Design Thinking

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about design. I find design in everything. There are design fundamentals, disciplines, and principles that get overlooked by those who do not have a design backgrounds. But the funny thing is, most people directly benefit form good design and don’t even realize it. Why are you using Facebook and not something else? Why do people wait in lines for Apple products? Why do people want to work for Google? Why does the interstate not need stop lights? Good design is the catalyst for human invention and creativity. It solves problems through aesthetics and planning.

Design is used differently in various fields so let’s take a quick look at just what design is. Because design has so many applications it is easy to confuse it with art. While design comes out of the art world, it is more measurable than art. Design is trying to solve a problem whereas art is intended to be beautiful or emotionally powerful. My path started with art where I worked on skill and craft. Soon my art began to have purpose. Suddenly, my work began to solve problems. This is when I became a designer. Now as I continue classes at FSU getting my Masters in Instructional Design, I find myself becoming a design thinker. 

The design thinker is not commonly seen on the payroll of the fortune 500 companies. Yet, I feel the design thinkers of the world are consistently underpaid (devalued) and not given the credit for the success of businesses or projects they work for. What we see in the most successful businesses here recently, is the use of design thinking. Especially in starts up companies (like what’s happening in Silicon Valley) you can see design thinking is helping companies quickly get to scale, providing vision, creating efficiencies, developing social networking, community building, overall motivation generation, and greater maneuverability in the marketplace. This is no small feat and it's not being accomplished through instruction or project management, it's being accomplished through design. Even stuffy companies like Capital One are getting design teams together. Just look at IBM, IDEO, EBAY, AIRB&B, Apple, Uber, Spotify, Facebook, Google, and the list goes on. They are all using design thinking. They have decided to create value in the thing that has provided them the success they enjoy. 

As a designer, I generally am looked at as the one providing the pretty things to the client. It’s hard for even my bosses to see what it is that I’m really doing. People don’t recognize the significance of why something looks pretty. While a lot of what the designer and the design thinker does is different, design thinking is rooted in design and design is rooted in art. And when there is no “design thinker” on staff, it is the designer most often that is providing this kind of insight to the business or project. Often doing it from the lowest paid position in the room and with the least bit of insight into the project or the strategy of the company.