Easily the most asked question I get is “How do you manage to do everything?”.
Admittedly, I have my finger in a lot of pies. The thing is, Second Life gives everyone an equal footing to be able to try new things and develop their skills. I’m in Second Life for the ability to express myself creatively, and to improve on my skills in various fields. Oh, and to set fire to stuff. Stuff is awesome.
As a designer, I find myself trying to come up with a lot of products that are aesthetically pleasing, and trying to diversify myself to meet the needs of the larger market.
But I am who I am, and nobody else. My background and design ethos is likely to be different to yours, and how will I know what you like if I don’t know who you are?
This is one of the reasons that about 6 months ago I decided to come out my shell and let people see more of myself. I started taking SL photography more seriously and agreed to do some SL media interviews to establish a reputation and to start meeting more people who essentially form the customer base. My media ventures expanded as I moved into blogging and Twitter/Plurk and started diversifying my inworld skillsets too.
The more people you meet, the more you learn about how people use Second Life. The more you learn about how they use SL, the more ideas you get for things which could make the experience easier, or enhance how they interact in the metaverse.
While I respect many designers who concentrate on developing their products, I have found that by being more socially aware of the people within Second Life, I’ve learnt a lot about why residents are here, and how diverse the world is. I’ve seen how people function, and how things have been done right, and how things could have been done better.
Most importantly, I’ve realised that in order to succeed, you need to know your audience.
At the moment, a lot of SL residents are buying what they consider to be as close to what they want to get. A designer recently complained to me that her sales are decreasing, and she felt there were too many designers in SL and not enough customers.
The thing is, people are realising that they don’t have to settle for the next best thing. They themselves can make the things they want to have.
As designers, we have to know what people want. Not tell them what they want.
Bailey Longcloth on December 11, 2008
Good post Prad. I think many designers seem to forget who they are designing for. In a world where anyone can build their own house or furniture, the designers need to think outside the box more. The mentality of *build it they will come* doesn’t work anymore. Knowing what someone wants isn’t enough either. It’s building what they want better than they can and adding the extra touch that only YOU the designer are doing. That’s what will make someone buy yours instead of building it themselves or buying someone else’s.
Mr. Bellic on December 11, 2008
I guess someone has never seen the Devil wears Prada.. =]
I am a resident of SL and I am a consumer. I am also male… which means I pretty much wear the same jeans everyday =] but what I do have are lots of girlfriends who seem to think its fun to shop and they need a males point of view, so I get dragged everywhere. The endless shops of cloths .. skins .. shoes .. omg its mind numbing. And for designers I dont know how you do it. Advertising in SL is for shzt .. traffic can be fabricated .. people stealing designs, skins and whatever else. Plus there is a whole fashion world out there which would shock most people if they paid attention .. magazines .. fashion shows .. sooooo much drama =] So happy im not a girl or a designer for that matter =]
I have come to one conclusion … each designer has an area of influence… these could be friends or friends of friends … random fly bys .. and something just clicks and when that happens a designer gets a month to make more stuff or they are yesterdays news =] Did I mention I would hate to be a designer? But my hats off to you and am jealous that you found something that makes ya happy and a few extra L’s .. beats stripping, which I am sure has funded a few new stores out there.
Ryker Beck on December 11, 2008
This post made me think of one, very eloquent phrase, that may become my motto for the day:
“There is a difference between knowing the path… and walking the path.”
PrimCision Jewelry on December 12, 2008
PrimCision Market Research…
After reading an article by Prad, certain things rang true for me. I have always put in a fair amount of effort into finding out what people want, and I do a fair amount of custom work for people. However there is always more that you can do. I perso…