What is a design mindset?

Like many things in the design lexicon, ‘design mindset’ is a term that is very much open to interpretation. I can probably tell you that if you ask me what a design mindset is, I would give you a different answer 3 years ago than I would have today, and 3 years down the road my answer would be completely different again. Even while searching the web for some reading material while writing this post, I came across completely different ideas regarding design thinking and the design mindset. I can only hope to give you my version of it, and to hear yours.

A design mindset is a way of thinking that continuously evolves, changes, and adapts. It is based on a series of principles most commonly found and practiced in the design industry (thus earning it its name), but is not exclusive to the design industry. The main points of design thinking can be summarized as follows:

1) Practicing a methodology that involves identifying the problem, issue, or question at hand, and approaching it from various perspectives.

2) Allowing any idea, regardless of quality, to appear on the table before it is judged.

3) Taking risks with approaches and solutions that have never been applied or attempted before.

4) Continuously striving to improve upon a current situation or condition, in an endless cycle.

How is a design mindset important in my life?

An excellent question. In fact, promoting design thinking in daily life is one of the main reasons I started this blog. A design mindset is important in your life because your life is a product of your design. Just like your car, or your clothes, your life is the result of the various choices, improvements, and mistakes that you have made so far. But most people don’t realize this and allow their lives to run on autopilot, just leaving it as it is. But think about it: if Nike had let their products remain as they were, the World Cup would have been played in t-shirts and sandals. Implementing design thinking into your life will allow you to continuously improve your quality of life, as well as to critically and objectively analyze your life, to find areas in which you can become a better person.

So what principles of design thinking can be used in daily life? I’ve listed 8 that I try my best to live my life by, but take note that these are far from an exhaustive list, and even within these 8 I bet opinions are going to differ.

There is no limit to learning.

I’ve encountered it in hundreds of people, yet it still bewilders me each time I do so: meeting a person who thinks his/her learning days are over once he/she reaches a certain age. A person can spend his entire life learning new things, and yet he/she will never reach omniscience. Even more so when you consider the ever-changing nature of science and technology. Like how constantly updating your design knowledge will help your designs stay fresh and unique, opening yourself up to learning something new every day is great for your spiritual and mental health.

For every problem, there is a solution.

Repeat after me: There is NO SUCH THING as an unsolvable problem.

Design thinking has overcome the most challenging of problems in the past. Millions of pages worth of data stored in a tiny chip no bigger than a button? Done. A convenient way to fasten and unfasten fabric? Hello, zipper.

If a solution doesn’t exist for your problem, it just means that one hasn’t been created yet. If so, what are you waiting for?

And for every solution, there will be a problem.

How many times have you experienced this one? You have a major breakthrough at work, only to find that your solution created another problem further ahead. While sometimes the problem that appears may not be the direct result of the solution, it always seems like there’s one more obstacle in your way than you have the energy to overcome.

The key to controlling this is to understand that this is simply nature’s love of balance working here. Don’t think of it as new problems, but instead as new questions to ponder, and new challenges to conquer, and you’ll soon realize that every problem that crops up in your path only serves to motivate you further.

You are your loudest audience.

You are your biggest fan, and you are your strongest critic. The one person who will most appreciate your achievements will be you, as will the one person who is most critical and harsh regarding your failures or mistakes. It is a natural fact of life. The reason behind this is simple: the person who pays the most attention to you, is you. Understanding this and accepting this is a vital key in improving your self-confidence and personal image.

Don’t be afraid to try new things, or to do things that seem silly. It may seem like everybody would laugh at you, but in reality, they have much better things to do than to circle around you and wait for you to fall. In fact, they may be supportive of your risks, and you may even end up inspiring them to take some risks themselves. It’s your life, and what you want to do with it is what counts.

No one key works for every lock.

Bob the Colleague finds yoga to be his outlet. Since he started going for yoga classes, you find him to be happier, calmer, healthier, and much nicer to be around. So you try it yourself. After a few awkward balancing poses and muttered swears, you arrive at the office the next day with a snappy temper and a sore side. What happened?

It may seem obvious when you look at it from a third person’s perspective, but it’s not always so clear when you’re going through the problem yourself. What works for one person may not always work for you. It’s great that you’ve tried it out, and you’ve found that it isn’t helping. Accept that, and try something else. Perhaps pole-dancing would give you the same calmness that Bob gets from yoga. Hey, it’s worth a shot, right? Which brings me to my next point.

Judgment does not come before a trial.

The courtrooms have it right: don’t judge something before you try it. Pole-dancing may seem like a bizarre thing to try, and really, if you’re a guy, you’d probably rather be the pole that be wrapped around it.

But you’re never going to find out what it can do for you unless you try it yourself. You don’t have to commit to anything yet. If you’re taking a physical class like pole-dancing or yoga, try looking for an option to try one class, or even for a one-time workshop. Thinking of studying a language? Pick up a phrase book and start pronouncing the words, and think of how it makes you feel. And while there’s no workshop or trial option for a career change, perhaps you could take a few days off and experience aspects of your new career (like being a professional shopper, or an artist).

Prepare for these one-time experiences by telling yourself that you are going to accept every experience that happens to you during this time, good or bad. You are here to try something new, and with that comes the acceptance that it doesn’t always work out.

If you can’t see, try changing glasses.

Persistence is a virtue often praised. After all, if at first you don’t succeed, you are told to try and try again. But sometimes, it just doesn’t work, and it only results in frustration, and in certain cases you could even burn out.

Try tackling the issue from a different angle. See it from another person’s point of view. You’ll begin to notice aspects of this issue that you would have never seen otherwise. Again, an open mind is vital here, because if you keep insisting that your way is right, you’re never going to learn anything new.

This idea of different perspectives can also be applied when you have an idea. Even the most analytical of us will be biased to our own ideas. Forcing yourself to look at your own ideas from an external perspective will highlight flaws and points of improvement that you would have otherwise been oblivious to.

Enjoy the journey, and you will enjoy the destination.

In Robin Sharma’s book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”, the main character asks his newly-enlightened friend regarding the final goal of this new, spiritually wholesome life. I forget the exact words the friend used to reply, but it was something like this: “If you keep one eye on the horizon, only one eye is enjoying the road.” Today, I was in a bookstore, flipping through a book on meditation, where they advise the reader to “meditate not for the benefits it can bring in the end, but for the benefits you get from each meditation.”

Both touch on the same meaning: in any journey, the destination only holds part of the value. There is real experience and value to be gained during the journey itself. And this is doubly important if you are doing something that involves long periods of effort or discipline, like getting fit or studying. It’s always good to focus on your final goal, but the truth is that most of us end up focusing on the entire stretch of road that is between us and that goal. Try instead to focus on the journey. Learn for the sake of learning. Pick up a musical instrument not because you want to wow your friends (although having that as a final goal is perfectly acceptable), but because you like the sound of the instrument, and because you want to try playing a particular piece of music. When you focus on the journey, your development and learning rate seems to accelerate rapidly, and pretty soon you’ll be amazing your friends with a world-class bongo drum performance.

Since this is an issue that I strongly relate to, I can probably go on for pages. However, I’d much rather hear your perspective (see what I did there?) about this. What are some of the things you do in your life that you think qualifies as ‘design thinking’?

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I was recently reading a very inspiring post by Oscar at Freestyle Mind entitled ‘27 Traits of Successful People‘. I highly recommend everyone who wants to be someone (and that should be all of you reading my blog anyway :) ) to print out that list and put it in a place that you’ll see it often. Make a pop-up card on your desk, pin it up in your cubicle, or stick it on the fridge.

What really struck me in that list, and what I’d like to talk to everyone about, is No. 7.

They smile.

According to Oscar, successful people “smile often and genuinely to rise positiveness and build strong relationships” and I agree with that 100%. I’ve found that I can always get a better response from people, whether it’s faster service, a cheerier waiter, or even an uplifting conversation in the elevator up to the office, by just smiling. A smile is a way to ease anxiety, discomfort, and worry, and also to build trust.

When the mask cracks.

Let’s face it. It’s not always easy to smile. Sometimes the whole day is just out to get you. Sometimes Bob the Co-Worker takes credit for your work. Sometimes your kids greet you at the front door with complaints about who broke who’s toy. And while you can hope that the sounds coming from the washing machine is your laundry doing itself, you just know it’s little Fido the puppy ripping the paint job to bits with his claws.

So what do you do on days like those? It’s a Catch-22 situation. Things would be better, or at least look it, if you smiled, but you’re not smiling because things don’t look good in the first place. If left alone, the situation will only get spiral even worse.

So here are some quick-fixes for you to smile and make that spiral one that is positive, uplifting, and energetic.

1) See funny shapes, even in storm clouds.
Every situation has a potential for humour. Just think about all the comedies you’ve ever seen. Not all of them are about people having fun. Some people get hurt, some people get bullied, and if you’re a South Park fan, even death can be a humorous thing. Imagine yourself as a character in your favourite show. Your ridiculous deadline, your tough boss, your annoying co-worker, everything, toss it into the scene. And imagine someone watching you. Imagine that person having the time of his life watching you. Imagine him with that great big smile on his face.

You’re smiling now, aren’t you? That’s because smiling is infectious. Once you realised that you’ve made someone else smile, you’ll realise that it’s not very hard to smile about the same scenario. You’re going to have to face all of that anyway, so why not get a few giggles out of it?

2) Fake it until you make it.
Yes, it’s a popular mantra used in psychology. Patients are taught to act brave, or confident, or calm, until that act enforces a more natural counterpart. You’ve definitely felt it before. Acting jolly in front of kids boosts your spirit, while acting polite and gentle with the elderly immediately makes you feel more mild-mannered.

The exact same principle applies to smiling and being happy. While you may think it looks silly to force a smile on your face, the truth is very few people will guess that it’s fake. And once you see the effects of your fake smile, your real smile will come naturally. Bob the Annoying Co-Worker is suddenly less sure of his footing with you, making you feel more powerful. Fido’s running to sit down and nuzzle beside you instead of cowering in terror under the couch. And your kids feel so much more connected to you instead of being afraid to tell you things.

3) Sketch, sway, and sing your way.
I thank my lucky stars every time I draw that I was gifted with not only a way to express myself, but a way to make a living doing so. And as you’ll no doubt agree, not everyone is so lucky.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t call on some creative drive when you need it. I don’t need to quote studies that relate self-expression to mood, do I? Anyone who has doodled on notepads, sung at karaokes, or simply busted a few moves when no one was watching already knows the effect it has. And really, you don’t need to do it well. In fact, the worse you do it, the more fun you’ll probably have.

If you’re feeling down right now, and need a slight boost to your happiness, or you’re just looking for another reason to smile, try these tips out. You’ll find that the day gets just a little more colourful and a little brighter.

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