Finding Order in Disorder with Design
Summary: In this month’s article we will explore the concept of finding order in disorder in relation to design (and our minds). While it may sound like a pseudo-philosophical idea, but once cultivated, it can grow as a practical strategy for customers, designers and executives to co-create meaningful user experiences and navigate through uncertainty.
Ways to Seek Order in Disorder
Do you remember the last time experiencing a service, where you were faced with a flood of cluttered and disorganized content, eventually resulting in abandoning your journey and forming a negative connotation of the brand? Alternatively, mirroring that experience, our life events too can sometimes feel chaotic to experience.
Think about a cluttered user experience of an app or a chaotic and overwhelming work week — both scenarios can be difficult to navigate. However, these scenarios often harbour patterns. Once these patterns are recognized and organized, they can help bring order and clarity.
Our minds are wired to seek patterns and structure, even in the midst of apparent disorder. Humans can’t help but look for patterns and find structure in the information coming their way.
When we encounter disorganized information, our minds naturally seek structure. Organized design can leverage this by providing subtle visual cues, familiar patterns, or clear visual and information hierarchies to guide the users. This is known as pattern recognition and is a key cognitive function that allows us to navigate an often chaotic world.
Let’s discuss a couple of methodologies that our minds use to find order in disorder.
1. Gestalt Principles
One of the most famous frameworks for understanding how we perceive order is through Gestalt psychology.
In 1912, Max Wertheimer published his paper on phi motion, widely recognized as the start of Gestalt psychology. This laid the foundation of the Gestalt principles — explaining that our brains group elements based on patterns, proximity, similarity, continuity, symmetry and order. These principles allow us to perceive whole forms even when faced with incomplete or disjointed information. A few examples of these principles include:
- Proximity: Elements close to each other are perceived as related.
- Similarity: Objects that look similar are seen as part of the same group.
- Continuity: The eye follows continuous lines or patterns, even when interrupted.
- Closure: The brain fills in gaps to perceive complete shapes (or words).
- Figure-Ground: People distinguish a main object (figure) from the background (ground) when it is clear.
2. Pattern Recognition
Humans have a natural ability to detect patterns in everything from visual stimuli to abstract ideas. We see constellations in random star clusters or faces in clouds due to our mind’s tendency to create coherence from randomness.
According to Peter Senge, mental models are the closely held beliefs and assumptions that make up your worldview. Your worldview affects how you interpret your experiences, and it therefore constantly influences your thoughts and behaviour.
The brain constantly makes predictions about what will happen next based on past experiences. When faced with new or disorderly situations, the brain tries to match incoming information with existing mental models. It fills in the blanks to create a coherent narrative, even if the incoming information is incomplete or unexpected.
3. Hidden Order in Chaos
When there is a disconnect between what we expect and what we experience, we experience cognitive dissonance — i.e. a mental discomfort. When confronted with disorder, whether in nature or our thoughts, our minds instinctively work to bring things back into harmony to create order. For example, in ambiguous situations, we may reinterpret the linearity of events or rationalize them in stories to create a more orderly understanding.
This need to impose order on disorder influences creativity and problem-solving. When faced with uncertainty or chaos, the brain tries to find patterns that can lead to innovative thinking, as it constantly seeks new connections and solutions. So in a way, we’re all wired to be inherently organized.
This is also true for our interaction with nature. For example, fractals in nature (geometric shapes that display similarity through the full range of scale). Some of the most common examples of Fractals in nature would include branches of trees, animal circulatory systems, snowflakes, lightning and electricity, plants and leaves, geographic terrain and river systems, clouds, crystals.
Sometimes they seem disorderly at first but all follow mathematical rules that create inherent structure. The human brain is drawn to this kind of order hidden within chaos, finding beauty and balance in complexity.
4. Bringing Clarity to Minds
Bringing order to our minds often starts with bringing order to the world around us, especially in design. A few techniques used by designers to achieve this include:
- Declutter information: Less is often more. Reducing unnecessary elements allows the essentials to shine!
- Simplify: Clean, intuitive layouts reduce cognitive load, making interactions smoother and more enjoyable.
- Add clarity: Clear communication, through thoughtful hierarchy and consistent design patterns, keeps users focused and informed.
- More visuals, less text: Our brains process visuals faster than words (recognize than recall). By leveraging strong imagery or icons, we communicate meaning at a glance.
- Reorganize & prioritize content: Prioritizing content based on user needs ensures they always find the most relevant information, creating a sense of order and ease.
Creative Chaos of Design
Product design can feel chaotic, especially during the discovery and ideation phase. There’s often a storm of user interviews, comments, feedback, stakeholder expectations, go-to-market demands, and technological constraints. It’s tempting to think that order comes from strict processes and per-defined structures, but that approach often suppresses true creativity.
Therefore, framing it differently can help us start recognizing that within the chaos and noise of disorder, certain patterns emerge. According to research on design thinking processes, designers who embrace ambiguity in divergence and allow for the exploration of seemingly disjointed ideas, tend to produce more innovative solutions.
Divergence involves expanding on possibilities often in disorder, by exploring diverse ideas, and embracing ambiguity.
Divergence and convergence are not strictly sequential; they are often cyclical. Teams may need to diverge again, even during later stages, as new information arises or feedback leads to further exploration. This nonlinear process allows teams to iterate and improve without feeling locked into one direction prematurely.
💡 Tip for business stakeholders: It is essential in the divergence phase of the project to be open for uncertainty and be ready to explore a variety of perspectives from different teams. This helps fully define and understand the actual problems and potential opportunities. Although it may seem time-consuming and non-linear, divergent thinking can prevent costly mistakes by thoroughly vetting ideas before convergence. It helps foster innovation and ensures that the final solutions are comprehensive, creative, and aligned with both user and business needs.
📝 Tip for Designers: It is the designers’ responsibility in the divergence phase to orient and guide the stakeholders. Additionally, steer the uncertainty to explore and understand the problem and potential opportunities. This can be alleviated with essential pre-workshop prep work by assigning tasks or bite sized reading material to the stakeholders. Subsequently, essential slides can be presented during the workshop to provide additional context and a mini journey map to orient the participants.
XD Humour
Who says experience design is all about solving problems and just serious business?
Adding a touch of humour to our work can make us not only more productive but also more motivated and passionate about what we do.
With that in mind, we’re excited to introduce our newest addition: XD Humour — a space where we celebrate the lighter side of design. It’s where creativity meets humour, reminding us that sometimes, a subtle micro-chuckle is just as essential as good UX!
🎥 Video of month
In this video of the month Jim Al-Kahlili shows that information isn’t just about human communication, it’s woven profoundly into the fabric of reality. He reveals how humanity discovered the rules that drive the universe, mastering the two most important concepts of the modern age — energy and information.
Resolution
To conclude, order and disorder is about recognizing the patterns within. By recognizing and embracing patterns and interconnections in a chaotic environment, our minds allow us to make better predictions and decisions in areas where we typically struggle to find clarity.
In Experience design, the mess of ideation and iteration reveals innovative solutions. In life, the chaos of change and unpredictability offers opportunities for organizing, planning and growth. So, let us embrace the disorder that can steadily lead it towards order — it’s all part of a journey on a winding road. After all, “What is tranquility other than the good ordering of the mind” (Marcus Aurelius, 161–180 AD).
Stay tuned for next month’s i-UX article, where we aim to offer more insightful Experience Design & Strategy tips. Until then, stay curious and remember, There is no “I” in “UX”.
About the Author: Noman Siddiqui is an Experience Design Leader, Adjunct Professor of Design and a self-professed Usability Geek. He serves as the Experience Design & Strategy Director at Nomans Land Creative Inc.
