Being a designer isn’t necessarily about having certain skills or talents, or even practicing until you have the ability, it is simply about changing your perspective slightly when it comes to looking at the world around you. To design, you also need to be able to deconstruct the world around you, like the techie who used to pick apart old electronics as a kid. Once you start looking at your surroundings as a series of conscious design choices you see that you can often split things into the aesthetic and the functional. Have your surroundings been designed to look good, to function well or to reduce the cost of production. If it’s done well, it might just be a combination of all three.
This is a process that is used to determine the ‘human factor’ of all of the things we use everyday and when examined, there is so much more of this consideration in every aspect of daily life. If you look at the door handle of your house, you can ask several ‘human factor‘ design questions to determine how ergonomic it is. Is it a handle or a knob? How high is it from the ground? As you stand, where is it on your body? Can everyone use it perfectly? When you start to ask these questions you notice all of the key decisions that went into the creation of such a simple object and it is important to remember that the very pinnacle of success in this field of design, is to go unnoticed. Not noticing the design of a functional object means it is working so naturally and intuitively that you never consider it. The same is true of course when it comes to website design and user interface online.
This element of design is fairly self-explanatory, but is still an art form of a type because designers have to work on how to reduce the cost and increase the value of a product in a way that isn’t noticeably trying to achieve these things. From a design point of view this relates to materials used, product shape and size but it can also relate to aesthetic design. The most effective way to reduce costs is to do so in a way that combines with an aesthetic decision.
This is the most enticing and attention commanding form of design and is usually what a lot of people think of when they try to imagine ‘good design’. Products and design evolve over time and these aesthetic decisions can be very related to style and personal taste. That being said, there is no greater joy than surrounding yourself with well designed, aesthetically pleasing items as they leak into your home and your life. Designer wallpaper, attractive technology, matching kitchen sets, these are the types of products that create and individualise a home that owners are proud of.
Whether you created it or not, it can be an incredibly enriching experience to deconstruct the environment around you and re-populate it with a world of conscious design choices.