Their ubiquity means they don’t need to be used sparingly. Their size means they fit in your pocket. Their lack of permanence allows us to iterate. They help us diverge by capturing hundreds of ideas, and then converge by picking the best ones. Use them to visualize complex ideas as quick and easy doodle pads as concise, color-coded feedback machines. With great power comes great responsibility just having sticky notes, or covering your workspace with them, is not enough. Try it right now… grab a sticky note, crumple it up, and toss it in the bin. There’s a tangible, physical satisfaction that comes with finishing a job. I love peeling sticky notes off a wall, crumpling them in my hands, and tossing them in the recycling bin. Don’t worry about writing perfect prose just get the idea out of your head! Don’t be afraid to use lots of them they aren’t precious.
When it comes to getting the most out of sticky notes, especially for the practice of design thinking, I’ve got some tips and tricks to consider:īe productive: Sticky notes are designed to be used quickly and then tossed. Do you cram a 20-point bulleted list on a single note? Do you take a fine tip pen and doodle small circles all over them? Do you fold them in half so they aren’t sticky anymore? You can do that! You can use them in so many ways, without needing any instructions. Using sticky notes is fun because they are so versatile. If you’re brainstorming at a whiteboard, everyone can share ideas that carry equal weight.
The everyday nature of the sticky note removes all barriers to using it - unlike fancy software or a coding language. The 100 notes in the pad are plain, unbound, and present themselves as an approachable tool for everyone.This is key in the realm of human-centered design: when you’re trying to make sense of a complex situation through Affinity Clustering or sifting through ideas in a Creative Matrix, the ability to move notes around is essential. The back is sticky but not too sticky, which gives you the ability to move it over and over again.A new pad is thick enough that you can write on it while standing at a whiteboard or sitting at your desk. A 3×3 inch pad of sticky notes fits perfectly in the palm of most hands.It’s easy to think of the sticky note as just an adhesive scrap of paper - but there’s more to it! Here are some key features of the sticky note that you may not have thought about: And while they come in all shapes and sizes, the simple 3×3 inch square note is the star of the show. Over the past 40 years or so, sticky notes have gone from being a niche product in Idaho to being more common than No.2 pencils.
Like a superhero, the sticky note was created in a laboratory… by accident - the story of how a chemical mishap led to a world-changing office product is well-documented. The sticky note (or Post-It® Note, if you want to be brand-specific) isn’t just a cliché background element to office life - it’s an elegant device waiting for you to use it to its fullest potential. And if you practice human-centered design, then you probably have a reputation for using lots of them. They’re strategically placed around the house, office, and garage to remind you to do stuff. They’re all over your fridge and family calendar.
The sticky note has been a part of the modern work environment almost as long as personal computers.