Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash

Today, the number of designers around the globe are more than ever before in history. And design thinking is more coveted by designers than by any other professional. Despite this, designs continue to fail in delivering a human-centric user experience.

So, is this obsession with designer’s thinking or Design Thinking?

A designer’s thinking is something limitless and cannot be withheld from the world. It demands expression. For one, I have experienced myself such a burning desire and passion in the early days of my design career to bring some change to the world. How about you?

Fortunately, I realized quickly that every change is not progress, especially when it comes to upholding the ideal “user experience matters most”. Even though a designer’s thinking could bring out-of-the-box ideas and innovation, self-obsessed, biased, hypothetical narrative-based thinking could override the design process. “User experience matters most” becomes, simply put, “side-parked user experience”.

Let’s explore the pitfalls of designer’s thinking further. I’m sure you have heard that design thinking has 5 phases — Discover, Define, Ideation, Develop & Deliver. Out of the five, the part which designers love is Ideation, because they tend to believe that the Ideation phase means the whole design process i.e.,sketching, art, drawings, scribbling, art jamming, brainstorming sketches, creating beautiful sketches, beautiful rendering, beautiful wireframes,etcetera, that is, the phase that makes them feel like designers.

While Ideation does include some of these aspects, it is not all that it stands for. It also means taking into account problem discovery and definition, if the product is to succeed in delivering a human-centric user experience.

Let’s ask ourselves a question:

Can we call ourselves designers because we take opportunities to show our creative thinking in the ideation phase (designer’s thinking) or is our community expected to bring selfless devotion to the entire design process (design thinking)?

In truth, it is designers’ responsibility to align their creativity to problem discovery and definition.

If we can listen to our inner intellectual thinking clearly, over and above the noise of our preconceptions (more on this in another article), then there are possibilities that we could bring joy to others’ lives. To explain how I overcame my designer’s thinking problem to align instead with Design Thinking, I’d like to use the metaphor of water, to think about what water can teach us about empathy in design and in life.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m going off topic, discussing water properties in this article about Design Thinking. But each natural element can be and is, our finest professor, motivator, mentor, guru, and creativity source to learn from. Why not use these free and infinite sources of knowledge? What could we learn from the properties of water, one of the basic elements of the human body, about accessing our inner intellectual thinking?

Water is…

Formless:Water is formless, unbiased, selfless. It can take any shape it occupies without much friction. Can we as designers, fit into the shoes of users in a similar way to feel their pain, needs and expectations?

Change of state: Water is flexible, adaptable. Water evaporates, freezes, boils, and has a triple point. Can the way designers think be equally agile, able to change and balance preconceptions?

Adhesive and cohesive: It is water’s ability to be held to its containers’ walls and its force of attraction between its own molecules which work in combination to help it travel from root to plant, giving life. Can designers think in a way that allows them not only internal harmony but also better collaboration with others in discovering, problem definition, ideation, development & delivery phases?

Miscibility: Transparent, accepting, water can mix not only with water but many other liquids. Can designers similarly be open for critique and willing to incorporate feedback from their peers?

In the end, I would say that designer’s thinking is something that comes naturally to individuals but the ability to differentiate it from Design Thinking is what makes one a designer. And to do that, one would do well to emulate the empathetic qualities detailed above.

Now, one last question for you: On which side of line do you fall?

Designer’s Thinking or Design Thinking?