Think "Design" vs. "Work"

Right now, you are either thinking about or designing an idea, product, service, or process.

Yet  most of us don't view ourselves as designers. It sounds like a specific, creative field in which we don't have formal education. But we do.

Earlier today I submitted a consulting agreement. As I proofread it I realized that 3 of the key elements were "Design'...a workshop. . .learning materials. . .executive planning session.

So I looked over previous proposals and agreements and discovered that "design" is a huge part of my work.

I admit, I'm a design freak in general. Elegant design grabs my attention faster than usability. Elegant design plus usability gets my money.

Here's my point: Start thinking of yourself as a designer. Look at your work and your life through that lens and see what happens.

• Are you designing new leadership and management approaches to a critical situation?

• Is your suggestion for changing administrative work flow an example of great functional design?

• What about your IT solution for simplifying internal communication?

Gotcha! You're a designer.

photo attribution: lucidream.com/blog/ wp-content/uploads/2009/05...

Comments

[Garrison Cox]

I hope you've seen Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler (hardcover 2003; new paperback edition in 2010). It's subtitle is "100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design" -- and it delivers on all those fronts. It's a one-volume graduate course in design, and it is breathtakingly elegant. My highest recommendation for anyone who cares about design.

[michael cardus]

yes we are all designers - yet many are in the wrong vocation to design any change. People who are independent and have a limited hierarchy to realm in have a design option. Yet many people are trapped in the "push the button" mentality of white collar work. And many people are happy with that. To them design is not there job and it should not be.
I know and I have also drank to kool aid of workplace autonomy and I speak it.

Other idea - this design concept is the you tell the story and construct your paradigm of perspective. The philosophy of thought and language develop a idealized world within the eye of the perceiver. Meaning once I tell myself the story of the 'designer' i look at all my interactions different, from a design perspective.