Most artists, designers, architects, and other creative professionals will agree that the separation of good from great lies in the small attention to details—that final push to distinguish the work and make it memorable. The architect Mies van Der Rohe is often associated with the aphorism, “God is in the details.” Whether or not God truly lives in these scrupulous moments is to be determined, but there is truth to the notion that wonder, narrative, and excitement are found within these micro features.
Unlike architecture however, digital is ephemeral, and details can be manipulated, edited, removed, or added at any point in the process. This is an exhilarating opportunity if we embrace this possibility instead of pushing it off, only to address it within the next sprint or if time allows. Rather than position the detail as auxiliary, consider it an intrinsic narrative element that communicates something greater to the audience.
We embrace these moments at Viget because we truly believe these are the details of distinction. We find excitement in an application’s microcopy or mapping the height of a site to the number of points scored by LeBron or in considering physics and sound when animating a deck of cards or in the incredibly detailed 3D rendering for user-created microphone skins.
For us, these details are the design, and the design is found in these details.
