I recently watched this video about Ridd's work, and this one conversation has stayed with me.

The topic of design taste came up and Kyle talked about an old mentor that would take him on walks all the time. The mentor would make him look at every house they walked by and say something he liked and disliked about each.

The first step to good design is having good taste.

The first step to good taste is being able to recognize what is good and what is bad about a thing, and more importantly, why it's good or bad.

Once you can recognize why something is good or bad, you can iterate on it in your own work.

Good design is a journey that I'm still on the path to personally, so I found these ideas interesting and helpful. I thought you might too.

P.S. that entire video is awesome. You should watch it from the start.