My Design Philosophy

“We all have our philosophies, whether or not we are aware of this fact, and our philosophies are not worth very much. But the impact of our philosophies upon our actions and our lives is often devastating. This makes it necessary to try to improve our philosophies by criticism. This is the only apology for the continued existence of philosophy which I am able to offer”

- Karl Popper

A few days ago, I overheard someone saying that philosophy is not useful for design. On hearing the word “philosophy”, my mind immediately leapt to thinking about different philosophical traditions and how they vary across cultures throughout the world — eastern and western schools of philosophy, cosmological and rational philosophy, inner-world and outer-world dependent — the list seems endless.

Some people may think of philosophy as an academic discipline, unusable and unnecessary for their everyday lives. This couldn’t be further from the truth; the philosophical method of study can be very helpful when we look at how to shape our own philosophy.

How do the philosophical traditions in different cultures and philosophy schools around the world help me as a designer? In reality, it can be difficult to know the degree that they actually impact on my work. Still, I feel that one can practice the philosophical methods, such as questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation of findings, in order to make sense of ‘real world’ problems. I call this method QCRS (Questioning, Critical discussion, Rational argument and Systematic presentation).

QCRS is a useful tool to help us to understand our presence in nature and I’ve used it to develop my own design philosophy.

What makes philosophy so interesting is that it seeks answers to questions that we all have about life. Each individual has their own philosophy which is developed with their understanding of the realities, situations and problems that they come across throughout their lives. We are always surrounded by many unanswered issues, such as the conflict of our cultural identity, gender and race inequality, man’s relationship to nature, the future of our ever-changing work environment and the impact of technology on our lives. QCRS can help us to understand both philosophical issues and issues that we face on a daily basis.

How QCRS shapes my design philosophy

Design is a decision-making process. When we come across a problem in our lives, we design a solution to solve it. When we come up with a solution, we are, in reality, formulating a plan. During this process, we make some critical decisions. QCRS helps me to understand the problem and the related facts, enabling me to make certain design decisions that will solve the problem. Put simply, it helps me to define what I am aiming to achieve with the design.

QCRS and the future of the work environment

Today, the work environment is filled with distributed teams, distance co-workers and dynamic collaboration. From this context, design philosophy is how a designer articulates the purpose of his/her design and how that purpose fits within the entire collaborative project. Again, the philosophical methods like questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation of the findings could help to bring more clarity to the project lifecycle.

QCRS and design style

“Design philosophy” and “design style” are two very separate things. The essential distinctions between design philosophy and design style are questioning and rational argument. As an example, we’ll use someone who has decided to adopt a minimalistic ‘style’ to create a clean visual design. They have done this because they want a clean design, regardless of whether it conveys the right message to the end user. Adopting this clean design just for the sake of the look does not make a truly minimalistic design. The same premise applies to animation. If someone is using animation just for the sake of showing an illustration of movement and the animation was an avoidable part of the design, it’s not a useful animation. QCRS could be used by a designer to define his design philosophy.

QCRS helps me to articulate four major points in my design philosophy:

1. “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” - John Maeda

People appreciate a design that solves their problem — something simple, not necessarily in aesthetics, but in functionality. One of the main reasons for the design should be to solve the user’s problem in the simplest possible way.

2. “…by imagining a future, you may make it more likely.”- Daisy Ginsberg

Designs should be futuristic. Users’ expectations are constantly evolving, which means that designs are never finished. The designer must adopt iterative and incremental design development to keep pace with users’ future demands.

3. “The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user…” - Jakob Nielsen

Empathy for users’ real-world problems is a great tool for a designer. People avoid engaging with things that they don’t understand and need to learn how to use, resulting in a lost emotional connection between the user and the design. A good designer must have a deep understanding of users’ cultural surroundings, as well as their social and personal behaviour.

4. “Recognising the need is the primary condition for design.” - Charles Eames

Whilst art and design are both great on their own, a design should be created in order to deliver a solution, not ask a question. To this end, creating a design is an art, but the end use of the design is the distinct opposite to art. Design is an intellectual process and whilst designers should use artistic visualisation methods to represent users’ view of the world, they are not themselves artists. Design unveils the meaning, conveys a message and provokes an engagement. Art seeks personal interpretation and asks for observations. Conversely, design motivates personal participation and asks for interaction.

Different designers have different philosophies when it comes to design. Some designers believe that design has a very remote relationship — or no relationship at all — with aesthetics. Some designers differ to that thought. As in all walks of life, all opinions are valid. What is most important is that every designer defines and understands their own design philosophy.