit of saying 'right' is so irritating that it almost killed me!

  • @ksmith4455
    @ksmith44557 жыл бұрын

    How could he leave out Milton Glaser from the list. Sacrilege!

  • @deathmond9444
    @deathmond94446 жыл бұрын

    He lost me with the table...progressive reduction? He reinvented not the inside of "an apple pro" he reinvented the look of an SMD resistor or capacitor!

  • @kotobookie
    @kotobookie Жыл бұрын

    i think this is great advice but to not allow a transcript keeps it from being truely accesible which i think is pretty ironic considering the topic of the video.

  • @Johnsmith-do2js
    @Johnsmith-do2js7 жыл бұрын

    i have a headache, right?

  • @metmay
    @metmay6 жыл бұрын

    how do you know a bad speaker? right?!

  • @nickvoutsas5144
    @nickvoutsas51443 жыл бұрын

    We live in glass walls

  • @racejase979
    @racejase9796 жыл бұрын

    Making that guy keep on reproducing the tabletop is, in my opinion, beyond reasonable. This a fantastic video however. Great work.

  • @BobbyBlueBlood
    @BobbyBlueBlood9 жыл бұрын

    the guy said "right?" waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay tooooo much

  • @Skuekys

    @Skuekys

    6 жыл бұрын

    right right right right XD

  • @prasaddanie
    @prasaddanie7 жыл бұрын

    right? 😂😂

  • @deezynar
    @deezynar6 жыл бұрын

    This guy couldn't be an architect. A practicing architect knows that building codes require sound foundations, and structures. A house with brick veneer only on the front does not indicate that it has a bad foundation. The building code insures that it is structurally sound. The veneer does not go all the way around the house because the price point in that neighborhood will not support the extra cost for full veneer. Plywood on the back of a cabinet is structurally superior to solid wood, and you wouldn't see much difference if it is good quality hardwood plywood. I prefer a plywood back on a chest of drawers.

  • @raindropsneverfall
    @raindropsneverfall6 жыл бұрын

    Damn it, stop saying 'right' all the time!

  • @skellzzed8255
    @skellzzed82556 жыл бұрын

    Every fucking sentence, right?

  • @kbeetles
    @kbeetles6 жыл бұрын

    ..."a spiritual mushy way"...? What does this mean? What is he implying?I do not like this condescension......if I were a snowflake, I might say, I am triggered and someone just hurt my feelings.... right?

  • @mad4ad
    @mad4ad5 жыл бұрын

    Too much of right right right, good content tho.

  • @hasanjamous
    @hasanjamous6 жыл бұрын

    i hate you guys.. now i can't not hear "right" haha

  • @s.s.531
    @s.s.5316 жыл бұрын

    that sucked..right?, right?,, right?, right?...right?..

  • @tomszumlic8971
    @tomszumlic89716 жыл бұрын

    nothing worse than a good idea (maybe) presented poorly, right ?