What is Design

"What is Design?" to Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero's book The Shape of Design is such a beautiful book and also a beautiful read. It was given to me by Charles Adler of Kickstarter when it came out -- I wish I had read it before. I got a lot out of it, especially from this passage:

"All design work seems to have three common traits: there is a message to the work, the tone of that message, and the format that the work takes. Successful design has all three elements working in co-dependence to achieve a whole greater than the sum of the individual parts."

Wow! It's all there. I feel that I've gotten a lot closer to understanding "What is Design?" Thanks Frank and Charles! -JM

"What is Design (Thinking)?" to Jane Fulton Suri and R. Michael Hendrix

In their article "Developing Design Sensibilities" Jane Fulton Suri and R. Michael Hendrix argue that "design thinking" isn't just a kind of method for businesses to begin to adopt, but instead there needs to be a consideration of what they call "design sensibilities." Their diagram above makes this distinction clear. It gave me an "a-ha" moment of translating what I hear as often cited as effective design as being able to employ empathy for the customer, user, visitor, friend who is engaging an object or experience. This speaks of the kind of sensibilities that a "design thinker" would have to have -- more than how (i.e. the "methods" used) they might go about in the actual construction of an object or experience. They write:

"Managers schooled in analytic and rational decision making may find the idea of relying on their sensibilities uncomfortable."

which makes me wonder why trusting one's sensibilities might be considered irrational. And I think there you have it ... -JM

"What is Design?" while reading Joel-on-Software

Like most hybrid technology/design folks, I've long admired Joel Spolsky's writings. This piece from 2006 was extremely instructive.

Spolsky argues that design is about making tradeoffs. Implicit to tradeoffs are the fact that people aren't all the same. Are you designing for beginners or experts? Are you designing for an Apple lover or a Windows lover? Are you designing for a Modernist or my butterfly-motif-loving mom?

He quotes retired Chrysler designer Thomas C. Gale:

"Good design adds value faster than it adds cost."

which argues for a great business case for design, which Spolsky re-makes in the context of one of the early Motorola phones. This is a good thought to work from. -JM

"What is Design?" while reading Jono Hey's Sketchplanations

Jono Hey's archive of sketches-as-explanations are like watching TED talks manifested as simple 1- or 4-frame sketches.

One of his sketches brought back my memory of learning design in Japan -- particularly the work of Noriaki Kano. Like most of the so-called "design research" work in Japan (I know it well because my PhD work was done at Tsukuba University), it tries to create a rigid framework around what we all know to be somewhat difficult to describe with any precision. Most recently while on the phone with Sonos designer Tad Toulis, I liked his take which felt right:

"You can't turn design into complete logic, otherwise it loses its true power."

and posted it on Twitter. -JM

"What is Design?" as Principles Compiled by Jeremy Keith

Jeremy Keith has compiled a list of many design principles that cover a whole lot of perspectives ranging from software people like Bruce Tognazzini to hardware people like Danny Hillis to classic design people like Dieter Rams. Reading this list makes me think that the principles that underlie design may encompass everything under the sun. And you may need to throw in everything else in the universe too.

It's a terrific list that speaks to how design is about what is optimal in a variety of dimensions and situations. Perhaps the only factor in common, that truly matters in the end, is that every category of design principles addresses a specific audience: human (people), or non-human (machines).

When designing for people, you have to take into consideration how some like their porridge cold. And some like it hot. Some like their browsing experienes to be insanely great. Others like theirs as sweetly boring as watching grass grow. Someone who may like it spicy the last time they came, may want it sweet this time. And just this time. Designing for people is a lot harder than designing for machines.

Designing for machines is what engineers do extremely well. Mechanical design is a field of true elegance that is not dissimilar to software design. The design principles we might use for engineering machines (physical or virtual) are closer to facts than the design principles we would use for people. The ones we use for people would be more akin to what my favorite human resources professional, Candace Baer, often refers to as the principle of, "It depends ...."

I want to come back to this list in the future, so I bookmark it here as I wonder, "What is Design?" -JM

"What is Design?" according to Herbert Muschamp

The late New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp wrote this piece just near the apex of the dotcom boom. It's a critique of a variety of trends in design that Muschamp saw emerging during that era:

• Apple's emergence as an over-expressive designer of the computer chassis
• Designer Bruce Mau's then rule of the space of book design as a form of art
• Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas' myriad of unconventional approaches to spaces to live in

Muschamp has some great lines about design here:

"This is not the first time design has embodied that myth [of progress]." "[Design is used as] a graphic device that conveys the conflicting desire to conceal and reveal." "The desire to overlook the ugly is a major factor behind the present infatuation with the design medium as a whole. ... Like any authority, the design phenomenon derives its power from denial. It persuades people to leave unpleasant things out of the picture."

And I found this response to Muschamp's piece -- a Tamara Coombs from Staten Island writes:

"[Muschamp] writes as if design were mostly about the way things look. From objects to architecture, he views desirable design as design that pleases the eye and provides a launching pad for metaphorical flights."

To which I am reminded of the famous quote by Steve Jobs:

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

There are so many facets to understanding, "What is Design?" -JM

"What is Design?" according to Bill Buxton

I found this short essay by interaction design pioneer Bill Buxton that spoke to the difficulty of defining design compared with the relative ease of defining a clear distinction between a sketch and a prototype. I found Bill's discussion useful, as I hadn't thought the two were all that different. Bill writes:

"Essentially, the investment in a prototype is larger than that in a sketch, hence there are fewer of them, they are less disposable, and they take longer to build."

What I was happy to find was that both sketch and prototype are pieces or, according to Bill, phases in the design process. More to the point, Bill's thoughts validate the consistent core to the act of designing -- which is the ability to fail in a productive way to end up, eventually, at a successful solution. Sketching is a kind of failing to come to a clear, single outcome; prototyping is a kind of failing to realize a final solution.

Bill's right. The difference between a sketch and prototype is a matter of where you want to put risk. To make a sketch presents a lower risk, but embodies higher risks because the sketched idea may be untested and unviable. To make a prototype presents a higher risk (due to production costs), but embodies loser risks because the prototyped idea can be tested for viability.

Designers iterate. They make mistakes in order to discover the next best step. They fail to succeed. But in most fields, and especially in business, failure is not an option. The latest generation of designers give much greater consideration to placement of risk than their counterparts from a few decades prior. Digital media has given us the ability to blur the line between sketches and prototypes in some cases. It's easier to fail faster, and to iterate more quickly towards a desired outcome.

Case in point, everything I am writing here is a sketch. Of thoughts. I am still far, far away from figuring things out. I continue to wonder, what is design? -JM

"What is Design?" back in 2007

I wrote a mini-essay on "What is Design?" back in 2007 for Technology Review:

If you turn on your TV today, you may see a commercial for ­Target in which the word “DESIGN,” big and bold, flashes on a screen filled with oddly dressed people running around. “Is this a kind of madness?” you might ask yourself. But as the vibrant imagery on the TV ­settles in your mind, you are forced to conclude, “Ah, this is … design.”

If you are a trained technologist, you will quickly shake yourself out of your trance and contradict that notion. “No,” you’ll think. “Design is about efficiency, usability, and structural elegance.” I have spent the majority of my adult life wondering about this fundamental question: what exactly is design? And I’m still asking.

Some languages have different words for the different ways we think about design. For instance, in Japanese there is the word sekkei, which connotes designing a mechanism, system, or technology with rationalized metrics for quality. Dezain, on the other hand, goes beyond an object’s function to how it makes us feel. The former can be thought of as the kind of design taught at places like MIT; the latter as the kind of design taught at art school.

An object that has been sekkei‑ed to be flawless from an engineering perspective can elicit an emotionally empty response. An inspiringly dezain-ed object may incite passion, but if it is not sekkei-ed to be reliable, it will inevitably disappoint. Both ­sekkei and dezain are prerequisites for creating an object, service, or experience that is desirable in the marketplace. This is especially true today, as more and more products feature ever more sophisticated technology. Marrying technology with feeling is the dream that design in the 21st century seeks to realize.

But if one thing quickly surfaces when it comes to technology, it’s the feeling that it is getting much too complex for everyone. We seek simplicity today in our interactions with all forms of technology, but we end up reading long-winded manuals or just giving up. I researched the quest for simplicity in design and technology for my recent book and ended up discovering how complex a subject simplicity really is. Simplicity is about how we feel; complexity is about the possibilities that technology brings. In an age when it’s possible to engineer and build absolutely anything, we have time and opportunity to focus on the feelings, and not just the possibilities, that technology now affords.

Google on What is Design?

According to Google, "design" is both a noun and verb. But that doesn't help us to know ... because a lot of words are both nouns and verbs. Its synonyms listed here lean toward the dominant word as "plan" -- which is also a noun and verb -- but the word "plan" doesn't quite accurately capture that look of despair on many designers' faces when deadlines loom large and you can hear them all say, "I wished I had planned!!"

What's missing in this definition of "design" is the notion of an emotional connection grounded in aesthetics, narrative, or otherwise joy. Design is often in the eye of the beholder, and Google's definition here certainly fits how it originally approached design in more staid, optimized, "Vulcan" terms. But recently Google's designs have picked up steam, so my guess is that this entry (because of Google's all-knowing eyeballs in those O's of G-o-o-o-o-g-l-e) will change with time as Google itself evolves as a more design-led company over the rest of this century. -JM

Social Design

I've been thinking about the social design space recently, and note the Curry Stone Design Prize which is now in its fifth year as realizing solid definitions there. The following quotes were notable to me. -JM

"We're not asked to just do a design; we're asked to come up with the question that we need to solve." —Alejandro Aravena

"A designer doesn't necessarily create things or discover stuff: you identify the potential in a particular material." —Luyanda Mpahlwa

"Design is a subversive practice. It has the power to imagine reality arranged in a different order of values." —Antonio Scarponi