Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World

About Design

We are all designers. Whether at home—in your kitchen, in your garden, in your closet—or at work, we all arrange separate elements to suit a particular purpose. Because design is so commonly practiced, everyone in your organization can participate when necessary. True, you may have come across a few inflexible, prima-donna designers in your time, unwilling to compromise on a particular curve or color. But although some designers seem inflexible, the actual act of designing is nimble and can be blended with other rigorous organizational processes.

• Design is humanistic. It assumes a viewer, an operator, a user, a customer, and a context. The decisions made in the practice of design are based on what works best when someone uses a design. The more insight you have into the use and the user, the better a design becomes. Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, illustrates this with the story of Nickelodeon's show for preschoolers, Blue's Clues. The producers of this popular and effective educational show disassembled the long-time educational leader Sesame Street, determined which aspects worked best for kids, spent time with children to understand why these elements of the show were so successful, and then focused on making those learning experiences even more effective than before. Each script and show of Blue's Clues is tested with children three or four times before it's ever aired. It's this natural, responsive pairing of design with deep research that yields insight ...