Designer, you don’t own your design. And that is a magical thing!
One of the most incredible things about being a designer is the understanding that your design (as much as you care about and work hard on it) is not solely your own. It is shared with others.
Your design belongs to others in the sense that they participate on it. That is why the process of designing a product is so incredible. You engage in a basic human activity of creating something together with a community.
When done correctly, this process of creating something with others engages all of you, and all of them. It is a magical thing.
Dr. Holcomb, an incredible human being and a fantastic professor, used to say to his students at the beginning of the semester:
“Without you bringing your entire self into this process, I would not have been able to do my job… remember, what was accomplished in here was accomplished together.” - Lawrence Holcomb, PhD.
While papers were being written, thoughts and ideas were being challenged, and humans were growing into better humans in his class… the work was being done together.
And it is the same with human centered design.
Ok, so how does this magic happen? Here are a few simple ways in which this magic happens:
Your design belongs to designers who came before you.
Your design is built on what other designers have created before. If it is a digital interface, it belongs to the web standards, the laws and rules that make the web a familiar place to people. The same with a physical interface which has buttons, levers etc...Your design leverages what people already know and understand from previous designs and life experiences.
Your design belongs to your team
It belongs to your co-workers. Building together, receiving feedback etc… engineers, product managers, fellow designers all have valuable feedback to improve the design. As you go through iterations, these folks influence your design and they become designers in it too.
Your design belongs to the user.
The user is the ultimate owner of your design. Emails weren’t created to be storage devices. Yet millions of people email themselves everyday to “keep” files. Email was a cloud file management system before cloud file management systems existed. Users made it so. Users will take your design and use it in ways you don’t expect, and that in turn will affect and change your design. Users become designers as well.
The best designers I know are not the ones that create the nicest or sharpest pixels. They are the ones that have the ability to create great products with others effectively.They share ownership of their design.
Therefore designer, embrace the process of building with others. Your product will be much better for it.
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