You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
As designers we talk a lot about design maturity. What I think is interesting about leveling up design maturity is what it’s helping us do. To me design maturity is helping us to build products that are centered. What does that mean? If you think back to before UX was really a thing, how did business create and build? What did they focus on? What was their “center”? I’m sure just as it is today there were many different centers and areas of focus within a business and across businesses.
But as design has come to the forefront of many businesses across the world we’ve come to adopt a center called “Human-Centered Design”. This is a type of centered design, and in recent years it has obviously exploded a bunch (which is why we’re all here). Centered design is why designers and design maturity, IMO have become such a prized role in companies all across the world. Centered design happens literally every time design happens whether designers are present or not. But designers generally help focus the conversation on a center that will have more impact. If there are designers present who know how to ask questions thoughtfully and with a center like human centered design, then the product design will be much better on release. Products that are thrown together quickly without any real idea of what is being built or why will have that same ambiguity and mess at their center. That center will affect what is created in the end.
But what happens when we’ve designed everything we can for humans? When we’ve optimized every single piece of our lives to be exactly the way we want? Is this even possible? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but when we realize that human centered design isn’t the only option for design to exist in, it opens up a vast new universe of possibilities! Perhaps our progress would increase exponentially if our design center shifted in this way? Because it wouldn’t only be about human progress anymore, but the progress of the entire sphere we find ourselves part of every day. A more holistic approach to progress that would not only help humans but the ecosystems and spaces live in.
For me, this is the promise that design offers us. A lens to see how everything is connected and a methodology to improve the experience for all those connected parts.
Ben
The title of this post is taken from the late John Lennon's classic song "Imagine".