My Design Principles (Atomic Essay Day 18)
I came across this tweet by David Perell the other day -
And it got me thinking of my values or principles as a designer. Fair warning, I have never taken a stab at articulating these before so bear with me if some of them are half baked. Here they are:
1/ Everything is a system
The world we live in is complex and the people in it are complexer (Yes it is a word, I checked). Conventional logic doesn’t hold true when it comes to people. Accepting the uniqueness and unpredictability of people & their interactions is a key principle in my design process.
I’ve written about systems thinking in the past - check it out if you want to know more.
2/ Zooming in and out
I enjoy working towards both strategic and tactical projects. Strategic projects help designing the right thing and define what to build. Tactical projects help designing the thing right and define how to build. To have a view of both is almost like building a jigsaw puzzle - you need to zoom in and see what piece fits where but also zoom out and see how the larger piece appears.
3/ Problem first approach
At the core, I am a problem solver. Over the years I have realised that I work best when I’m anchored around a specific problem. Being problem first also leaves room to discover new things - unlike when you’re centred around a solution.
4/ User is the king
While solving a problem, the only person who's opinion that matters is the user. Don't get me wrong in most cases there are multiple users (See Principle #1) and their needs often contradict each other. But bottom line, the design process is a dangerous place for personal opinions.
P.S. This is going to be an ever-evolving list