The Value of Designing with Values: How Who You Are As a Person Defines Who You Are As A Designer
Think about how you would define a designer. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Likely, your answer is something along the lines of a graphic designer, product designer, UX designer, or an architectural designer. As much as these responses align in a practical sense, they are all missing something key: personality. When we think about the designers, it’s important for us to acknowledge what their designs represent, why they design, and what their ideas impact in an overarching sense. In a podcast episode of Design Thinking Roundtable, host Anne-Laure Fayard spoke with Clare Brass, a London-based designer and innovator for business about the important roles that values play in design. Brass focuses on sustainability and circular economy in her design efforts and is a perfect example of how incorporating one’s personal beliefs into their design practices not only makes them a better designer, but a more enthusiastic and engaged worker overall. She spoke on how her professional life once clashed with her personal values, and how that affected her work, stating, “the only way I could go on being a designer and not have this guilty feeling every time I was designing something, was to use my design skills to help me earn a living by designing for social and environmental challenges.” It is much more difficult to design effective solutions for problems that you don’t identify with or don’t support. That initial barrier of not believing in what you design, blurs your vision and prevents you from prioritizing critical details and the causes of the problems you’re aiming to solve. Brass explains that to create successful designs, “we need to understand the systems of our problems and be able to zoom in and zoom out.” It is much easier to dive in and get to the root of problems when we are motivated by the fact that we are designing something that will not only solve an issue, but will also ensure that we are feeling fulfilled as designers in a personal and productive sense.
Take a look at this story board I created to convey exactly what I mean:
