Why Designers Need Neuroscience
In a funny, roundabout way my design education has lead me to conclude that to be a great designer, I must also be a neuroscientist.
To non-designers and many designers this may seem unnecessary or strange. But in reality, design is the skill to simplify complex problems for humans. Many may not agree with my definition of design, however, with it I try to be inclusive of all forms of design, from urban to graphic to interior. In design, we must understand the human mind and human behavior (let’s save behavior for another post) to execute our ideas.
On the flip-side, neuroscience is the study of the nervous system. Neuroscientist study the chemical, biological, and cognitive science that makes us human.
When we define both disciplines in such a way, it is fairly obvious that designers need neuroscientists. And if we reframe the two fields: neuroscience defines the hidden constraints of the problem and design is the skills to solve it.
Today, I see this, but a few years ago I didn’t. In design school, we covered the basics of graphic design, the Gestalt Principles. My professors discussed how we as humans associate shapes, text, and images depending on scale, location, color, and distance. In motion graphics, I learned to replicate gravity and the planetary physics in design. And from reading Jane Jacobs’ book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, I learned that humans tend to avoid wide, manicured, and grandiose plazas and buildings to congregate in. Yet in densely pack areas, like Boston’s North End, people tend to feel “safer” when walking at night.
All of these lessons were taught with great respect for design. But what was missing was the “why.” Many designers, such as Frank Chimero, have spoken at length on the importance of asking “why” before the “what.” Looking back now I wonder why I never asked: “why?”
Why do we associate two shapes that are close together as being related? Why do people assume that a larger object is stronger than a smaller one? Why do we as humans see the world as we do?
I believe that deep down we all ask these questions in our lifetimes. But we take the lessons we learned in school to be true without asking “why.” It is, in part, for the same reason that humans believed for centuries that the Earth was flat and didn’t or wouldn’t accept Plato’s conviction that Earth is a sphere.
Today, armored with the lessons from school and my experiences thus far, I am committed to asking the “why” and reading the data behind the science. Neuroscience has the answers to questions that we as designers never ask, but sometimes instinctively know the answer to. That is why, today I am re-thinking my understanding of design, am embattled to know more about humanity, and have a desire to know “why.”
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