 I'm so thrilled to be here today with you all to speak about creativity and the ever-present push to continually find that spark or that idea. I feel like this talk doesn't just apply to design, but also other mediums as well. We all want what we create to be unique and original and memorable. We want to have that spark that connects us to a unique reality, something very special. We really want it to be memorable. This is what makes it good. A brand that is designed well if it is memorable and lasting. And this concept goes for other mediums as well. A song that you love to hear, a book that you read, a meal that you enjoyed, an art piece that moved you. Memory gives things meaning. We want that. And part of the way we get there is through creativity. We want to create memorable work. And our creativity is just one piece of this puzzle. Some people describe creativity as an idea. Other people describe it as a sudden realization that they hide in the shower. While other people think of it as just something floating in the air that you can kind of grab onto. But as creators, no matter what you think creativity is, we want to let this creativity within us drive us to a place of originality, uniqueness, and memorable presence. So how do we get there? How do we try to pull the creativity out of us? First of all, don't believe the myths. There are many myths surrounding creativity. And they're very negative things that we tell ourselves that inhibit finding that spark or idea. Like I'm not a creative person. I'm just not creative. That's a myth. You don't have to be eccentric Aunt Ronda in order to be creative. Everybody has creativity within them. And it's just up to you to sort of give it the room to come out. Another way that we can find and push the creative limit is having a defined process. In design, it's very important to have a process and stick with it. When we use the same process, our brains can relax and hone in on ideas that might be floating out there. Someone's design process. Everybody has a different process. But if you stick to the same one, it really helps bring out your creative in yourself. So something like, oh, I just start writing on a napkin. And then I go from there to actually doing physical wireframes. Everybody has a different process. And a lot of that has research involved, heavy research. It's really wonderful in terms of your process. So when we have a defined process, we leave room for creativity to come in at any point. And it avoids the bad chaos. Sometimes there's good chaos and there's bad chaos. Having a process avoids a lot of bad chaos where you're just overwhelmed by a project and you're just having all these ideas and you just don't know which direction to go. What works is worth stealing? In your research, you might find that there are certain designs and experiences that you love. And part of the reason that you love them is because they really work. So good ideas are definitely worth stealing. Pablo Picasso said, good artists copy, great artists steal. But we all know that Picasso's art was original and unique and unprecedented at the time. But he did build on the shoulders of others. So I'm not saying take the New York Times and slap your logo on it. I'm saying that there are great base concepts out there that we should use and then expand upon to create something even better and more memorable than the original. So some of these things that we should steal are learned behaviors. That way, we're not reinventing the wheel. Learned behaviors are the basics. They're not new. One example is scrolling. The behavior of scrolling. Embracing the fact that people have learned to scroll and not being scared to put things below the fold, using this learned behavior and utilizing it in your designs is a great thing to steal. Other learned behaviors might be other things such as swiping and slideshows, everything that kind of makes sense now. That way, we can avoid bad user experiences and open up the room of creativity to other things that aren't necessarily new. You're not making someone learn something new in terms of the user experience. Micro interactions, we must steal these. So what is a micro interaction? It's a small action that triggers a response and feedback such as pull to refresh is an example of a micro interaction. And this is a learned behavior that we definitely need to steal all the time. So all these known micro interactions, it just makes sense to utilize them and steal them. That way, we're not reinventing the wheel. We're not confusing users. We're able to utilize these known concepts and that way we open ourselves up in our thinking and through other aspects of being creative. Work with and not against limitations. Sometimes people think that constraints stifle creativity, but actually it can be freeing. So say you have a brand that you're working on that have a really defined set of brand guidelines. You might think, oh no, this is gonna be boring, but actually, you don't have to worry about the details of what the button's gonna look like, what size it's gonna be, and all those little design details. It actually opens you up to be able to think more outside the box, think about how you can work within the guidelines in order to be creative and come up with a great solution to meet your goals. So don't work with not against limitations. This will make your product even better. Also, start crafting your design intelligence. Basically, everything from researching methods that we've used, everything will give you a design intelligence. Go out, look at different designs, look at what they're doing, how are they accomplishing their goals? Design intelligence is the foundation and the groundwork for creativity. So even if you're a developer, I encourage you to look around and start to craft your own design intelligence. It'll help you have a deeper understanding of what you're building. So the more you research, analyze, and think about your product and your goals, you're crafting your own design intelligence, and in turn, your creativity will come out more naturally. So lastly, open source, share, and collaborate. This is actually a very key part of creativity. You might think, oh, I'm just sharing with others, but if you think about it, how many things have you done and looked at and gotten your ideas from other people sharing their work? So this makes our industry thrive. So say you made an icon set and you put it up for download for free, someone else can use that icon set, but in turn, you might be using the same another icon set from someone else in order to minimize your workload and so that you can be more creative without having to really tweak an icon set. So that's one way to do it. Another way is to start blogging about your projects, so making case studies and blogging about certain things like, oh, this cool micro interaction I saw, and you're sharing with others and you're collaborating in this intelligent way to where you're really gonna help expand your creativity by sharing and collaborating. Just think for a second how many free resources you've utilized, like WordPress, and think about how you can give back as well. So it'll help you push your creative limit in the end. So basically what I wanted to leave you with is go out, be creative, don't believe the myths, don't say I'm not a creative person because you really are, and just try to leave yourself room in order for you to sort of come up with certain ideas in order to reach the goals of your project. So thank you.