Leonardo Da Vinci was the best UX Designer in history
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Everyone knows a little bit about Da Vinci. At least you've heard of Mona Lisa, his attempt to build a helicopter, or the Vitruvian man.
Was he ahead of his time? Was he one of a kind? I love him and his passion to create the most beautiful and delightful things. And not only that… he was the first UX Designer that ever lived. Don't believe me? Let's break it down:
➡️ His visual design skills
Come on, really?
Job Interview situation: Imagine nowadays Leonardo with all his hipster beard, skinny pants and the interviewer like "Hi Mr. Da Vinqi!", and Leo (I will call him Leo), would be like "It's Da Vinchi". The interviewer a bit more wary: "May we see your portfolio, what do you have there in that briefcase?". Leo would grab his A3 Moleskine Folio showing some of his sketches… and at that moment the interviewer goes like 🤩 (Yes, of course he got the job).
Leonardo was a master "sketcher" because he loved to practice drawing since he was a child. He was born in 1452 out of a wedlock (naughty Mr. Da Vinci). His father, Piero Da Vinci was a rich notary, but his mom was an ordinary peasant. Because of this situation, he couldn't attend university or practice any of the noble professions, and his school time was minimal. As a child he was left mostly by himself and one of the activities he loved was to walk on the forests of Vinci (Let's talk about creativity afterwards... he lived in a town called Village of Vinci, near the Forests of Vinci 😐).
And here he got a bit lucky. His father, being a notary, had access to loads of paper (a rare commodity at the time), and Leo would grab some from his father and go to the forests to sketch. He returned day after day and enjoyed looking closely to catch the details. He was talented, that's for sure, but loving to practice was (in my opinion) one of the key factors of his success.
This is how much he would love to practice: He once was assigned to paint an angel (on a biblical assignment). He experimented with his paints and mixed a new blend that gave it a kind of soft edge that expressed a sublime mood. To capture this mood he would spend time at the local church observing people praying.
As if this wasn't enough, he also thought deeply about the wings of this angel. To tackle this "problem" he went to a marketplace, purchased lots of birds, spent hours sketching their wings and how exactly they merged into their bodies. He wanted to create the sensation that these wings were grown from the shoulders naturally. As if this human angel could fly.
➡️ Was Leonardo Da Vinci a UX Generalist Designer?
Are you a T-shaped designer? (this term became notorious in 2010 after Tim Brown {CEO of IDEO} gave this interview HERE). Or are you an I, or an X-shaped designer… (yep, there are these kinds of terminologies as well…).
Anyways, in my opinion, Leo was a generalist. He loved to paint and sketch, and he was also known for his curiosity, for trying/experimenting with new things/materials.
One idea would float into another.
For example: Regarding the birds wings I mentioned above; he became obsessed with birds and the idea that humans could fly (the helicopter idea could have unfolded here). He would spend several hours per day studying, pretty much, everything.
One of his first internships happened at the age of 14. He was hired by Andrea del Verrocchio because of the remarkable quality of his drawings (at this point Leo was drawing/practicing since he was a kid). Verrocchio's style was to expose his interns to all the sciences necessary to produce great quality work, such as engineering, mechanics, chemistry, metallurgy, and of course, painting.
The good news: Leo as an intern wouldn't be complaining that there were no ping-pong table on the office. He was eager to learn ALL of these skills, and he did with maestry.
Is being a generalist a bad thing? 🤔
Apparently not, right?!
But I am sure that nowadays, Leo would show this experience and recruiters would be like: "but do you know HTML, CSS and Javascript?" or "Sir, you are 14, you don't have enough experience for a junior UX Designer… as a matter of fact you have minus 5 years of experience at this moment".
➡️ He loved the user
There is one very little detail in his story that amazes me, the fact that he would prepare his paint every single day to have his art always with the same pigments/textures/colours. His gear had to be freshly ground and mixed every day.
Why would he do this?
Because he loved the user. He was thinking about the experience. Is it a delightful experience for the user to look at a sh*t red? Nope. So let's make a beautiful red, every single day 🎨
Since there was no Ctrl-Z at the time (we are now talking about the 1500’s) he would do lots and lots of research to, again, delight his users. He was fascinated by lips, finding them as expressive as eyes (Mona Lisa feelings). He would even sketch in different times of the day to make sure he could capture the different effects that light would have on the face.
For his famous painting The Last Supper, the stakeholder (the Duke of Milan) was quite angry with Leo for missing the deadlines. And the reason was the face of Judas. Leo wasn’t happy with the face models he had. It took him weeks visiting the worst parts of Milan to find the perfect villain face to use on Judas.
(I love this joke: Jesus walks into a restaurant and says to the waiter: “Table for 26 please”. Confused, the waiter does a quick head count, and says “But there are only 13 of you.” Jesus replies “Yes, but we are all going to sit on the same side”.) 😇
➡️ He always asked "why?"
Why does the hand have so many veins? Or why is a shoulder positioned like this?
He wanted to be able to draw a human or a bird from the inside out. He would dissect cadavers, sawing bones and limbs. He attended autopsies so that he could see the structure and movements of muscles, veins and bones.
Trying to translate to nowadays: Do you dissect the company you are analysing/working for as a UX Designer? Let's appreciate the fact that we live in 2018 and don't have to saw half a leg to see what's inside. Not to mention data (big data, you name it) that we all have access to. Do you design without data? Going a bit out of topic here, but here's a quote from Kim Goodwin:
Designing without real content or data is not problem-solving; it’s fantasizing.
➡️ He knew how to communicate his ideas
Leo was so good and knew about so many things that kings (CEO's?) would hire him as an advisor. To point out that king Francis I of France once said:
There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher.
Francis loved hanging out with Leo. He invited Leo so many times to visit him that it was during one of this visits, at the age of 67, that Leonardo died of a stroke 😔
➡️ Paper sketching and attention to detail
Ok… I might be exaggerating with the "paper sketching", but I'll try to prove my point.
He always, ALWAYS started with paper sketching…😎
His attention to detail was something out of this world. Really, think about the Vitruvian man I posted above. Why would he need to add shadows? It's already more than perfect in proving the point of the ideal human proportions.
And the shadows he used are so simple to make: a series of straight lines fading away.
➡️ Rapid Prototyping
During some of his days he would take endless walks through the city capturing every detail. He would visit lots of different places, such as prisons, hospitals and churches. With his notebook he would sketch people as they laughed or expressed an emotion. He would follow people in the streets who had a face he had never seen before and would sketch them as he walked.
The Grand Master UX Designer
I am very happy to have Da Vinci as one of the fathers of UX Design (Don Norman, Steve Jobs, Julie Zhuo, Kim Goodwin, Jane Austin, David/Tom Kelley and Jared Spool… you are included here as well, no worries 👊).
His ideas floated into another. Let’s be more like Leonardo Da Vinci: curious, generalist, interested and giving delightful experiences to users.
He might not be recognised as one, but hopefully we will spread the word so he can add one more title to his business card.
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