Title: Why designers need to step outside design
Context: Communication is a design skill. Condescension is not.
Synopsis: One of the basic mandatory skills any halfway competent designer requires is empathy. We leverage it day-in and day-out as we seek to solve the problems of the wide range of people we think of, look at, and design for. Yet our empathetic generosity is not boundless. Heck, sometimes it’s barely sufficient. Designers tend to run low on tolerance specifically when we are forced to explain our ideas and process to those most second-class of citizens: the “other stakeholders”. Why must we waste our valuable time vainly trying to communicate with those who could not possibly fathom or properly value the alchemy we wield as the apotheosis of our creative gifts? There is a saying (apocryphally attributed to Einstein, who probably knew a thing or two about dealing with lesser intellects) that reads “if you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” So perhaps a distaste for these types of interactions is actually a shortcoming in one’s own-self rather than a justified impatience with non-designer riffraff? After all, if a six year old can understand it, a designer should certainly be able to.
Best Bit: “Who do we ask for an opinion when we’re working? If we’re all designers, who’s going to alert us when we have our heads up our collective bottoms?”
via creativebloq.com
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