Improving My Life with Design
When we ask people what design means, we get different answers; some think it’s problem-solving, some say it’s just simplicity, some see aesthetics, and some take it as functionality. At its core, design involves all these answers: functionality, usability, aesthetics, simplicity, and even more.
Starting my UX journey by taking a bootcamp was one of the most intense experiences but one of the best career decisions I’ve taken. Since then, I’ve been reading, following, and learning continuously. After completing the program, like every other fresh design graduate, I started job hunting while working on my portfolio and still learning about the industry. Later, I started getting interviews for UX/Product roles. Coming from a business background, I found design interviews a bit different. I realized I needed to bring the chatty inside me to explain and articulate things better while presenting myself or my work and handling the questions well. During one of those interviews, as the last question, the hiring team asked how design improves my life or how I’d apply it to my daily life. I needed to think about the question more, and my observation started and continued until I found eight ways in which design touches my life.
Minimalism & simplicity in my zone
First, digital decluttering happened here on my computer with lots of organizing and documenting. Functionality, usability, and comfort of things were priorities rather than just their appearance. Later, I worked in my place; I created more space and sold, donated, or recycled the things that I didn’t need anymore. Also, I worked on colors around me and switched colors from vivid tones to more neutral and relaxing ones. Lastly, I created my UX work corner, which increased my focus and creativity. The process sounds like a spring cleaning in UX format, right? Keep the things you need or love, and let the rest go to keep it simple.
2. Higher level of empathy
We all understand that good design requires empathy, and inclusive design fosters empathy by ensuring that products are accessible and understandable to people of all backgrounds and abilities, including those of different ages, cultures, economic situations, educational levels, genders, locations, languages, and races. Adopting an inclusive mindset has helped me to become more engaged with human factors and learn about them more thoroughly, enabling me to see things from a broader perspective and design better solutions for everyone.
3. It helps me let go of perfectionism
‘Done is better than perfect’ was one of the most valuable things I learned from my educators. As design students, we often get caught up in trying to make our work perfect and spend too much time on details and variations before submitting our projects. However, in the real world, we don’t always have enough time to create the perfect version of our design. That’s when we need to prioritize progress over perfection. For instance, sprints are a great example of how agile teamwork can help create an MVP (minimum viable product) within a limited time frame. In such cases, completing the task is more valuable than striving for perfection and can help reduce stress.
4. It makes me question things and philosophize a lot
As I have a mild philosophical mind, I often delve deeper into things to find greater meaning and understanding, and that often leads me to question and research more extensively and improve my thinking and logical reasoning by understanding both humanity and nature to tackle real-world challenges.
5. A great training for the left & right brain
When it comes to design, it is essential to utilize both sides of our brain equally. The right brain enables us to see the big picture, encouraging creative and innovative thinking. Meanwhile, the left brain plays a crucial role in providing logic and analytical abilities to use data and evidence to support design decisions. Since the design process demands a combination of both creative and analytical abilities, each stage of the design process requires different skills and activities. Ultimately, it is important to develop and utilize both sides of our brain to excel in design.
6. A community-oriented mindset
I believe that the design community is one of the best out there. There are several platforms available to connect designers, leaders, students, mentors, and mentees. I have been fortunate to meet some talented and friendly designers via social media. I try to stay engaged as much as my time allows, follow design accounts for inspiration, and connect with designers worldwide. It is always interesting to listen to other designers’ journeys and learn from them.
7. The applicability of the design process to our lives
There’s nothing wrong with using the five-step design process in any aspect of your life. By applying design thinking, we can take our big goals and break them down into smaller, more manageable steps. To begin this process, we start with research, analysis, finding patterns, brainstorming, ideating, designing, and iterating until we reach the best possible version of our plan. This process will help us stay organized throughout the journey.
8. Not getting too attached to my ideas/design gets my mind free and flexible
Another rule is not to get too attached to our ideas and design because we keep iterating as the users give feedback, trends change, and updates are required. So, it’s almost the same in life. Keeping an open mind and staying curious & flexible can contribute a lot to our learning and growth. In design, we problem-solve by finding what works best for humans, and we also need to find what works for us in real life without limiting our thinking.
Overall, I feel lucky and happy about how design touched my life by bringing functionality, simplicity, freshness, and engagement to my space and mind with even minor changes. As an individual who experienced these, I hope the same will happen to you in the most meaningful way.
Thanks to Design 🙏