As you read it you get the sense that he has spent a lot of time teaching and reflecting on his material - the chapters consist of short, well-arranged chunks of material that lead the reader into a holistic grasp of design culture.
One of my favourite sections does an effective take-down of ‘drive-by’ design: work that creates a slick visual re-think of an existing format (in this case Boarding Passes) without proper regard for the wider context of the existing infrastructure. In other words: your design might look amazing and get loads of likes on Dribbble/Behance but if it can’t be produced by the existing printers you are living in a fantasy world. This is where this book really shines for me - drawing attention to the design powers that lie behind the design choices themselves.
There are loads of design books that explore the specifics of the choices themselves, but this one pulls back for a grander sweep of the horizon and the tectonic plates beneath. I valued the reminder that there are influences that make certain biases plausible. Nothing is ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’… an apple falls that way because of the invisible gravitational forces acting out. Every design team is limited by - and reflective of - the organisations that recruited them.
If I had a wispy beard I might stroke it right now.
Four Key Design Questions
Anywho… I made a few drawings as I went through the book, needing a personal way of chewing over the insights. I thought it was worth illustrating the central thesis of the book.
What are you trying to improve?
He makes the brilliant distinction between building and designing. Many organisations are obsessed with building something, completing checkboxes and shipping items rather than asking tougher, deeper questions about what is at the heart of the problem. Only when you have probed deep enough to examine the issue at stake will you be able to make meaningful progress. Yes there is a place for shiny self-initiated expressions, but great design does better.
Who are you trying to improve it for?
Numerous examples in the book point to blindspots in design thinking: where a solution seems awesome within the team but ignores something fundamental about actual users. This is a reiteration of the point that there isn’t a ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’ solution to a problem - people either employ data with careful insight to inform their outcomes or they unwittingly follow the invisible rails that recruited them.
How do you ensure you are successful?
Everything comes back to the design problem and building in smart feedback loops that draw you closer and closer to an effective response.
Who might be hurt by your work (both now and in the future)?
I was delighted to see this given careful consideration in the book: we need to bring serious ethical consideration to the things we design - it’s not enough to hand it over to the client. It takes mature wisdom and incredible self-awareness to see the consequences of our choices further on down the line and this takes conviction to master. Examples given include familiar ones such as
connected technology bringing greater isolation
convenient faster food enabling widespread obesity
For those of you who know me outside of this website - I spend a lot of my time reflecting on ethics with my High School students. Excellent design surely has ethics embedded within it’s DNA.
Thankyou Scott Berkun for the helpful book.
UPDATE: I changed the third image because the first one wasn’t good enough. How appropriate for an image about feedback loops…