DESIGN APPROACH NO. 1
Wander.
The key ingredients for meaningful growth happens during accidental discovery. It is how knowledge becomes a filter to experiences to create new awarenesses. Humility is key: wallow in the glow of sometimes not knowing.
design approach no. 2
Intuition first.
We are filters to the world. The ‘direction of our gaze’ expresses who we are from a deep and integral place. Data is a useful start, Knowledge can be fleeting, but intuition is always right.
design approach no. 3
Create beauty.
We have to leave the world a more beautiful place than we found it. Beauty happens when we allow things to happen with the right amount of peripheral focus. Nuance and detail are at the core of beauty in design.
design approach no. 4
Elevate.
HCD should be considered a base level requirement, not a design approach. While we endeavor to solve human problems, ultimately we should focus on elevating the outcome. Something more and greater than just good and nice.
design approach no. 5
Create resistance.
‘Engagement’ is meaningful and kinesthetic. Integrating barriers and forms of resistance creates mental and physical heuristics. Our experience is collected and stored in deeper places of the brain than information we read, see, or hear.
design approach no. 6
Always reinvent.
Formulas do not work. By the time something becomes a formula, its outdated and inappropriate. Every problem has a unique solution. Always start fresh.
design approach no. 7
Context is king.
Keeping clear on what problem needs to be solved while keeping focused on who and what it is for. Once we digress, we too often end up with something useless.
design approach no. 8
Draw it first.
Using your hands to ideate uses your whole self. Drawing and writing is more than just a medium, it is an environment.
design approach no. 9
Culture is belief.
People are social at the core, and at the core of social belonging is belief. Belief is what guides a single person, and collectively it creates culture. Remember you can’t change peoples minds with logic, but you can inspire belief.
design approach no. 10
Conversely listen.
Conversation reaps the most inspiring ideas. Especially if you seek to talk to people with opposite views. Listen more than you talk, but when you do talk listen to what you say. My father used to say ‘The opposite is also true’, and I think he has a point.
oh, and one more
Walk.
Adding on to design approach #10, I have found that the best ideas get worked out when walking. Especially while talking. Aristotle’s whole teaching practice involved walking the Lyceum, and I think there is something extremely cathartic about the blood moving, and seeing the world while thinking and speaking aloud that garners the best ideas.