Taming The Wild & Wilding The Tame
The conflict between order and chaos, and the design hero that could save it all.
*Like any well designed human-centered experience, this article is a test; it’ll be revised as time goes on.
It all started with a statement. A twenty-word sentence by author, artist and film theorist, Rudolf Arnheim. It stopped me in my design tracks and changed the way I saw the world.
“The straight line is an invention of the human sense of sight under the mandate of the principle of simplicity.” -Rudolf Arnheim
The straight line is an invention by human beings.
As a designer, I couldn’t believe it at first. However once I started looking around, I realized that this statement was true. Most of the human-made items in my life have straight lines: the nice straight line on the edge of my iPhone, straight lines on my computer’s keyboard, or the way this sentence is strategically placed on a straight line. The invasion of straight lines doesn’t stop with devices; they’re everywhere! On roads, windows, signs, furniture, buildings, and websites (so many websites). Everywhere I look, there they are. Simple, smooth, crisp, harsh, beveled, shaded and sometimes even tattooed on someone’s body. We even live in a linear timeline!
So would you say humans are a little obsessed with straight lines? No, we’re crazy obsessed with them! The interesting part is, that nature hates straight lines.
Nothing in the natural world is linear.
Have you ever seen a cloud with a straight line? How about a tree, grass or rocks? While there are straight lines resembling edges, look closely. The closer you look, the clearer the beautiful bend and elaborate texture will be. Nature has a way of creating shapes that are complex with depth and authenticity. Think of the honeycomb cells in a beehive or the shape of the earth. From far away it may seem like these shapes have some kind of order, but with further exploration, they actually embrace complexity and value chaos.
Why do humans love straight lines though?
Order. Order is a way for humans to make sense of chaos. By having guides or straight lines, we shape the world around us. Whether it’s a sentence, the way cars align in an orderly fashion on roads, the lines on a crosswalk or the user interfaces we build on websites, straight lines help contain, construct and give an order. It helps organize and make sense of the world, hence, mandating the principle of simplicity.
However, this is not only true for physical objects. Humans have implemented straight lines in our way of life. Think about the first 18 years of your life. Do you remember any straight lines? How about having to start your education in kindergarten and then advancing to first grade, then second grade..etc? There was a straight line pre-drawn out for you, and you had to take part in. Every year you would continue on this straight line, and if you ever questioned it, you would be socially shamed for thinking differently.
It’s not your fault.
There’s no wonder we are so obsessed with straight lines. From an early age, we are programmed to think linearly. So take a deep breath, it’s safe here. If you’re reading this, you’re already curious. To be open-minded is to allow chaos to seep into your mind. So kudos to you, you’re already making an effort to embrace a little chaos.
Now that we have cleared the air.
As design thinkers, how can we break away from the straight lines in our lives? One solution that I have found in my ever so non-linear design career path is Design Strategy. Design Strategy helps an organization determine what to make and do. It’s the gathering of minds from the more strategic-minded business folks, let’s call them, “straight lines” and the more creative abstract minded folks, let’s call them “nature”. The happy medium between straight lines and nature provides a structure that is open-minded and is the perfect environment for innovation within an organization. With the blending of strengths from a design/creative group and an analytics/business group, the why behind the what is far more solidified.
Design Strategy is taming the wild and wilding the tame.
Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with straight lines or nature. What I’m saying is that there’s a time and a place for each. They can each live in harmony, but they both have to work together to keep each other in check. David Perkins, the founder of Harvard’s Project Zero, is an educational innovator that believes in wilding the tame. He thinks that tame ideas tend to be linear experiences with linear outputs. Wild ideas, on the other hand, lead to unpredictable experiences. Sound familiar?
Design Strategy is the hero.
It is what we need as a society to push forward into the new world. While it is no longer acceptable to make business decisions based on assumption, it’s also not appropriate to only follow data. It requires both nature and order to succeed. It allows for the creation of human-centered products and experiences that truly matter. The companies currently making the biggest impact are design-led companies like Airbnb, Google, GE, IBM, and Intuit. They are building cultures that unleash creative power and unlock the true potential of their employees.
“We’re having to figure things out on the fly and to me the role that design plays in that isn’t necessarily in designing a specific thing, this is an example where design helps create a culture and a condition where people can be their most creative.” -Joe Gebbia, Co-founder, Airbnb
Design Strategy is the hero that helps solve today's and tomorrow’s most complex problems. This process helps make sense of nature’s chaos while pushing the envelope of the human desire for order. It focuses on the needs and wants of users. What’s even more wonderful about design strategy is that it’s not linear; it’s ever-evolving like nature itself. This ability to be agile and adapt is what makes us able to keep up with changing times and therefore innovate for a better future.
To be continued….
