Design: why it matters & how to start

Design doesn’t require a fancy degree, expensive software and equipment, innate drawing skills, nor extensive years of experience. It’s a way of thinking, execution, an art that is guided by a simple objective: clear communication. I believe that each person possesses the ability to become a great designer. Therefore, I want to share my bits of knowledge as well as my resource guide at the end to help you get started.
Why am I writing this?
My name is Tiffany and I am a business student at Wharton that stumbled upon design, fell in love, and never left it. Two years ago, I was sitting in MGMT100 building our team’s final slide deck, tinkering with the colors and fonts. My friend Adam saw that the slides didn’t look half bad and asked, “would you want to design the mobile app (PennMobile) for Penn Labs?”. I honestly had no idea what that meant. I began dabbling in app design not realizing that I was doing anything legit nonetheless “design” (I told people that I made fake apps using photoshop). After launching my first product and seeing the impact of simply building with design in mind, I couldn’t stop.
I don’t come from a traditional design background and only have known about design for a little over a year. Not only do I believe in the power of design, but also believe that each person is capable and should embed design into their lives.
What is design?
Design is empathizing with your users, understanding their wants and needs, working those objectives together with yours, and building your product or service with those principles.
In the words of Don Norman, the author of Design of Everyday Things:
Design presents a fascinating interplay of technology and psychology.
Oftentimes, engineers design for people the way they would like them to be, not for the way they really are. The term human-centered design is an approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then designs to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving (DOET p.8). Design is a term tossed around with loose definitions. You may be thinking of graphic designers, visual artists, or maybe interior designers and fashion designers: people who “make things that look nice”. But the things that look nice oftentimes create an experience that clearly communicates a feeling or message.
Design is everywhere
If you build products, provide a service, or interact with others through some medium, design is an important facet of communication. As Norman writes:
Good design starts with an understanding of psychology and technology. Good design requires good communication, especially from machine to person, indicating what actions are possible, what is happening, and what is about to happen. Communication is especially important when things go wrong. It is relatively easy to design things that work smoothly and harmoniously as long as things go right. But as soon as there is a problem or a misunderstanding, the problems arise. This is where good design is essential.
Design aims to provide a clear communication channel between two people. For example, the engineer who built your coffee machine wants you to know that pressing the big button in the middle brews your coffee while the other buttons on the side are additional features that complement the main brewing. As a consultant, the larger headers draw the client’s attention to the topic of the slide while the smaller text below provide supporting information. The visual heirarchy clarifies the structure of the consultant’s thesis and helps drive the point home.
How do I get started?
Simply getting your feet wet is a great place to start. The best way is to look at a product you like, analyzing the build, usage, and how you feel using it, but also thinking about how it can be improved.
I’ve spent most of my time in UI/UX and marketing design because of my obsession with tech. Therefore, the resources I provide below are skewed towards those fields. However, design is everywhere and can be translated through a wide variety of mediums.
Got questions or thoughts? Leave them in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
