“So, what do you do?” is the one of the innocent yet hardest questions I face very often.
I am a designer, I start.
Usually I am interrupted by the other party with more questions - so you design clothes (fashion).
I then make it a little more comprehensive by adding the word digital to the design and immediately folks jump in and ask - so you design websites.
Then I hesitate, yeah I do design communication but I do a lot more than that.
Then again, they interrupt asking, tell me more, what else can be designed?
By now, I smile and I give a totally complex answer saying - I am a cognitive scientist. My role involves applying my understanding of how humans process information to digital products, making them more user-friendly. A part of my field is also referred to as user experience. When we make digital products, we also touch upon the interface design aspects as well.
Then, folks jump in and say, so you are UX/UI. I cringe and say, yeah you can say that but in all honesty my job is to design systems. By now, they get extremely curious and ask, would you be able to mentor my son/daughter/niece/nephew in this new field and they are very good at art from their childhood... I almost give up by now 🤪
Digital product design is just a small part of all things a system designer does. At a meta level a designer is adept at understanding systems and sub systems, their interconnections and how they function in whole and parts. We are systems, living in systems and working with systems at all times. From solar system to electric systems, plumbing systems to human systems, everything is a system.
Understanding the core of the system/sub systems is how we strive to solve any/all problems creatively. Systems are everywhere and this is why design is human centric and domain agnostic.
To do this , we usually use trinity of sciences - cognitive science, neuroscience and behavioural science to study the human mind deeply. As humans are involved at the base of every desire out there, design process not only solves product problems and business problems, we can also extend the process to solve life problems even.
"The alternative to good design is bad design. There is no such thing as no design.”
- Adam Judge
Everything is either designed or not. What that means is someone incidentally figures out how to solve it. When that someone doesn’t then the design exists accidentally. Everything is designed or not. There are no two ways about it.
It is much more than designing websites/apps/posters etc.
I have never been successful so far in answering a simple question, what do you do in such a way my mother or grandmother understands. If I don’t have any mood or time, I just say I make apps and websites like what you see on your phone everyday. If you are addicted to the experience it is done by people like me. Then their eyes roll 👀
