You’ve probably heard the expression down the rabbit hole, taken from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If you’ve never read the work or seen one of its film adaptations, here’s how the adventure begins:
Alice spots a White Rabbit, dressed like a gentleman, who seems to be in a great hurry. Intrigued, she follows him down a rabbit hole and falls in, beginning a never-ending fall that takes her to “Wonderland”. There, the rules of our usual reality no longer exist.
Over time, the expression “down the rabbit hole” has come to mean “getting lost” or “getting too involved” in a subject. It often symbolizes curiosity that leads us away from our initial objective, or even distraction. Unfortunately, this notion sometimes has a negative connotation.
Being like Alice
Many designers find themselves in the same situation as Alice. Their mission is seemingly simple: to design a website, a poster or an in-store experience. After all, that’s what they do: design.
Yet, like Alice, these designers are curious. They seek to understand things that may seem absurd or contradictory to them. They ask questions, delve into issues and end up questioning certain “givens”, or even the authority in place. Curse the Queen of Hearts!
If, like me, you’re a designer, you’ll probably find yourself challenging your colleagues, your customers or the project framework. It’s our way of exploring, considering alternative solutions and, ultimately, returning to a reality that makes sense to us. But is this “reality” the only one?
The reality of the White Rabbit
In front of us, there are often customers, bosses or colleagues who look like the White Rabbit: “I’m late! I’m late! Late!” Their daily lives are filled with rules that seem perfectly logical to them, even if they seem out of another world to us. And they’re always in a hurry.
The expression down the rabbit hole is often seen as negative, because it’s seen through the prism of the White Rabbit. He doesn’t need to justify his world: he simply has to serve his Queen and avoid losing his head. For him, everything is coherent and must move fast.
A wonderland?
In design practice, we know that sometimes we need to take the time to explore, innovate and think outside the box. But plunging into an unfamiliar universe requires a great deal of effort and time.
As in Alice’s world, we need to know which potion or cake will make us grow or shrink, philosophize with a caterpillar to get to know ourselves better, and accept uncertainty thanks to the Cheshire Cat (The Purple Cat).
To get away from Alice for a moment, from a professional point of view, this means understanding the systems in place, clarifying our roles and accepting that we don’t always have all the answers. Without that, we’ll always feel a little uncomfortable.
The Pocket Watch
All in all, we “Alice” designers regularly fall into the Rabbit Hole. This can be positive or negative, depending on how much time – and patience – our White Rabbit gives us.
Le Lapin Blanc is on time
Perfect! This means we have time to ask all our questions, test different scenarios and move forward at our own pace. If the client or boss (our “White Rabbit”) is willing to explore and innovate, he or she will reap the rewards: the discovery of new technologies, new mediums or unexplored methodologies.
It’s also why I’m an entrepreneur: I manage the time I have to get lost.
The White Rabbit is late
Yikes! This time, we don’t have the luxury of time. Even if we want to explore certain points, test hypotheses or simply do things “by the book”, the White Rabbit… he’s “ […] late! Late! Late!”
When a customer or boss has neither the time nor the inclination to explore, there’s no need to blame him. He’s protecting himself, as it were, so as not to lose his head in the face of his own constraints and urgencies.
The moral of this story
The success of a project depends on understanding the context and constraints. Sometimes, you have to go “down the rabbit hole” to explore all possible avenues. At other times, it’s better to stop, so as not to block or delay the team.
As designers, it’s essential to strike a balance between curiosity – even creative obsession – and the concrete expectations of our customers and colleagues. We have to adapt our approach to the constraints of the project: time, budget, priorities. Without this, the wonderful vision we cultivate in our heads risks remaining… a mere fiction.
