2 Core Concepts of Design
Design is a pretty wide field. I just googled design to see how many different types of “design” exist. By the way, there’s more than 35 (no kidding). There’s this joke, ask 10 designers about what is design and you get 10 different answers, which I attest to.
Personally, I used to see design as making things look beautiful or easy to use, it was the kind of perspective that sees design purely as an art form and nothing else. So my mind was pretty fixated on that until the day someone told me that what I was doing in a startup was similar to UX Design, then I got mind-blown.
Fast forward to now, I’m pretty much convinced that design will continue to evolve as long as humans continue to create awesome things, and it makes my heart fuzzy and warm. But then again not all designs are positive. I will say, in advance, that what I mean by good Design is not because it’s pretty.
Good Design is Design that serves its intended purpose well.
Anyway, I won’t try to define What is Design (the first article I ever read about design, and I highly recommend it) nor will I attempt to explain what is it about. I leave that to your imagination (and misery).
Everyone is a Designer
I’m a big advocate of this quote by Tim Brown. To me, Design involves 2 core concepts, regardless of type and field, and anyone that believes and practices these concepts are designers themselves, even if they don’t know it.
Design can be seen from many perspectives, and having the ability to draw well is only one of them. Although there’s always the advantage of putting your ideas down into a sketch for others to visualize, it doesn’t always have to be the case. Here’s what I propose:
Everyone should be empowered to design
Knowing that, here’s a few perspectives to think about or look at:
Design as…
- Communication by Don Norman
- Art by Paola Antonelli
- Future-Making by Susan Yelavich and Barbara Adams
- Problem-Solving by Armand Hatchuel
- Deterrent by Gordan Savicic and Selena Savic
And more that I probably don’t know. If you do know of another way to see design, please post below and I’ll update the list above. It’s an ever-evolving list and I hope that it stays that way.
Well then, in essence Design boils down to…
Intentionality
I have yet to find good design that was done unintentionally. In fact, I believe all good designs are done intentionally.
Good Design always goes unnoticed
Every decision a good designer makes has intent behind it, whether it’s reasoned through intuition or research, and no matter how small the decision. It’s also kinda why most designers are perfectionists.
Design involves less of throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, and more about having a solid hypothesis or reason behind their decisions, then see what works and what doesn’t. In most cases, solutions are best guesses based on collected data, and good designs are always rigorously tested. Like a scientist, all designers follow a certain kind of process, consciously or unconsciously (and most of them will say that they don’t have a process).
I came across a video along my journey into the world of Design, and I came across this talk by Jared Spool. In it he introduces a spectrum, where one end is dogma and the other is tricks, and the best designs come from using tricks and techniques, and not methodologies and dogma. He coined it “Informed Design”.
This doesn’t mean methodologies don’t work, it just means don’t blindly follow them. The idea is simple: The workshops, tools and techniques that designers use, like user interviews, usability testing, experience mapping and etc, should ONLY be used when the situation calls for it.
But how will you know? By understanding the purpose and outcome of every tool and technique in your “toolbox” so damn well, that you’ll know when to apply it.
Your “toolbox” is built through learning and experience, the most tangible part of design that we call “deliverables” and “artefacts”.
The posteriori of Design is the actions that you do to achieve a state of balance, where Design is neither underwhelming nor overwhelming
The process is then dependent on the designer. His state of mind, beliefs, assumptions and motivations.
This is the easiest concept to explain, because it can be expressed and shown visually, it’s something tangible. But this is incomplete without the second concept, as it speaks the other side of Design.
Ambiguity
The intriguing question of Design, is not “Will my design work?” but instead “Will my design work as intended?”. No one is able to predict the exact outcome of their design, as nobody has complete control over who comes across it.
In Design, the vast possibilities to tackle a problem is mesmerizing yet paralyzing
It’s mesmerizing when the possibilities are endless, as that’s where innovation comes in. Solving the “jobs to be done” in a way that others have never thought of. Designers understand that underlying all that ambiguity..
is not some kind of shining light at the end of a tunnel.
is not a magic solution to solve all their user’s problems.
is not a single entity to fulfill all their user’s needs.
It’s human values and principles that, when matched by Design, will meet the needs of its user.
Good Designs are often created with human emotions in mind. Even then, beautiful accidents are happening everywhere that still result in Good Design. The fact that design allows that kind of imagination, where one design can be used in many different ways disregarding how it was intended by the creator, is simply magical.
Then again…
It’s paralyzing when the possibilities are endless, because then it’s easy to be lost in the process. Currently the world is pampered by choices and data, so much that they don’t try to understand the underlying reasons why design is even needed in the first place, they rather just design for the sake of it.
Even then, when underlying reasons are uncovered, the lack of perspectives might leave it back where it started, created with wrong assumptions in mind. That’s why many over-complicate their designs, filling the world of unnecessary complexity.
Instead, Design takes all the complexity of a user’s journey into account, then aims to improve it. This can be done through simplification, packaging it differently and etc. However, to achieve this a multi-disciplinary team is necessary, or else the design will end up being one-dimensional.
This is why good Design is always the product of a cross-collaborative effort, because you tackle the problem from many different perspectives to overcome the ambiguity.
Good Design should aim to fulfill the needs of it’s user, be it for a second or a century, regardless of its medium.
Of course Design is ever-evolving. What is considered Good Design today, may no longer be tomorrow. What is Good Design for one culture, may not be for another. Acceptance of ambiguity is one of the important traits of a designer.
Good Design is in the eyes of the beholder, but that doesn’t mean that it exists only for some. Whoever that comes across the design is a user, regardless of his/her circumstances. One must not design for everyone, but everyone is affected by design.
Science or Art?
There’s always this question of whether Design is a Science or an Art, and in a way each concept ties to each field respectively.
Design is a combination of the intentionality of structure in science with the ambiguity of answers in art.
As designers traverse the land of the unknown and brainstorm many ideas, they do it through a structured process. This odd combination of the structured in the unknown is what allows designers to create innovative solutions that seem obvious but wasn’t thought of before.
Yes, there are geniuses that wake up one day and suddenly create a masterpiece, but I believe that those are far and few in between, as a result from many years of experience. Design will mostly consist of learning, discovering, building, testing and iterating.
Design is not for challenging the status quo, it’s incorporating human values into items of the material world.
There’s no novelty in good Design.
There’s definitely no magic wand.
There’s no bloody one all be all solution.
There’s no goddamn shortcuts.
And fucking hell, stop asking for a Ninja/Rockstar.
Good Design is an excruciating process of wondering “Is it good enough?”, mixed with large doses of anxiety, coupled with many failed attempts, topped off with heavy amounts of cross collaboration.
It’s not a mystery, it’s not extravagant work, it’s not amazing, but it pays off in the end when someone else’s life is better because of it. And as human beings, that’s what we all strive to achieve right?
So then, everyone is a designer.
