Up for a “Designer-ly” conversation?

Design defines our experiences, and very subtly influences our choices. Every day we are exposed to enormous quantity of stimulations in the form of designs which sculpts our everyday decisions. Being one of the most hidden, yet important aspect of life, let’s talk design.

Talking about design ideas, sharing creative thoughts and ideating together should happen as often as possible and should be fun. Turning any conversation into a designer-ly one is unquestionably a form of art. We all have been there. We, humans, love to talk about every topic out there, about people, objects, and the next big idea, and so on. But not everybody is able to put a designer-ly angle to it.

Here are a few consolidated tips to initiate and hold on to a few rather interesting designer-ly conversations at your workplace.

Research the topic that you want to talk about.

It doesn’t need to be a PhD thesis, of course, but while talking about something new and exciting, make sure that you do a little bit of homework! Ideally, it should not take a lot of your time; just a 20 minutes focused read on a particular topic is good enough to begin an interesting conversation. When your colleagues pick up on the nitty-gritties and take the flame forward, you will be able to build a definitive structure about the topic in your mind, and that would help you to grow your knowledge base.

It’s time to make a list!

What intrigues you? The Marvel Comics, the Iron Throne, great illustrations, cosmic photography, whatever they are, get them all together. Get some of those post-its and markers, pick a cool space to sit/discuss, elect an area of interest, choose a few words on it, decide on a few topics that you’re interested in, and definitely, pin ’em up on a board. Now, it’s your job to connect them to your work-arena. The more you see these keywords visually, the more you’d want to pick upon it and explore more. Get those sticky notes somewhere visible, and you’d easily find a cool topic for your next brain-storm session.

Let’s pitch it.

Once you have decided your topic of interest and have done a bit of research on it, you should go ahead and begin talking about it. Now that you have a list in your hand, it’s about time you go ahead and pitch your big idea. Who better than your beloved team as the first ever audience for this? Pick up a random idea that has been lurking in your mind and make a mental map of it. This exercise expand your knowledge horizon, even if no tangible outcome is produced out of it.

Talk less, observe more.

We design for humans, why not rather start with the people next to us? The one and only mantra to understand the fellow humans who you share your workspace, and the most prolific way to gather insights about human behaviour is by talking less and observing more.

Throw a topic, or a thought, let it go around and see how people react to it, you never know what interesting path it might lead on to!

Maybe sprinkle a little wit!

Your words are the naked reflection of your thoughts. The more humour and wit you add, the more people get hooked on to your idea. It’s a clean-sweep when you are reigning on the world of ideas with your smart-wit as the weapon.

Gossip about ‘design’.

Humans love to connect, and often these connections are developed by discussing topics of mutual interest and sometimes even gossiping. No break time is complete without us chatting over trivial things. What if the same gossip is channelized towards the realm of design? For example, “Hey did you see that new J12 watch? What do you think is the classiest thing?” or “You should check-out what new iOS update has been up to, man. It’s so cool when the screen does that thing.” This gives all of us some kick & nudge to start conversing about something pretty interesting, and definitely ‘designer-ly’.

Your Feelings Matter!

The way you talk about things matters a lot…especially to your peers. Your expression, tonality, enthusiasm, eagerness, all relate to how you feel about a new product or experience and it definitely exhibits your interest and feelings about/around it. Channel it to get some good insights amidst your peers, and see how their curiosity transforms into a new found interest to add on to!

Simple questions lead to tough answers.

Toss a simple question such as, “How might we improve connectivity among the illiterate today?” and get into a discussion with your buddies. The depth of knowledge, the awareness and reachability of the solution might as well surprise you. Never forget to make notes of all the interesting pointers that you got to learn from the discussion.

Start bullet-journaling!

A bullet journal could be the best gift for your creative team. The prompts are the exact nudge to start something new, to keep building on something older, and to document an idea, to scribble, to evade fear of jotting down things and most importantly, journaling!

What if you could build-an-idea?

This simple game is a lot of fun that results into something extremely creative when played with a group of 5 people or more. It’s fun, it’s engaging, and it flaunts the beautiful diversity that you have within your group. Start the game with a “What if…” & await for the person next to you to add the next phrase. Then let everyone else do the same until you all have built an out-of-the-world sentence that also serves as a (side project) design brief. “What if there was no electricity in Asia anymore?” or “What if polythene was banned in the entire world?” Let your creative juices flow & build your own scenarios to build a best fit range of solutions for the given brief.

Have an anchor hold it all.

Whenever there is a conversation which goes haywire, know how to carefully balance between the two sides without tossing too much into stake. Be like a firm anchor who can steady the turbulent waters, and yet let the ship sail. Moderating the conversation takes some empathy, curiosity and eagerness to acknowledge awkward pauses and difficult silences. An open conversation definitely takes courage to be treaded into.

There now, go ahead, get the best out of your conversations with your work buddies.