What is design?

Making sense and giving form as a formula for design

What makes design different from research? What makes design different from strategy? What makes design different from business development? There are many overlaps of professional fields, and the practice of design shows up, not just in the “field” of design but in all aspects of work and life.

Many designers struggle to explain what design is, and we often hear that design is both a process, a mindset, and an outcome. So, if design can be everything, then what is it really? Having had a professional design title for over ten years and a lifetime of designing my own life, I’ve found a formula that helps me explain what design is.

Design = making sense + giving form. Not one or the other. But a combination of both. Let me explain.

Making sense

Making sense in design is learning about a problem we want to solve. The question we’re asking is “Why are things the way they are?” We learn from people. We learn from the business. We learn from history. We try to understand the root causes of the problem before we explore different solutions.

Giving form

In Swedish (my native language) the word for graphic design is “grafisk formgivning.” “Formgivning” means “form giving” and this is the second part of the design equation. When we design, we don’t just make sense of a problem, but we also focus on bringing new, better alternatives to life. We’re trying to answer the question “How can we make it better?” The “how” is the way to move from theory to tangibility, and design requires tangibility.

Making sense can be called research. And giving form can be called art. But it’s only when the two come together that it becomes design.

Design is everywhere

Asking “What makes design different” might feel like I’m trying to put design on a special little pedestal to justify my profession. However, if we look at the formula, we can see how design happens in all professional fields AND in our day-to-day lives.

A Physical therapist engages in design when they diagnose patients (making sense) and then designs a recovery program (giving form). A teacher designs when they look back at past semesters’ highs and lows (making sense) and adjusts the curriculum moving forward based on the findings (giving form). Policymakers are designers when they study the patterns and opinions of people (making sense) and adjust and establish new laws and practices (giving form). And when we look at our daily lives, we’re constantly learning from the past and creating new futures when we establish new habits, create those vacation plans, and adjust how we interact with other people.

People all over have always been making sense of and giving form to things, and that is the beauty of design. It happens everywhere and it is for everyone.

originally posted at uxdesign.cc