Title: Design is not a science — making design great again
Context: Design doesn’t have to be boring. That just seems to be the way it gets practiced these days.
Synopsis: If you can’t justify your design decision with a mountain of data, then you are wrong. We have become quants in the pursuit of provable, objective design truth. Once upon a time, things were designed, and we told people “here it is, and you’ll like it.” We were trusted because no one really understood what it was that we did. They still don’t, but enough of them act like they do to rob it of its imagination. Rather than being trusted because design as a process was enigmatic, now designers are constantly second-guessed because we demystified ourselves. By making design “understandable,” we, in turn, made it more accepted as a key component of making things (mostly money to be fair) but we also allowed ourselves to be pulled into the orbit of predictability where our justifications need to speak the language of business, not the soul. Designers are taught never to accept the “I just don’t like it” critique. Unfortunately, the other edge of that very sharp sword has excised the “trust me; I’m a designer” defense.
Best Bit: “Designers have been forced to view their profession through the lens of science [in that their solutions can merely solved through formulas and data], rather than human centered, empirical and instinctual.”
via uxdesign.cc
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