SLOW SUNDAY // April 2018: Learning medium mastery from the Master of Suspense

Sunday Slow, April 2018: When Alfred Hitchcock's insights on television and human motivation became my guide for designing honest digital experiences. Sometimes the best creative breakthroughs come from unexpected teachers

Found this spread from my sketchbooks from Rylie's "Vibes" selects—six years ago, studying how Hitchcock wielded his medium like a precision instrument.

"Television is like indoor plumbing... it just kept them inside the house." He understood TV's psychological grip before anyone else.

I was designing car shopping software, wrestling with my own medium's constraints. How do you deliver hard financial truths through pixels when your brand was built on face-to-face honesty?

Hitchcock knew that film could build suspense through editing, camera angles, and sound. What could software do? How could I use interaction design, progressive disclosure, and visual hierarchy to guide someone through the difficult conversation about affordability?

His insight on motivation—"Your salary"—became my north star. People weren't shopping for cars; they were navigating dreams versus financial reality. My job wasn't to hide that tension but choreograph it, like Hitchcock choreographed fear.

Seven years later, as we design AI experiences, his lesson feels urgent: master your medium's unique powers. Don't just digitize old processes—discover what only software can do.

🌊 What medium are you still learning to master?

#creativedirection #productdesign #hitchcock #mediummastery # designwisdom #sketchbook #customerexperience #designthinking