Stand for Something
Creating a Values-Driven Design Process
A few weeks ago, our team participated in the San Diego Design Trek, a 3-day showcase of companies across San Diego county aimed at students and early-career UX professionals. Last year, our theme was “Give a Damn” and we shared about what this mantra means for our team and how we live it out. You can read more about that here. This year we built off that theme to share a little bit about what it means to cultivate a values-driven design process.
Usually, when you think of your creative process, you might think sketching, prototyping, researching, user-testing, lo-fi, hi-fi, allll the things. There are already a lot of important skills that any designer needs to develop, so where does a squishy concept like “values” fit into that?
Values go one level deeper and are the foundation that those skillsets sit on top of. Defining your personal values and how they relate to your creative process is as critical as developing the hard skills of a good designer (they also take as much time and practice to develop). Your values will help guide you in how you decide to use the other skills you acquire along the way and who they benefit most.
Knowing what you value gives you a lens through which you see the world and becomes your standard for decision making.
Why Does it Matter?
Design is extremely powerful. It’s shaping technology which is shaping humanity and the world we live in. It has the ability to affect thought patterns, elicit emotional responses, and change behaviors. That’s no small thing. There are a lot of incredibly talented designers out there whose work does more harm than good. Some of it may be intentional — like creating experiences that keep people glued to their devices — but a lot can happen when we don’t pay attention to the outcomes of our work.
We have so many resources, insights, skills, and tools at our fingertips that if we applied this type of thinking and relentless commitment to problem-solving to large-scale social issues, we could make a massive impact. But that’s a topic for another day.
Defining your values will help you determine what you stand for and be intentional about the impact you want your work to have.
Where do I start?
I’ve found that the best way to begin determining your values is through understanding your “why.” Start by asking yourself a series of questions and evaluating your past experiences while paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, and reactions. Write down words or phrases that resonate with you related to some of these concepts and anything else that comes to mind. It may take time to unify them into cohesive thoughts, but give yourself the space to do that.
- Why do you want to design? (or fill in the blank for your chosen profession)
- What are some of the things that you give you energy? What things take that energy away?
- What keeps you up at night?
- What is your future vision of yourself? Your community? The world?
- What are some things that make you feel truly content? What are the things that awaken discontentment?
I also encourage you to talk to people around you who know you well — what do they see in you? Unfortunately, this isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes a commitment to introspection and willingness to sit with your own experiences, desires, and passions to determine what’s most important to you and how you will act based on that.
One of the hardest parts of all of this is establishing your commitment to your values and making conscious decisions to act in a way that supports them. They will be tested, and how you respond will teach you a lot about yourself. Even if you do something that goes against the values you’ve set for yourself, all is not lost. How you come back from that can offer new perspectives and strengthen your commitment.
Stand for Something
Now I’ve shared a bit more about what a values-driven design process is and how to begin creating one, I want to share a few examples. The first is about Classy. As a company, we have 6 core values that our company is built on. One of those is “Stand for Something.”
At Classy, our entire company is centered on empowering the non-profit organizations who use our platform to Stand for Something. We believe the hard work of social change is done by the people who are willing to take a stand for what they believe in and our job is to support them whole-heartedly. Our product exists to empower them to work more efficiently and raise the funds needed to get the work done.
This shows up not only in the ways we strive to empower our organizations to make a difference but also in how we treat one another as coworkers.
Standing for something not only means putting a stake in the ground and standing for what we believe in, but it also means creating the space for others to do the same. We may not always see things in the same way, so it’s essential that we listen to each other to have a productive dialogue when we disagree. We highly value different backgrounds and perspectives and believe that conflict can be really healthy and lead us to new solutions and points of view.
Everything is Becoming
Now a personal example. I’ve spent the last few months digging into this concept of values to determine what mine are and for now, I’ve landed on four guiding principles.
One of the hardest but most important values for me to live out is “Everything is Becoming.” This affirms that everything and everyone is a work in progress. Everything is in a constant state of becoming something new. And the process — the journey — is what counts, not just the finished product (if there even is such a thing as “finished”). This principle affects how I treat myself, others, and my work.
Within my design work, that means continuously iterating to improve a design, product, or experience as I’m gaining new insights and learning how it can be better. It also means honoring the work that came before me while seeing the potential for what it could be in the future.
But on a very personal level — this value also affirms that I and the people around me are a work in progress. It means not judging past versions of yourself but knowing that you’re always learning, always growing, always in a state of becoming something new and so are the people around you.
Embrace that we are becoming, we are in progress, and it’s about the journey — not about a perfect, finished product.
Conclusion
Creating a values-driven design process can take some time but it’s extremely worth it. Knowing what you value gives you a lens through which you see the world and becomes your standard for decision making.
Design is powerful. It has the ability to mold and shape behaviors, thought patterns, and entire societies. Don’t take that lightly. I whole-heartedly believe that it’s our duty as designers to use that power as a force for good and leave whatever space we’re a part of better than we found it. I hope this helps you start the journey of figuring out what you value and be intentional about making decisions that align with it.
