Thoughts on Design

Human centered design is perhaps the most important aspect of being a designer. Solving a problem, and executing the solution have no meaning if it’s not in favor of the person(s) it’s intended to help. What’s the point in exerting a lot of effort to design something that looks amazing if it’s not actually functional? The short answer is: there’s no point. From IDEO (ideo.org), they specifically state that they design for the impoverished. They go through great lengths to make sure they understand who they’re designing for before taking any further steps. They state that “human centered design sits at the intersection of empathy and creativity”. They’re improving people’s lives. Without doing their human research, they would just be designing things that either make no difference, or make the problem worse.

According to DC Design’s article “What is Human-Centered Design?” on medium.com, human centered design solves the core of a problem. Meaning, a bandaid isn’t just slapped on top of a wound, it’s actually stitched up. They have five steps in their process of solving a problem: 1- Empathize 2- Define 3- Ideate 4-Prototype, and 5- Test and Iterate. Technically that’s six steps, but I’ll give them a pass.

The design process is very dynamic, rather than linear. It takes dynamic thinking to solve these problems. Linear solutions can’t solve dynamic problems. Human centered design and design thinking are extremely similar so they might as well be intertwined.

Human centered design isn’t exclusive to communication design, it’s used across multiple professions. It’s even being applied to cancer cure. According to “Thinking beyond the cure: A case for human-centered design in cancer care” written by Tara Mullaney, Helena Pettersson, Tufve Nyholm and Erik Stolterman, healthcare desperately needs human centered design thinking when it comes to treatment. They’ve found that implementing this way of thinking allows them to find anxiety triggers in cancer patients, typically related to radiation therapy, which they are then able to treat and it allows for an easier process for everyone involved.

This amazing graphic comes from MartinSilvertant on DeviantArt from his “Typography Series - 01 - Anatomy of typography”.

Self doubt can either help or hinder an artist (or anyone, for that matter) on their journey navigating through life. Often, I find myself plagued with self doubt. I find that has happened more as I’ve gotten older. Some projects I’ve tackled over the past year have really brought that doubt to the front. Recently, I’ve felt as if I’m splintering apart from all the stress currently weighing on me. This causes more self doubt, which in turn, causes even more stress. As such, I’m not producing my best workand it’s jeopardizing everything I’ve been working towards. This is the kind of self doubt that nobody wants.

As previously stated, self doubt CAN be a good thing to embrace. Taking that doubt and running with it is the only way to truly overcome it. Are you doubting that piece you’re working on? Show it to people. Show it to artists AND people who aren’t artists. Whether they say positive or negative things, it can illuminate new perceptions and can spark an entirely different direction.

This concept can really be applied to just about anything. Going with your gut and believing in yourself is crucial to maintaining a healthier mindset. If all else fails (sometimes is will and that’s perfectly fine), imagine talking to Bob Ross about your doubts. I do it often and generally have a good idea about what he would say.

How can we define creativity in order to define creative thinking? Let’s look at a few different sources to figure this out.

“The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”. This particular definition comes from Dictionary.com and it sounds convincing.

“Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a literary work, or a painting)”. This definition comes from Wikipedia.com. It’s slightly similar to the definition from Dictionary.com, however, it’s still different.

“Creativity is subtraction”. Austin Kleon’s definition of creativity is wildly contrasting.

“Two of the primary components of creativity include:

Originality: The idea should be something new that is not simply an extension of something else that already exists.

Functionality: The idea needs to actually work or possess some degree of usefulness.” This last definition for creativity is from verywellmind.com.

With all these various interpretations on creativity, we can see that there’s no concrete explanation for what it is. So where does that leave us? Well, it tells us that trying to define creative thinking is going to be much harder than we originally thought. There’s no clear answer for us, no matter where we look. The following are varying interpretations for creative thinking.

“Facets of creative thinking- associative thinking (recognizing commonalities, common attributes) metaphorical thinking (identifying similarities between seemingly unrelated things) elaboration and modification (working out details and proposing alterations) imaginative thinking (forming images in one’s mind and imagining unlikely objects or events) Characteristics of creative thinkers-courage, receptiveness, curiosity, flexibility, being sharp eyed, seeking and recognizing connections. Stimulating creative thinking- brainstorming, checklist, mapping, oral presentation, problem finding, happy accidents”. This definition is straight out of a graphic design textbook. There’s comfort in relying on what is has to offer us, until reading about creative thinking in different places.

“Life requires daily acts of ingenuity and novel workarounds, so it is in everyone’s interest to nurture creative impulses, regardless of one’s day job. How to shake up the way we think? Creativity is associated with many factors, including conducive environments, ideal collaborators, personality traits, serendipity, and even a quest for spiritual muses. Research shows that creative thinking involves making new connections between different regions of the brain, which is accomplished by cultivating divergent thinking skills and deliberately exposing ourselves to new experiences and to learning. While research psychologists are interested in tapping innovative thinking, clinical psychologists sometimes encourage patients to use artistic expression as a way to confront difficult feelings.” This comes from Psychology Today and contrasts so much with the textbook definition that it almost feels like an entirely different phrase is being defined.

“The creative process is the act of making new connections between old ideas or recognizing relationships between concepts. Creative thinking is not about generating something new from a blank slate, but rather about taking what is already present and combining those bits and pieces in a way that has not been done previously.” This last explanation on creative thinking comes from JamesClear.com. This, too, feels so different from the previous answers that I’m not sure we can fully come to a conclusion.

Defining creativity, and thus, creative thinking, is a tough job. No matter what source you look towards, nothing is truly consistent. Perhaps that’s the beauty of creativity and creative thinking. The definitions seem to continually be conflicting of each other. How often are there words with conflicting definitions? Not very often. This could be due to the fact that creativity and creative thinking aren’t necessarily words that can be defined properly, they’re concepts- ideas.

Ideas can be conflicting; ideas can be polarizing. These various definitions do that same thing. Who knew creativity could be more conflicting than “war”?

My personal definition of creativity and creative thinking pulls concepts from all of the definitions we’ve seen listed thus far. Creativity is indeed a phenomenon where something new can be formed. Creativity can come from taking an existing entity and transforming it into something new. Creativity can cross barriers between other languages, and cultures. Creative thinking is something similar, but it stems from creativity itself. Creative thinking entails coming up with solutions that the average, an uncreative person cannot. It’s a skill and anyone can learn it, should they choose to. Creativity and creative thinking go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. 

Sources for this essay:

Psychology Today. (2019). Creativity | Psychology Today. [online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/creativity [Accessed 16 Feb. 2019].

“Creativity.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/creativity.

“How to Master Creativity and Uncover Your Creative Genius.” James Clear, jamesclear.com/creativity.

“Creativity.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity.

Cherry, Kendra. "What Are the Different Types of Creativity?" Verywell Mind, 7 Mar. 2016, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-creativity-p2-3986725.

Kleon, Austin. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. Workman Publishing, 2012.