Design is making thoughtful, intentional decisions about how to solve problems based on research, communication, and deliberation. It involves preparing by researching existing solutions, brainstorming new ideas, and exploring options. Designers communicate their decisions through diagrams, prototypes, and explanations to get stakeholder consensus. While some designers focus on aesthetics like color and imagery, all good designers and developers make thoughtful choices about how to make tools easy to use and systems understandable.

1. What is design,
exactly?

2. Design is making
things pretty.

3. Right?

4. Design is deciding
what to do
and how to do it.

5. Design is deciding.

6. Not making
arbitrary choices,
or holding opinions,
but making thoughtful,
intentional decisions.

7. Design is all the work that
goes into deciding
•
Preparation
•
Communication
•
Deliberation

8. Preparing to make
thoughtful decisions:
•
researching the context and history of a problem
•
studying existing solutions to a problem
•
brainstorming new ways of seeing a problem
•
exploring many possible solutions

9. Communicating decisions
to others:
•
drawing diagrams of problems and solutions
•
creating mock-ups, wireframes, and prototypes
•
explaining and having conversations

10. Deliberating with others to
get consensus:
•
An inspired idea is useless until it’s put into play
•
A designer must get stakeholders to agree
on what to do and who to do it

11. Some designers do
make things pretty.

12. They make decisions
about the use of color,
form, texture,
imagery, typography,
and messaging
based on intuition,
research, and experience.

13. Those decisions
make meaning
and priority clear.

14. They evoke
associations
and emotions.

15. But designers make
thoughtful decisions
about other things too.

16. Like how a tool
should work
or how to make a
complex system easy
to understand.

17. Developers make
thoughtful decisions
too.

18. We select
among libraries
or roll our own.

19. We architect projects
so they’re easy to
maintain.

20. We consider the name
of each object so our
code documents
its purpose.

21. We all design every time
we make a thoughtful
choice.

22. So don’t ask a
designer to make
your app pretty.

23. Ask a designer to help
make the purpose of
your app clear.

24. Ask a designer to help
make your users feel
what you feel
when you think
about your app.

25. Ask a designer to help
you articulate and test
your assumptions.

26. Ask a designer for
their perspective.

27. And always
be a designer.

28. Be thoughtful
about what to do
and how to do it.

29. @seandurham