Designer's Most Significant Ability Is Context Definition

Expanding the notion of what it means to be a designer.

Designers most significant ability is to understand multiple contexts and, therefore, identify constraints. 

Designers are strategics that translate strategy into action. Design thinking-in-action.

The most important skill needed in most design fields is context understanding.
In a problem-solving oriented practice as design,it is vital understanding the context to identifying the constraints and limitations: It is a MUST if the final goal is to take an idea and make it real. So businesses are turning to designers when they want to find something new.

"Great designers bring ideas to life that will align the right solution to the concrete problem: To come up with the adequate solution, first you need to framed the context and its constraints..."

What is a failed design? The one that doesn't  work to solve the problem or request. It might be beautiful, espectacular, super-innovative... but if it's not the right solution for this particular situation, it is a failed design.

"The realization of a mature designer is that the act of making does not matter unless it is considered within the context that it exists". John Maeda  

Design With No Constraints Is Not Design. Identifying the right constraints that would provide the right strategy is vital.  What is design with no constraints? Is art.

I would say that mature designers, as Maeda pointed, are problem solving experts in multiple contexts: To take a more holistic view of how designers work, beyond the focus on the craft and the aesthetics, it's meaningful to point out how designers think -design thinking- and methodology which helps them cope with being THROWN into a situation/context as OUTSIDERS, understand what's the problem and their capacity to catalyzed the insights gathered into creative outcomes.

Design is one of the most empathic professions by necessity, because its own practice and its sucess is about understanding other professional practices and their intrinsic problems. (And their professionals and their particular idiosincracy).


"People who know a lot about a field seldom think to question the fundamentals of their knowledge". It is by questioning the obvious that we make great progress. This is where breakthroughs come from. We need to question the obvious, to reformulate our beliefs, and to redefine existing solutions, approaches, and beliefs. That is design thinking". Don Norman  

Designers are strategists able to translate strategy into action:
So businesses are turning to designers when they want to find something new. 

Design thinking is an essential business strategy. When deciding where to play and how to win, it's totally necessary to have framed and understood the context and the constraints...therefore, its opportunities.
Designers use data, metrics, product flows, and conversion funnels to understand contexts, observe behaviors and empathize with users... and art and aesthethics...and altogether is a great help to opening up new markets, reconfiguring existing ones and envision what would come next.

[Image: "Indonesia" film poster]

MacroEmpathy Definition As A Branch Of Design

As MacroEconomics is a branch of Economics...(In my opinion, totally fair, since designers foster empathy in their every day professional practice)

Did you know that Macroempathy doesn't exist in the dictionary?. Here is my definition!

Macroempathy: 

(from the Greek prefix makro- meaning "large" and empathy, MacroEmpathy is a branch of Design, fostering empathic performances, behaviors and decision-making  as a whole, rather than individually. This includes national, regional, and global initiatives).

Macroempathy is the global awareness of empathy at the highest levels of leadership and commitment, that leads to
a truly empathic and human-centered world.
World's empathy as a whole.  
Macroempathy is the next worldwide challenge to foster human understanding, wellness and justice.


See Macroeconomics

My conclusion: We need to elevate EMPATHY to the highest levels of global commitment and awareness: MACROEMPATHY. 

My thoughts about MacroEmpathy as a Design Thinker:


DT-in-action: Building Empathy
How Designers Foster Empathy
Thinking about Empathy
Design Thinking Attitude
Definition of Design Thinking

--We can do much better--

VIDEO: "Future by Design" explores Jacque Fresco’s world of the future.

Does Macroeconomy need Macroempathy and viceversa?

Design Thinking-in-action 2013: Building Empathy

Look at the BIG PICTURE...What do you see?

 

A beautiful, overwhelming, never-ending scenario full of...dots. And you share one of those dots with millions of others like you. Are you feeling a little overwhelmed?. Who are you? Who is with you? What do you want to accomplish? Billions of people feel just the same.

The BIG PICTURE above holds together because of known and unknown connections among dots...

What if the so called "flow" is about stepping from one dot to another? A never ending effort to connect and let the world connect back to you? A Design Thinking Attitude:

(Check out My "Thrownness Theory" applied to Design Thinking:  Think-in-order-to-act  versus think to Think-some-more)

So this year, Why don't you think about re-designing your life by building empathy from within and finding ways of connecting with others?

"As a style of thinking, Design Thinking is generally considered the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context". (Wikipedia definition)

Conquer this year the feeling of creation: When was the last time you created anything? 

Step out of your box and let yourself be inspired by people: Build on others ideas and let other build on yours. ...Creating is awesome, but doing it with others is even better.

Build empathy by connecting dots and create community:

"The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.” – Steve Jobs

Design your life!

Inspiration to write this post:

VIDEO:

"How to design breakthrough inventions"

Global firm IDEO incorporates human behavior into product design by David Kelley.

A Design Thinking Attitude

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) philosopher 

My favourite definition of Design Thinking it's got to do with finding the insight among chaos.My favorite insight  about Design Thinking is Martin Heidegger's THROWNNESS concept.

Design Thinking requires a set of professional skills grounded in operating in unstable contexts. Design Thinking mindset it's got to do with being able to coop with wildly different people from yourself and dealing with situations that are radically new... It's got to do with feeling comfortable with unexpected, unstructured and unpredictable; Design Thinking is about finding meaning and understanding out of human attitudes and mindsets that an unstable situation brings up.

Design-Thinking-Thrownnes is got to do with developing a survival intelligence applied to a constant evolving enviroment, totally focus on "think in order to act" versus think to "think some more"

Design Thinking it's got to do with THROWNNESS (German: Geworfenheit): It is a concept introduced by German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the interactions of the subject with its surroundings in the everyday life, that causes it to act upon instincts, immediate reactions to other people's language and actions, "flow with the situation," and immediate interpretations.
Once one accepts that not to act is also an action, Heidegger notes that one is 'thrown' into situations without being able to reflect on them first, for to reflect on them (not act) is also something that can be interpreted as an action. One therefore must rely on instinctual interpretations, and go with the flow.

Design Thinking is got to do with assuming that you are THROWN into a situation where you haven't been invited in most of the cases: It's about being ALWAYS AN OUTSIDER and feeling comfortable with it.

Design Thinking is about staying calm and focus under pressure: It's about listening to your instincts among the chaos and saying YES and NO clearly to you and the rest of the world.

Design Thinking is about finding synchronicity and serendipity. It's part of that Thrownness Mindset that needs to be on constant "alert mood", because it knows that sooner or later that knowledge is going to be needed: It is another kind of survival instinct.

Design Thinkers is about empathy: They know that they need to gain their audience trust in every single situation, therefore they need to figure out how to connect with people and creating meaningful connections.

Design Thinking is got to do with honesty. Experienced Design Thinkers know very well how to do their jobs...and one of them is understanding people and their social and emotional relationships in order to manipulate...but totally focus on an honest goal (Maybe this could be a nice definition of empathy: Being able to truly understanding other people's insights and weakness, and being respectful and honest about the use of that knowledge)


Design Thinking attitude is got to do with all written above. It's also the impossible search of understanding the DNA of millions of people...and  secretly say to oneself "I told you!"

This is a great video by Fred Collopy (Case Western Reserve University) and their project "Managing as Designing"

How Designers Foster Empathy

Magritte. Presence of Mind (1960)

So what else can designers do to foster empathy besides their human-centered approach and their Design Thinking process?

Work closely with business and deliver GREAT RESULTS that have positive impact on people’s lives AND meet the needs of the client.

Business and markets are now aware of the benefits that an empathic approach can bring to them for the pursuit of their goals...and these are good news for of all us because of the positive impact to people.

Reality shows that business culture and its impersonal language dominates most of the professional relations: How can empathy be nurture in such an impersonal and distant environment?.There is a need to build a new working model for contexts of diversity and professional interaction by creating a communication space with a shared language that would permit a real multidiciplinary team work. 

Design have accomplish the ability to put together sciences and design, and some designers are already working their way to get together business and design.

Nº1 TASK for designers: Develop empathy for business! 

• Working embedded in business environments. This will allows designers to get insights that may lead to a mutual better understanding. 
• Widen your knowledge of global markets, marketing, economy, etc., to be effective: just as you would if the task were to get an insight of another community.
• Some designers are reluctant to any partnership with business and prefer to focus on aesthetics: Don't you think that it would be a positive impact to business to bring some aesthetics to their culture? I believe it is a awesome challenge...
• Forget the believe that "my kind of knowledge is indescribable". Find the way to communicate. It's very possible. 
• Do you think that business culture is boring or...? This is another awesome challenge...and you can truly improve your "thrownness ability" by practicing in outsiders environments... 
• As a Design thinker, you can contributing with your know-how to get rid of boundaries between business and designers: Share your experiences and insights with your peers
• Learn "business talking" to understand them and try to "teach" them a more creative storytelling: But also you need to improve your communication skills to a less complex level, focus in engaging and empathying with people. 
• Help business to bringing more people into the conversation and foster interdisciplinarity, synergies and sharing knowledge.

And the most important of all:

Try to have fun while doing all of this!





My inspirations to write this post:

Design Thinking: Thoughts by Tim Brown

http://populardelujo.wordpress.com/ 

VIDEOS: 

Bill Moggridge 1943-2012 

Esteban Ucros on what-design-can-do