Linear Design Process Reloaded
A diminishing double diamond approach
36- open browser tabs- So what?! This is how I normally work! It’s not that far-fetched to compare the way designers work to the way we browse the web. Some designers thrive on constant interruptive thinking. I am one of those types and it’s okay, really.
36 tabs is a lot, I know. I really had to stop and think, “How the hell did I manage that!?”
It was a bit like that part in the movie Inception, when Leonardo pulls a total mind-bender. We suddenly realize that we never actually remember how we got there.
I cannot be the only one!
We’re at 36 tabs because we somehow got used to working in a liner process. But the truth is, designers rarely function like that. How did we end up thinking so linear?
One day, the Internet said, “Are you sure you want to close all 36 of your tabs?”A bit perplexed, I thought, “Okay, maybe I’ll take another look...”
The business-mind is killing the non-linear design process! If you mix design with business, then you get an incredible pressure to rapidly produce something. This is not always a bad thing. Linear design is a good way to keep your design-mind sharp, but in the end-game, it rarely yields anything exceptional. Linear design is a lot like reaching 36 open tabs: There is tremendous production but we understand very little and we can never remember how or why we got there.
…and then I thought, “I’m not ready to close that one yet.”I think I’ll keep this one. -and that one too…”
So, I went back. I traced my steps and did some detective work in my own madness of tabs. I rediscovered an article that I started reading. It was about unknown knowns. The tab before that was about Maslow’s original theory on motivation and needs. The tab before that was a design process diagram. Why does this matter?
That “Ah, ha!” moment…
… I broke the linear process!
-Well, sort of. It was at this exact moment that I realized -I had almost broken the linear process. How? I went back. When I say that the Linear Process looks like 36 open tabs, what I mean is that, the process only moves forward. We explore, get an idea, explore some more, get another idea and so-on. So,when I broke the linear process I was trying to work in the reverse. This is still linear, but it was a step in the -left- direction. At first, I called it reverse design. Then it dawned on me. It already has a name. It’s called, redesign!
Lately I have been studying a few design processes. I have been looking at IDEO’s Human-Centered Design model. I have also spent a lot of time focused on Design Council’s Double Diamond model.
These have become hallmarks of the design process. The stages and phases of development move you through end to end in a clear and well-defined approach. I think these models are pretty damn great! They definitely take the design process to the next level -But what about redesign!?
“Redesign is a major challenge for designers and it is, by no means, a trivial part of the professional design process” (Edelman, J., et. al., 2014).
I put the two models together and some neat things started happening. The outline of these models working together formed something interesting. The same diverging and converging pattern remains, but what I discovered was a shrinking / diminishing pattern. I started thinking about what might cause a narrowing outline to occur in the design process. -And then it hit me…
Redesign is the missing ingredient!
I added a redesign phase and spent some time analyzing value co-creation from the service design perspective. I am excited to test this process and continue breaking the linear process!
I now know that good design is almost never formed on a linear path. Inspiration and good ideas can hit at any time, from any angle. So, we need to be on high alert, always. Especially if we are browsing the interne… -quick, open a new tab, I have an idea!
This material is part of a development for a larger project in user-centric service design. References and other cited materials are available upon request.
Cheers!
Andrew
www.apchapman.com
