Empathy & Playfulness – keys to broad thinking

Focus or broaden up? This is a question that bothered me for a long time as a design student. When we look at the glory trail of the designers in the canon, the answer is clear: designers should never limit themselves to one discipline. Once one’s knowledge spans a significant number of subjects, one can then draw on various bodies of knowledge to solve complex problems. However, being a polymath in design is not easy. I found two aspects that might help designers broaden up their thinking.

Empathy is one key element that binds design across disciplines. Whatever tools or approaches designers are using, the problem they try to solve never changes. So instead of restraining oneself to the limited tools they know, designers should have a deep understanding of the problem, then take whatever approaches that best solve the problem.

Another important quality I discovered from those designers is to be playful with design. The Eames have played with hundreds of projects throughout their entire career. The result may not be perfect all the time, but the creative thinking process is invaluable. As designers, we usually follow through a strict procedure of problem discovery & solving process, but our mind may get rigid to our own discipline. The Eames told me to not always do something with an objective. Sometimes we need to set the purpose aside and work on things from scratch. The mindset of playing helps unleash designers from the problem-solving frames. Playing gives designers a chance to jump out of their usual frames and create something unexpected with a fresh mind.