Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design

The Question of Design

Societies do not evolve because their members simply grow old, but rather because their mutual relations are transformed.

—Ilya Prigogine

If design is so important yet neglected, and if we should be taking steps to remedy that situation, then perhaps it makes sense to clarify what we mean by “design.”

Here is where the trouble starts. Take any room of professionals and ask them if they know what design is, or what a designer is. Almost everyone will answer in the affirmative and yet practically everyone’s definition will be different. That is to say, people’s definitions are so broad that almost every act of creation, from writing code, building a deck, making a business plan, and so on can be considered design. If ...