Design-A Way Of Thinking…

Design is a word which sounds cool, perhaps by design! We would explore this further in this article, but before we do, I would like to ask you, have you ever designed anything?

If so, fantastic! It would be great if you would like to share your experience and also your feedback with the rest of us! Please feel free to write an article post comment, or any links which you find interesting.

If no, even better! You might come across something new today!

Though there are many definitions of design, the one which speaks to me the most is this:

“To design is to imagine things, that don’t exist, with the aim of bringing them into the world” *

Now, the fun thing is, there is no tab on imagination! Anything you imagined doing and did it, is basically a design! It could even be re-arranging things in your room. Actually, You thought of a new layout which did not exist earlier and brought that layout into the world. Isn’t that a cool way to look at things?

Would you like to reconsider your answer to the above question before we continue?

Now you may be thinking , “I’ve been designing by that logic my whole life, but so what?”

In this case, I have a very simple answer: what you have done is a miniature version of an activity that, on a large scale, can even lead to the construction of rockets for space exploration!

Please allow me to explain:

When you rearranged the things in your room, what was going through your mind?

Lets list out some of the possible answers:

I wanted a new look!

I had to create some space for a new ‘something’.

The earlier arrangement was not right. Things used to get messy.

… the list can go on but a common trait of all the reasons so far is, you felt the need.

Once you feel the need to do something, You go ahead and do it! Well, considering it to be straight forward!

But things become more interesting, when what you want to do is not straight forward! You have to work your way around, some times take some drastic measures to get what you want or the way you want it. All depending upon how much you think you need it.

This ‘need’ is at the centre of almost any activity but specially at the heart of all the design related activities. Apart from the need there is another factor which equally influences the activity of design, it’s the ‘desire’.

You may need to do something but do you have the desire to actually do it? Putting it another way, the process of imagining something and bringing it to reality requires a level of desire/motivation/willingness and need. You need to be in a positive frame of mind to get the best result. (Read another article of mine- Happy minds do innovative things!)

My experience studying and doing design has led me to carve out a phrase which aptly describes what we were discussing above. I call it:

Feel The Freedom…

When you realise that, you can create things you want or modify existing things, only limited by the laws of physics or some other constraints (which might not be impossible to remove all the time) You feel a sense of elevation or Freedom in true sense.

Let’s come back to the rocket example.

Let’s say you need to go to outer space and you want to go on a vehicle. Also you are the first person to ever think of such an idea. You have a strong desire to do it. So now you would have to imagine something which does not exist yet with the purpose of bringing it into the world.

In this case I will assume, I am that person, and explore the idea…

I need a vehicle which will take me to space.

That vehicle should have space for enough food.

Should be able to carry enough number of people as I can get bored if I travel alone.

There must be toilets and provisions for laundry.

I need a Map to come back home, just like sailors, when they went on voyages.

There must be provision for entertainment.

I want to explore and see what is out there, so I need cameras/video cameras and also enough digital storage (well we clearly know that stars are too many in number!)

I need a way to communicate back to earth, I can’t forget my friend’s and family.

I need that vehicle to be able to travel in air land and water, as we don’t know what are we going to face out there.

It needs to be strong and sturdy, no body knows what I would be up against.

… There could be many more such needs, but did you realise that we have also set up some requirements that our rocket has to meet!

The more we think about what we need, we are giving our imagination a shape!

This was the first step, where we imagined what we need to have. The second step is obviously to bring it to life. As you would see, this step is nothing but repeating the first step with a lot more seriousness. For example, our rocket needs to be sturdy so we need to think what would be our definition of sturdy like stating exactly how big an impact do we want our vehicle to sustain, and what are the other ways to avoid it, like fast manoeuvrability, destroying an approaching object etc. This would lead us to choose the material which best fits are vehicle.

So where we are going we definitely need such roads!!

I mean, when we want to create something we need to think in detail, the more we do that the better is the outcome. This can be our guideline when carrying out the design activities.

My mom has been designing things all her life without realising it!

You don’t need to be an engineer to design things. All you need is actually a ‘need’ for something and the ‘desire’ to fulfil it. They say devil lies in the details, but so does greatness! I can’t emphasise this part enough, the more details you know about your needs the better will be the outcome — ‘Your Design’.

Design Pensive-It’s Purpose

I remember watching the Harry Porter movies, where professor Dumbledore had a pensive-a device-to store his thoughts, as he was 600 years old!

I created this publication to store my thoughts and that of the others about their design experience. Both creating design and observing the process or any other experience you find valid. I admit I am not 600, but the collective experience of all of us can be equivalent to that.

I hope we will have a bunch of fresh and interesting thoughts about creating things / ways or ideas every once in a while. So I invite you dear readers, to please follow this publication and also contribute to it, if you find it fun!

Please comment ‘I Feel The Freedom!’ if you would like to be added as a writer.

*Definition by Herbert A Simon, of Carnegie Mellon University, it was mentioned in the ‘foreword’ to the book- ‘Engineering design a project based introduction’ by Clive L. Dym, Pattrick Little and E.J. Orwin on August 6, 1998