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#1 Breaking The Bias On Design!

breaking_the_bias_on_design!, By Samsung SDS Social Creator Young-hyun Choi Senior Engineer CX Innovation Team

 

It does not have to be perfect nor beautiful right from the start!

There is a prejudice that designing is an art that can only be done by the ones who majored in it. I also had such prejudice against designing until I learned about the “Design Thinking” methodology. Since past few years, as I have followed the Design Thinking methodology, my way of thinking has changed and I was able to escape from my prejudice. Today, I would like to share my thoughts on the changes of design with the theme of “Breaking the bias on design.”

“Designing is no long just for designers”

The first prejudice broken about design is “Designing is no longer just for designers!”

Despite not being a design firm, companies like IBM and SAP have a growing interest in design. Additionally, the top ten companies in Korea are also starting to make inroads into their organizations so that they are able to think like designers.

Despite these trends, there are still some designers that conservatively claim their skills to be unique ability that only experienced designers can perform. It can admitted that such claims does have some weight, but I feel that designing is no long a unique skill in practice. More people are learning and applying their new found knowledge to their work.

Recently, many workers in the field are already agreeing that the level of design that they require is not up to a professional level. In Donald Norman’s “Emotional Design” (2011), he states that “We are all designers” as long as we can “think and choose a better choice” in our everyday life. Designing, which felt very far from our everyday life, now feels much closer now that it is here to help us.

It does not have to be perfect nor beautiful right from the start!

The second prejudice broken about design is “It does not have to be perfect nor beautiful from the start!” In the past, if the goal of design was focused on completeness, now it is geared towards creating new and valuable ideas with varieties of people. That is the reason why designing does not have be ‘perfect ad beautiful right from the start’. It is so that it does not hinder any communication.

Design is also starting to be used to facilitate a quick and smooth communication among numerous people. Quick Prototyping from IDEO (Global Design Sinking innovation company, www.ideo.com) is a good example of this. Even if you do not have the expertise, you can easily and quickly communicate using your surroundings and achieve the result you want.

Together, get used to the cheap and fast failures that happen often!

The third prejudice broken about design is “Together, get used to the cheap and fast failures that happen often!” In the past, designing was focused on completeness therefore required a lot of time and effort. Such time and effort in effect resulted in heavy burden.

However, now with the frequent/fast failures that is done together, there is a less burden on our shoulders, and gives more opportunities to learn together. It actually gives a chances to truly gain confidences on how to find the things the customers really want.

Work becomes a fun entertainment!

The fourth prejudice broken about design is “Work becomes a fun entertainment.” Remember the time when you were playing with your friends during your childhood?

 

Just like those times, in the process of creating something with your colleagues you can “project what you want together.” This way, “if you experience a strong commitment, and agree on the direction of the goal”, you can experience work as an exciting game, like memories of working with your friends to build a sand castle, a memory filled with pure motivations and enthusiasm.

Samsung SDS Social Creator, young-hyun-choi