What is Design, really?
By: Monica Ghosal
Tags: College Students, Designer, Design, Creative Process, Design Thinking

An illustration of a woman sitting by her computer desk.

We’re constantly surrounded and impacted by design. Let’s tackle the true meaning of what design is.

Steve Jobs once said,

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

That’s great, but what exactly is “design” and why is it so important to our lives?

Most of us probably hear the word “design” and jump to the thought of decoration — maybe a colorful event flyer or a cute birthday card. While those aesthetic elements do contribute to design, it’s more than just pretty visuals. It’s also the process that goes into creating those visuals: the audience, the choice, the solution.

Believe it or not, you are constantly surrounded by design. Have you ever used something and were left feeling frustrated? Or maybe you have used something that left you feeling relieved. Whether the feeling is good or bad, that’s all a result of design. We also tend to remember the designs that negatively impacted us. Ever owned Christmas lights? They’re beautiful until you need to disentangle the monstrous knot you made last year. Or what about a USB cable? It’s almost impossible to plug in the USB on the first try (it takes me at least ten.) These are just a few examples of how design can impact us every day. Whether the inconvenience is minor or major, a designer’s goal is to make their audience’s experience inherently better.

As a designer, there are a couple of key points for designing anything.

Your audience

If you’re designing something exclusive to a certain demographic, you need to consider how your design is going to be received. For example, if you’re designing a children’s book, you would want to display a playful tone with your use of color, type, scale, and so forth. Chances are an elementary schooler won’t be too intrigued by size 12, black, Times New Roman.

Your choices

Although you can get creative when designing something, every choice you make should be more intentional than accidental. Design is as much of an art as it is a science. If your intentions are solely just to create something beautiful, you can drive yourself into creating a bad design. Ask yourself: am I designing to entertain, to inform, to collaborate? How can I execute my intentions visually? As a designer, you must understand why you make certain visual choices. For instance, if you are choosing to upscale a certain element in your design, you should understand why. Your answer should not be because “it looks good.”

Your solution

Design, no matter what form, aims to solve a problem, and problems often have multiple solutions. As a designer, your task is to figure out how to create a thoroughly planned solution. Why does your solution to this problem work? How does your solution work? What are other possible solutions for this problem? Designers usually create multiple iterations of a solution before deciding on their final choice. It’s important to understand how you got from your problem to your solution.

Let’s return to Jobs’s quote. The exhilarating thing about design is its substance. Sure, our eyes can feast on something aesthetically pleasing, but in true design, beauty is secondary. True design consists of thoughtful choices and plans made before arriving at your end product. True design includes functionality and how it makes an audience feel.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a designer, you’ve probably designed something in your life without being aware of it. Have you ever written a long email or text to someone but broke up the text into segments to make it easier for the other person to read? There you go! You’ve designed something! In all seriousness, whether we consider ourselves designers or not, design is a part of our lives. The next time you engage with satisfying design, take a moment to think of why that design works.