Decoding Design
By: Cake Vivek
Tags: Systems Thinking, Design Process, Design Thinking, User Experience Design, Design

Locating design in the real world

Design?

In my opinion, you take any object, thought, or action with a purpose and you could conveniently call it design. Now that’s a vague definition and that’s exactly is my point. Design is something that evolves so fast, by the time you frame a definition it would have changed its shape, form, and size. The sheer fact that the definition might define the endless possibilities of design makes it undefinable.

A snapshot from Baktha Prahalada Movie

I might sound like Prahlada (a character from the Indian folklore story Bakth Prahalada ). When his father adamantly asks him to show his hari ( God ). Prahlada says “Indugaladandhuledani Sandehambu Valadhu” which translates to “ Don’t doubt the presence of God by questioning if he is here or there.

The best definition that I have found for design so far

There is a present state and there is a desired state. What happens in between is design. You make a product, service, system, process, experience, protocol, a visual, a theatre act, etc the list is endless.

Joy Ride ( My poetic take on design :D)

Imagine a train with different people traveling together doing their part to move the train ahead from station A to station B. This journey is “design”. If the train successfully reaches Station B or beyond its good design. If the train stops midway it's a bad design. In either of the cases, a new journey would start i.e Version 2 and the journey never ends.

If we closely look at the story, There are 4 aspects that would change the faith of the story.

1. All the people who make the train( Stakeholders)

Business minds, Policy Makers, Technology Geeks, Researchers, Makers, Thinkers, Doers, Speakers, Full Stacks, 1/4 Stacks, Unicorns, Popcorns, CA-ZO’s, go-getters, Growth Hackers, Fire Crackers, etc. No matters what they call themselves until they are on this journey they are all Designerssssss. I believe design is fundamentally a mindset. Get on the train and become a designer. Then the obvious and most controversial question arises do we need a designation designer ?.

This question I would be answering in my future blogs.

Even though all these people desperately want to reach the destination or at least pretend to do that. All of them have their own expertise, capability, and position of power. In large organizations, there are bogies of certain expertise. This commune determines the structure and movement of the train. There is no one formula to determine the ideal number of people /bogies.

The longest train built so far is to reach the destination “Life beyond earth ”.People from 14 countries and varied expertise joined hands to build the International Space Station.

Each traveler has his/her impact on the train in a small or a big way. Having said that there is one notorious traveler who often gets on the train midway and ends up dominating all the other travelers. He/she is none other than the “USER”.

The earlier the user enters the design train the easier it is to accommodate him/her

2. Destination ( Success Criteria/KPI’s)

This journey could start from anywhere at any time but the interesting question is where to go? and why we should go where you are going?

The first destination was pre-installed in the human race i.e “Survival”.In fact, the first-ever journey itself started to reach this destination and that first-ever train built on the planet is still running today. At the same time, our first destination is also traveling disguising the train. Currently, our destination is COVID FREE Iceland. Once the train reaches there the destination would jump somewhere else.

Meanwhile, few highly intelligent people like Adam Smith, Richard Arkwright, Edward Bernays started showing people new destinations. They have been pioneers in building new trains.

I understand this is a very macro-level view of the destination. In a practical sense, anybody could build a train and start a journey. The first travelers on the train determine the destination ie Founders /CEOs/HIPPOs. The rest who align with the destination join the train. However most often eventually each bogie finds its own destination and the whole purpose of why the train is forgotten.

I would like to share a small story of a bunch of IDEO interns who started on a journey of fire prevention in Nairobi. After a few days into the journey, they realized people are worried about the fire but only to an extent that it ruins their documents. These documents allowed them to stay in that building and country so that was their real non-obvious need. So the team addressed that but by digitizing the documents before dealing with fire prevention.

Speed doesn’t matter if you are going in the wrong direction — Mahatama gandhi

3.Path (Process)

The design train could take various paths to reach the desired destination. What I mean by path is this imaginary map which the entire commune believes to take them to the destination. Any map consists of a set of processes, protocols, procedures & beliefs. Each map promises you a certain kind of path. Some maps promise to speed, some promise a proper trail for future trains to follow or some may even promise checkpoints to ensure the train is going in the right direction. Fundamentally every process tries to impart a certain thinking pattern so we don't miss out on any aspect of design.

From a birdseye view, you could use the double diamond process. For quick results can conduct design sprints. For critical thinking, you can use De Bono's hats or IDEO cards. We can find a plethora of design tools and processes on the web but understanding its essence and purpose is a big challenge. In most cases, people force-fit these processes into the design cycle.

Here are a few resources where you could deep-dive

https://servicedesigntools.org/tools https://untools.co/ https://www.ideo.com/post/method-cards https://think.design/internships-2020/

A path/process is after the effect of a past successful journey.

4. Weather ( The Uncertainty )

We as human beings like to keep things under control. We want to anticipate things, predict the future, and stay prepared all the time. But the ultimate truth is nature’s gameplay is way too complex for human consciousness to understand. Small changes in the ecosystem create a great impact like markets crash, new technologies emerge, behaviors change, policy changes and uncertainty list is endless. Let’s address the elephant in the room. Covid-19 has destroyed a lot of well-structured trains and changed their destinations. The travel industry was booming in India many companies/startup build their design trains to find the new age travel products & services. The trend of co-working spaces was emerging and all those trains were set to explore ways to reach the top-notch community experience. We all know what happens to these trains post-COVID. A small change in the complex ecosystem has a butterfly effect on the entire ecosystem.

If everything is certain design becomes obvious

Conclusion

The next time you are planning to work as/with a designer. Explore the problem area, ask yourself multiple questions like

Is it the right problem to solve?

Why should this problem be solved?

Set success or evaluation criteria, after reaching what benchmark this design can be called successful.

Create a process, every design canvas & ecosystem demands its own process. Mark checkpoints to maneuver as things process because when your talking design your talking from the future

Lastly, Make sure your best buddy “user/customer “ is which you throughout the journey.