I Design

I’m not talking about any product or the process today. What I’m talking is a problem that most designs must have faced and have done. I’m sure all of us have said this at some point in our careers/projects “I think…” “In my opinion…” and “my idea (is great)…”

I’m differentiating two different issues here – one is related to opinions which I’m calling as ‘I think’ syndrome and the other ‘my idea’ syndrome. They may be related or may be detached. Let see what they are:

‘I think’ syndrome
This is some thing that you would find very common. I have seen that lot of decisions get influenced by personal opinions and biases. The situation becomes even more complex at the visual design stage. Visual design is tricky; it very difficult to evaluate or even measure the success of it. And you would find many opinions floating round the table – ‘I don’t like this…’. If you ask why? There is no concrete reason. And also there is a very thin line between an opinion and some ones learning (from experience). Insights from an experience ‘can’ be very valuable; it allows you to not commit the mistakes you have made earlier. An opinion is just a feeling – it ‘may’ be right in some cases. But you don’t know when you are making the right choice. Also the question comes back – are we doing justice to design like this? You may make a choice to please your boss just because you followed his ‘opinion’. But is this justified or is it a responsible design? These are very tricky questions. I don’t have answers here; I guess the best way is to be sensitive and responsible in design. Judge if we are swayed by opinions or we truly have reasons in the decisions that we take. ‘Self awareness’ is the solution I guess?

‘my idea’ syndrome
Another of the complexities in design: designer’s obsessed love with their own ideas. ‘My idea is great’; a common problem in most people. This is one issue that I have seen through my professional and student life. This becomes more evident in a group. Another complexity that it adds is that ‘design/idea’ becomes a part of self esteem. If you reject my idea; it means you don’t think I’m good. Thus it hurt my ego.

This I would guess is a Design Managers nightmare. Handling designers thus is not an easy task. The biggest problem with design is – nothing is right or wrong. It’s all about what the object of the problem is. Even the solution that a designer brings in have their pros and cons. I don’t know if there is something called as a ‘perfect design’? It’s perfect for a situation and person; but no universal. Thus evaluating design is not so simple. And this attachment to our ideas sometimes blinds us in rationally evaluating it.

So the basic question is. What is design? Is it a creation of people’s personal beliefs/bias or a conscious solution driven by understanding the problem? How much of our solution is driven by our biases? Is it good? And how do we make sure our solutions don’t get biases by our beliefs?

What is a good design built from? Any thoughts…

Design Research – the fuel to design?

I recently attended Yahoo! Usability and User Research Conference in Seoul. It was an internal conference focused on methodologies and sharing amongst various international offices.

I have already known the value of research in design and this conference just concretized by belief and trust in design research. Any design process needs design decisions. Making the right decision is important to make your product/solution accurate. If you think closely how do we make these decisions?

These are based on our past experiences, our understanding of the users and mostly our ‘biases/assumptions’. I would say majority of our decision are based on what we think (read as ‘assume’) the user would want. Thus there is a lot of ambiguity and differences in what is need and what we assume is needed.

This is where the design research fills the gap. It becomes a bridge between the user and the designer. I personally feel any kind of design research has a lot to offer to designers. Even though they may not make an impact the top management; there is a huge value in day to day working of designers. As designers we should seek as many cue and clues what help us build a better understanding of the actual usage. The objective- reduce assumption and build concrete understanding. The less assumption we build on our design I feel the better designs we can deliver.

So I would suggest treat your design researchers very well. Treat them & give them gift because these are people who could really help you create better designs. And this not only helps you in a specific product/project. These understanding are going to stay with you for very long. This may have direct impact on current project but indirectly this is going to have significant impacts on products/project to come in future.