Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

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Thanks for visiting and please keep in touch? ~ D.T.

Originally published on 20 April, 2006.

Edit 1: Updated 25 Aug 2007

Edit 2: Updated 16 Nov 2008.

This has to be one of the “classics” here at Design Sojourn, and a post that got me noticed in the blogosphere! Here it is updated again for 2008! Actually this post was way overdue for an update as the original was badly written with poor grammar and sentence construction. Obviously, time and practice has made me a lot better at writing!

In my 3 years of blogging, this has to be one of the biggest topics I get asked advice for, especially from graduating designers. So I have decided to compile the 10 things they don’t really tell you in school or anywhere else for that matter! These tips are based on my own personal experience and from other design professionals or HR professionals that I have worked or and spoken to.

1. The 10% reality
I think this has to be the biggest tip in this deck, so it’s right at number 1. Sadly it is not positive, but a “reality check†that nobody likes to talk about. Here we go, only about 10% of any graduating cohort will find a job right out of school as an industrial designer. Many fresh graduates need to come to terms with this first before they can move on in life. How to move on? We’ll see below.

Many design graduates still do become successful but in other design or non-design related professions that better suit their skill set. I have designer friends who become owners of their own Interior Design firms or CAD businesses, or some even get into marketing. I also have ex-designers who are successful bankers, writers and even a musician somewhere. As you can see, you may not end up doing design; you still can be successful in whatever you do. An ID degree arms you with problem solving analytical skills vital in any organization or business situation.
These days, design management and creative thinking is in itself a very fast growing sub-set of our design profession. Something you might be interested to explore.

For the record, I was not in this 10% graduating cohort. I ended up just outside of it.

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(This post was updated and edited. The original was published on the 19 Dec, 2005!)

John Maeda, formerly from MIT Media Labs, and now RISD President, spoke about how “good art makes our mind blink”. John was referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink with his art comment.

This is so true, and if we further extrapolate this, I would say “good design makes our mind blink”. In a “blink of an eye” we intuitively understand it, we know what it does, how to engage it, and best of all how to use it.

Intrigued, I manage to get my hands on Blink, and while it often comes across rather academic at times, it does give a better understand of how to harness the power of intuition, or what the author calls “rapid cognition”, in decision making. Designers can benefit from this, especially when our ideas get weighed down by constraints that often makes our concepts drift listless from specification creep.

Via: John’s blog.

Here’s a link to Malcolm Gladwell’s site.

Last time I wrote about Stefan’s book and how I bought one.

Here he is again, in a short blurb on TED, where he runs through some of the things he has learn in his life so far.

Oh, a kind person has compiled what Stefan has learn in a nice little cheat sheet that I have reproduced here. Hmm…I now wonder if I should have bought that $80+ picture book that still remains wrapped on my shelf!

Enjoy!

Image source: Insight

One of the key factors I noticed in any successful product and/or design, was that the product’s designer had some kind of critical insight.

It is this “ah-hah!”, this “Wow!”, this “Eureka” moment that can turn any design into a great one. It gives meaning to a product’s form, its function or even its existence. Therefore it is vital that designers develop and enhance their thinking skills to a level that allows them this critical insight.

So if you notice that you are just coasting your design/concept/model along the pathways of a design process it is likely that the design is going nowhere and will end up as an “oh-hum” product very similar to what the majority of the world churns out.

Easier said than done, I know.

So how do we find this critical insight? My suggestions, in no particular order of importance:

1) Anchor your design with a strong user centered research methodology. Have a good understanding of the user’s needs and wants, and a be very very observant.

2) Focus on the type of experience your product is trying to create.

3) Be aware of the natural and synthetic environments your product has to “live” in.

4) Know well and understand the requirements of the product and what it is trying to achieve.

5) Be inspired, not bogged down, by the entire design process.

6) Have a wide range of related and un-related multidisciplinary interests in areas surrounding the design problem.

I just want to end this post with a quick note. A critical insight also has to be meaningful to the context of the product. Otherwise it will just be a gimmick.

I have always been saying here on Design Sojourn that sketching is an important design and communication skill to have, I would say even more than any CAD skill of sorts. Importantly, in the last few years, I’ve seen more and more design companies make it a prerequisite in their new hires to have some kind of sketch communication skill.

So it is nice to finally see some coverage both on Adaptive Path, Sketching is the new black : inspirations from the analog world (a great collection of sketching links or analogue visualization methods), and Logic+Emotion: Sketching Is A State of Mind. Somewhere else rather than here!

In our time of huge computing advancement, there is a big temptation to get on the computer (2D/3D) to quickly “visualise” our designs. Often too quickly and before we have really “worked” through our designs.

What struck me on Logic + Emotion, was the following:

David pretty much sums up what I keep on saying here, sketching is about communication, not a beauty contest. Check out some of my popular past articles on sketching and do enjoy!

1) Concept Design Equipment

2) Do I have to be able to Draw Well to be a Good Designer?

3) Tips on How to Improve your Drawing Ability

4) Good Books on Design Sketching

5) How to move from Drawing to Designing?

6) Sketch Techniques with Michael DiTullo

I have always liked to use the term “Strategy Visualization” as an activity for designers to solidify, by design, a company’s business strategy.

So recently, I was having a chat with my boss about getting some “visualizations” done for a design strategy by our client. My boss correctly pointed out to me that Designers should be “articulating” a strategy rather than “visualizing” one.

Think about it? There is actually a subtle difference between “visualization” and “articulation” and I also agree that “articulation of a strategy” is a much better application of what strategic designers do.

Before we go on, lets take a look at how Dictionary.com defines “Visualize” as:

and “Articulate” as:

Do you see what I mean?

When we say we “visualize” something it seems to imply that designers just dream but do not get real. However if you say designers “articulate”, there is now an element of making things tangible with a level of precision.

This post is not so much an English lesson or a play of words, but it is a nice reminder of what we do.

Have a nice weekend friends!

A couple of months ago we had an open call for guest bloggers, we had a few responses with some great ideas. This week’s Design Article, written by MB, was one of them.

MB has written a very powerful article on a side of design and product development that the majority of the Brands practices but few actually talk about. I myself have had similar experiences and can vouch for much of his. I am surprised that such product development strategies are not covered in many design education programs. So sit tight and welcome to The Underbelly of Design.

———-

I am a designer in a corporate consumer product company. A lot of my observations and commentary will be more on corporate design and product development. The business I work for has sadly become a commodity lately, driven by retailers forcing our company and our competitors into a price point erosion game. You would know these retailers I’m speaking of though they will remain anonymous. At this point of my company’s evolution, we are in a transitional phase with a lot of growing pains. Furthermore our new product gaps and business bandaging have led us to sourcing from China.

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Designers often complain about Clients that don’t know anything about design and how they have to spend more time educating them. On the flip side, working with well informed and design savvy Clients can be a headache as well.

One thing the latter tends to do is over specify the type of design that they want. The end result of such discussions is designers, as a colleague says, become another “pair of hands”.

That is dangerous on many levels especially if you are responsible for the quality of that design. Also this can be a difficult situation as there is a fine line between Clients giving a clear brief and becoming too involved in the design creation process.

In general, discussions about configurations and how the product is used is great, but when the discussion starts to lean towards how it looks and how the form should be created, it is time to nip it in the bud, and re-educate.

In general there is no perfect Client, education and good communication is the key.

Kenny, a clever chap who is also a chair of his local IDSA student chapter, asked my quite simply “What do you think are the responsibilities of designers today?”

I was just about to rattle off the usual expected blurbs, sustainable design, user friendly design, ergonomics etc. But I stopped my self there.

Designers have the power to convince and communicate if they know how. So why not do much more?

Why can’t designers focus on high level product strategies that encourages consumers to reduce consumption? Why must a new product be launched every 6-8 months? Why even have the need for an “Apple Tax“? Why can’t designers work on product ideas that reduce, reuse and recycle? Why can’t designers focus on making products that fit the needs of users so well that none other can better it or consumers don’t see the need to change or upgrade? Why can’t these products be so well designed that it lasts for years? Why can’t designers focus on using unusual and innovative materials that have low carbon footprints? Why cant we just slow down design?

It’s not so much about the best recycling, cradle to cradle strategies etc. we can find, these strategies are getting its day in the sun through great, abet slow, government legislations.

No, at the end of the day it comes back to the consumer, something we can draw similarities to the poaching of endangered animals. Even if the consumer uses exclusively recycled products but does not reduce his/her consumption, the carbon footprint could be far worst that a consumer that has very Zen like habits.

I’m not a dreamer, but a pragmatic dreamer. The business or economics of product development and selling pretty much cancels out a lot of initiatives and efforts by designers looking to make a difference. Fortunately I believe it can be very profitable if only the business leaders knew how or are willing to rethink their strategies, which unfortunately could be worst than moving mountains.

I really look forward to the day we get a Designer as a CEO. I believe it will happen, as it is only a matter of time. Hey, if no body wants the job I don’t mind doing it!

If you are further interested in my thoughts on Sustainable Behaviors, do check out this interview.

Heard in a fictional design studio near you.

Sound familiar?

Or perhaps another scenario could be you are working on a design and it does not seem to be going anywhere as you are either stuck or it’s well just crap! You see, what you are basically doing is random doodling rather than intelligent drawing.

Under these circumstances, what I always tell my design team, is to focus on creating a design language rather than just a form. In other words, ask yourself what is this shape trying to say or trying to tell me?

Why is that?

What many designers don’t realize is that design is a communication tool and a product’s form needs to therefore communicate the product’s intent. The product’s intent can consist of many factors. These includes target market requirements, branding, ergonomics, design language standards, technology, etc. Its all depends on how you define the product’s brief.

So when you are styling a product’s form, you are actually communicating, to the user, the what and how this product should function. A language if would you like. Unfortunately many designs fail on this one simple point.

If you focus on that fact, you will suddenly realize that the shape you have created suddenly has meaning, or maybe it does not. Once you start to ask about the meaning or are looking to apply meaning to your form, your design thought starts to become multi-dimensional.

The reality is that, this tip can applied to many other design professions such as Graphic, Interiors even Fashion etc. Why not try it and let me know if it works for you? All the best to your design concept success!