Lo-fi and hi-fi modes as a designer

It can be hard to stay focused throughout the work day.

My brain, long trained by social media and distractions from the shiny blue screens, wants to take every detour available.

So I have to wrestle it back into place.

And this is coming from someone who works from home, can control most external distractions, and is privileged to have a job with few meetings and time to  think through complex ideas.

The reality is that we exist in a world that wants to distract us.

Even though I’ve gotten pretty good at stopping the infinity wells, and reducing notifications, I just have to admit that my brain is in a different place than it was twenty years ago.

To combat this I approach design with two mental modes. I allow myself to move between them depending on the needs of the project.

When I go to tackle a feature, I need to get a lay of the land. So I go through my design process. During this time I switch between the modes from sketching to high-fidelity and back.

These  modes require different levels of thinking. When I’m sketching I usually just put a song on repeat, or listen to some sort of white noise. I don’t want distractions, and it’s important that nothing disturbs my time to process.

This type of work, running through low-fidelity concepts, is where much of the fun happens. It’s where I can tinker, move things around, and play with the proposed feature. I love this. It’s why I design. It’s what keeps me going, and it’s times like this where my work feels like pure joy.

But, I also can’t do this forever. The forcing function of making my brain work with zero distractions has a natural limit each day. At some point my mind cries out to step away from the deep work focused mode, and to take a breather.

This is where the high-fidelity work comes in.

And, for some designers, this may feel counterintuitive.

It’s likely because of how I learned to design, but I’m fully able to work in Figma, running hi-fi concepts, while listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or regular music. My brain just hums at this point, goes into auto pilot, and I spend that time moving pieces around until something just feels right.

I’m thinking, of course. But I’m working on a solved problem. It’s just a matter of building out the jigglesaw puzzle. I already found the solution earlier, and now I have to prove it out.

During the sketching stage I can’t do any of this.

My mind is holding the entire feature in my head, turning it around, and attempting to see how it all fits together. I’m talking to myself, trying to see if something can work, I’m reading through the acceptance criteria, I’m looking at different components on Mobbin. All these things require all my brain power, and even somethign as simple as a podcast is too much.

Recognizing these modes and allowing for them brings in natural rhythms to the day. Part of my day is spent in deep work, creating and wrestling. But for the other part I’m cruising along, enjoying the scenery in a great novel, and finding how everything fits.

If you’re new to design, or trying to find a way to stay afloat in this ever-changing landscape, I’d highly encourage you to find fun in the work. See if there’s a way to turn it into something you enjoy, anticipate, and get to play around with.

I’m almost 20 years into this racket, and I hope for another twenty.