Non-designers talk about design as “making it look pretty”.
That’s not what design is.
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”
— Steve Jobs
Good design is optimised for the task at hand, it’s more about the function to effectively perform a specific task (or tasks) well than pure aesthetics.
If you’re creating something important and think to yourself “I don’t need help with design”, it’s likely that the thing you’re making is too hard to use or understand.
Design is thinking and crafting with conscious intention, so your creation serves its purpose and leads you to the result you want.
The presence of design, or lack there of, is inherently tied to the way we experience the things around us, regardless if we’re conscious of it.
When we encounter bad experiences with products, services or companies in our everyday lives, it’s almost always due of lack of design — meaning someone hasn’t thought it through before it got to us.
There’s always an unspoken quality to good design, because good design begins with the end in mind.
As entrepreneurs and modern creators, the questions we need to carefully consider are…
“How am I designing my business in service to myself, in service to the people I seek to serve, and in service to the team I work with?”
“How am I designing my life in service to my ideal lifestyle?”
In order words…
“What is my current experience of my business and my life?”
With the life we choose to lead, we have the unique privilege to design our businesses and our lives exactly the way we want.
I think our businesses and our lives are something worth designing for.
