The best design, when applied towards the wrong problem, will fail.
In pastoral counseling, people build a pattern of constructive dialogue by accurately expressing what they want and actively listening to the wants of others. Without this clear understanding of what each person is both hoping to improve, the counseling stands little chance of success and may even lead to more damage.
The practice of good design requires this same level of clarity. My education in ethics, theology, and pastoral care gives me a keen eye for asking questions that reveal the heart of a problem. While there few hard skills required to define an issue, the soft skills I've learned through my studies give me an advantage in identifying the human roots of complex issues.
Only by properly defining the issue that is directing people, can we understand how to best design a solution that will enable them to constructively engage with each other.
Empathy offers both the critical insight to solve problems and the context to explore questions that have not been considered before.
To understand empathy as "putting yourself in someone else's shoes" is misguided, although valiant. While empathy does require us to recognize the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of others, it also demands that we come to terms with our own limitations in doing so.
Unless we can recognize that we are unable to truly put ourselves in the position of another, we may quickly find ourselves taking ownership of a viewpoint that is not ours. Empathy, as is desperately needed in design, must engage in an ongoing and equitable relationship with the users we are trying to understand. I believe that empathy should be driven by an understanding of others, their embedded context, and our own limitations.
In my practice of empathy, my separation from an issue encourages me to be bold in my thinking and humble in my proposals. I have the capacity to boldly explore solutions that may be unavailable to a direct observer because I am not tied directly to a problem. However, my designs must be offered with the knowledge that I may have misunderstood some aspect of the problem or the people involved in it. When offering a solution, it is the relationship built with the user that provides room for growth and clarification – which can lead to more insightful and powerful solutions.
No groundbreaking idea has ever happened in isolation.
French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strausse suggests that bricolage is the act of putting together existing parts into a new whole in order to solve a problem that none of the original pieces were intended to solve. Just like many of my best childhood Lego creations, powerful ideas are often built from the parts of existing systems but placed together in novel ways.
The integration of current ideas in new and profound ways opens our minds to possibilities that don't yet exist but are sitting just beyond the horizon. The lateral thinking required by a true bricoleur provides a solid foundation for design work. In fact, we can find a modern version of this type of process in Design Thinking's emphasis on physical exploration.
Even though I am more than proficient at many of the digital tools used to create, prototype, and iterate designs, I am always drawn back to analog or physical interactions. I will sketch, draw, build, and act out ideas in order to explore each facet of their design. Then, even though I will leave the majority of them behind, my final designs are stronger for the knowledge gained in exploring them.
In my ideation process, I am careful to leave ample time for ideas to form, evolve, reform, and diverge. When grappling with a particularly troublesome problem, I will often turn to secondary creative endeavors – like the violin – before tackling it from another angle.
In addition, I frequently find inspiration in my work with others. On more than one occasion I have found the best solution for a challenging issue by talking to our developers. While their ideas may not make it to the final design, their unique perspective always challenges me to identify the intentions at the core of each interaction.
In essence, when I am looking for a solution, I will take inspiration from wherever I can find it and will often piece together disparate ideas into new situations in order to find the best design I can achieve.
Just because something is built does not mean it is worthwhile.
In the process of narrowing down a field of ideas, I create wireframes and rough prototypes to test before deciding to move on or leave it behind. For me, the Building & Testing phase overlaps heavily with ideation. The three of them work together to start, explore, and prove an idea's value. While building out ideas and testing them with users is critical to this phase, it is only part of my current responsibilities.
I currently operate as the only designer at a company with two developers and a product with three distinct platforms. Because of this, I wear many hats and take responsibility for the design throughout the entire build process. Even as the product is making it ways through production, I work hand-in-hand with the developers to ensure that the final product matches our design expectations.
In addition to in-house testing, I also ensure that the final product works for users the way that our initial prototypes and designs did. Even up to shipment, I am working with our development team to make the product the best that it can be.
Just like shampoo.
