Design Philosophy: 3 Tenets Keep UX Designers Thrive

Hi everyone, this is Qingran. I am a value-oriented UX enthusiast. My goal is to make a meaningful difference in peoples’ lives and design is my tool. In this article, I will talk about the nature of design and my design philosophy . Long story short, I believe designers should be adaptive and reflective, keep coming up with better alternatives to create delightful, intuitive, and meaningful design, and be an advocate for the user.‍ Don’t want to read? This is a TL;DR version, a 3 mins video:

The nature of design

• Design is non-attachment and total engagement
• Design is flux and permanence
• Design is knowing and naïveté
• Design is experience and fresh eyes
• Design is collaboration and solitude
• Design is process and structure
• Design is cyclic and episodic
• Design is control and uncontrollable
• Design is unique and universal
• Design is infinite and finite
• Design is timeless and

Design is often paradoxical. (Harold & Stolterman, 2012)

Before talking about my design tenents, Let’s discuss: what is design? Rather than a midpoint between the arts and sciences. Design is a tertium quid — a third way — distinct from the arts and sciences. Human designers share Hephaistos’s challenge.

We are lame gods in the service of prosthetic gods, so we design for continuous improvement and development. The motivation is out of feeling a lack of wholeness — we do not find the world in a condition that is satisfying or fulfilling for us. (Harold & Stolterman, 2012)

Design is not just about pushing pixels. Design is complex and constantly redefined. It is not science since it is situated in the infinite subjectivity of all the actants and stakeholders. Designers need to align all the stakeholders to make a perfect jazz improvisation and make design possible and necessary by assessing needs, linking the desired state and the actual state, framing the right problem, and balancing desires from a holistic perspective.

My design philosophy

1. Be authentic to users

A user experience designer is always an advocate for the user since good design requires strong connections with users and needs just to design for the users but also with the users.

Every time I am deeply buried in varied requirements, one thing I keep telling myself is to remember I am not the user. Making assumptions and hypotheses should be a careful process, even for those obvious things. When we work cross-functionally in a team, it is our responsibility to drive back to users. Feedback from PMs, engineers and other stakeholders can be based on the bias since we all have requirements and goals to meet. This might lead the product direction away from the people problem that we initially planned to solve. Bring back the conversation to users and be authentic to them is our job.

2. Be authentic to ourselves

As designers, we need to acknowledge the wider systemic conditions and give users a desire to strengthen the connection between people and products. We embrace a multitude of external variables to make things better on a systemic level while finding a specific path where we wish to reside. (Chapman, 2021)

Especially when resources are limited, it is the time to use our gut feeling to do the right thing. I remember during my product design internship in 2021, my mentor (he is an amazing staff designer) told me to be confident in sharing my decision even if I was just an intern. I led a project from end to end and know the users and the context more than anyone else on the team, so there is no reason to shine away from pushbacks.

Julie Zhuo mentions in one of her articles that “Don’t allow organizational friction or existing workflows to stop you from proposing and iterating on a good idea you believe in.” We can disagree and commit, since as designers at a big tech company, we design for better, not more. It’s not about following hot trends so much but about paying attention to what tickles you, noticing changes in users’ needs. This is about listening to that little voice inside. Sometimes, we just need to be true to ourselves, burning with an inner sense of destiny and the rightness of our cause. Be adaptive and reflective. Keep coming up with better alternatives and express them to the team.

“Trust your instincts and keep it simple. Seek inspiration, not imitation — you can be aware of trends, but also be YOU.”

3. Embrace feedback

Although designers should have backbones to define the design which we believe works the best, it does not mean we don’t take others’ suggestions into consideration. Instead, receiving and delivering constructive critique feedback help with the process of uncovering existing issues, framing the core problem, and blooming new concepts that lead to a potentially better alternative.

People with egos seek power and push their visions forward. Great designers are always curious and hungry for knowledge and fresh ideas. They are those who actively listen to learn. Consider feedback as a gift and give task-specific feedback as frequently as you can.

Thank you for reading this far. Those are all 3 of my design tenets that drive me to come up good design:

• Be authentic to users;
• Be authentic to ourselves;
• Embrace feedback.

Hope they will also resonate with you:)

Reference:

Chapman, Jonathan. Meaningful Stuff: Design That Lasts. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2021.

Nelson, Harold G., and Erik Stolterman. in The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World, MIT Press, 2012.