Concerning interests

Over fifty years ago, Charles Eames sketched out his view of the design process for the "What is Design?" exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France. It's unfortunate that today too few designers know about this diagram, let alone understand its underlying message. First and foremost are the interests and concerns of the designer.

Designer need to first have a clear understanding for themselves what is of interest and concern to them as a designer.

Charles Eames 1969 diagram, made for the What is Design? exhibit at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France that same year. The orange overlay was added by the author.

While as a junior designers starting out the goal is to simply get paid for designing anything. Unfortunately that all too often leads designers to simple move from one project to another with no consideration given to whether what they are designing is in fact of any interest to them as a designer.

This less common with designers outside the UX space. Furniture designers frequently will focus exclusively on developing a deep understanding of ergonomics, materials, manufacturing. Lighting designers will study extensively the psychology of light, its impact on attention, mood, and emotion, as well as the materials, technologies, and environmental impacts.

Focusing just on UX design, at most designers will either focus on consumer or enterprise products, and that is frequently less a question of their objective self-reflection and more a response to their first job.

While I am not tone-deaf to our current economic landscape, I am also aware that many designers, especially UX designers, are feeling disenfranchised, drifting in the long shadow AI is casting over their perceived self-worth. In response I cannot help but ask: do you know what truly interests you, what concerns you, as a designer? And are you working in pursuit of those interests? Or are you just working?

Perhaps, if you sit with that question, you may find that what will fulfill you as a designer is not designing for tech companies. It might be designing for local businesses, or healthcare providers. The world is a big place outside tech. Remember, everything around you was designed by someone, so that means there are lots of things out there that need a designer to make them better.