Finding Deeper Meaning Past the Face of Design

As newly taught designers within the field of interaction (or any other field of design), we can easily decide to work for a company as long as we get paid.  This can be a pitfall when the company starts to control the outcome of our designs to be tailored towards their own profitable gains.  But, as long as we get a paycheck, it’s all good right?  Although it might not be true for all, this type of mentality should be challenged with all designers when it comes to their own goals and purpose for their designs.  We should be asking ourselves, is my idea really necessary or does my idea really help us in the long run or is it simply just for the sake of designing to earn more funds for a company?

Let’s take a look at the terms over-designed or over-engineered; it is what we hear when something seems a bit too much.  An example would be mechanics complaining about many European cars being over-engineered when they conduct maintenance; hours consumed just to change the spark plugs where other cars can take less than an hour.  As far as over-designing goes, it feels as if many features are added to justify more cost.  Sometimes we should take a step back and look at our designs and really see if it is a necessity rather than a want.

Here are a couple things I would consider when designing past its “cover”. 

Tackle the design issue with an open mind.  It’s easy to design something with sort of a “tunnel vision” without looking at it from a big picture.  But having an open-mind mentality helps us see hidden problems with it.

Don’t dwell on a solution that seems to just solve an issue; look beyond it.  A question to ask yourself with this is, will this solution that would require another look into if other issues arise from it (for example unintended consequences)?