Scott Berkun Profile picture
Jun 15, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
1. The word design means something different for designers than for others. If asked “Do you want a better designed world?” most people will say yes! But few think of designers as people who can help.

How did design separate itself from people’s perception of the world?..
2. I agree with the sentiment here if design means the trivial.

But what about healthcare design? Voting system design? the design of budgets, laws and policies? The design of social media? The design of voting rights?

And the design of media that promotes better designs? Image
3. One problem is designers love specializing. We proudly divide ourselves: web designers, mobile designers, org designers, UX, IA, Service… and on it goes. This helps find jobs but doesn’t invite outsiders to seek our experience for use across society.
4. Many learned recently that racism happens by design (e.g. redlining, or “racism by map”). That police brutality happens by design (policies designed to protect enforcers more than citizens). Yet wise designers know *it’s all by design*.

Why have we failed to help teach this?
5 .The powerful ppl on our planet make design choices that impact all: laws, budgets and policies.

These designs are so big we forget they're designs at all.

We don't call presidents & mayors designers but they are! Even in incompetence or ignorance, they're still designing.
6. I wrote *How Design Makes The World* to blow up dangerous misconceptions - design absolutely makes the world, just by different names.

We say it's "the powerful" or "the system" - who designed who gets power? who designed the system? What in the design prevents redesign?
7. There are experts in healthcare, government, and society whose work is of the highest importance now.

But design is part of this conversation - It's a powerful and unique lens for understanding and solving problems of all kinds.

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More from @berkun

Sep 15, 2021
Study decisions, not just ideas. It's decisions and the people who make them that define how ideas are evaluated.

If you only care about ideas you'll stay mystified and angry about why "the best" idea never gets chosen.

Study decisions. Learn how to influence them.
I've read many books on decision making but this one had the most powerful impact on me.

For the approach he takes alone, studying front line workers making life and death decisions, it's a worthy read.

Sources of Power, Gary Klein
Have you ever kept a decision journal? Here's how it works.

When you have a big decision:

1. Write down your thoughts about your options.
2. And your rationale for deciding.
3. Then decide.
4. Experience the outcome.
5. Review 1 & 2 - what can you learn now? write it down
Read 4 tweets
Jul 22, 2021
1. We have 5 basic senses - then why don't designers and experiences use all of them?

It's always fun to step back and ask this question, which often leads down the path to SMELL-O-VISION. Image
2. It sounds like a joke but Smell-O-Vision was one of many attempted innovations to improve the movie theater experience.

Like many attempted innovations, many approaches were tried. Some tried to pump in scents into the theaters, but the timing was a problem. Image
3. Others tried a simpler approach, using "scratch and sniff" cards - Instructions would appear on the screen telling you when to use which one. Clever. Image
Read 7 tweets
Jun 16, 2021
1. All of the ideas in How Design Makes The World are encapsulated in these four questions every product team should ask regularly. #design #ux #designmtw
2. Many projects have requirements, schedules and cool ideas, but forget to focus on improving something specific for real people. Or get lost along the way.

Good teams refresh the real goals often, like a lighthouse.
3. We're all prone to forgetting our biases and designing for ourselves.

If we don't go out of our way to study our customer's real needs, and how they differ from our own, we will fail them and possibly not even know until it's too late.
Read 7 tweets
May 13, 2021
1. Have you been frustrated by how little your coworkers understand about the value of what you do?

If you're a UX designer, you're an expert. But there's a trap in how this expertise is taught that works against you.

This thread explains what to do about it.
2. Design books/courses are design-centric, but the world isn't. Orgs are business, tech or mission centric. Collision-warning!

"I have to explain my value? And work uphill for respect?"

Yes. The sheer numbers make this likely! But do not despair.
3. We imagine our coworkers should *already know* about design. But how could that possibly happen? Who would have taught them?

We're trained with the presumption non-designers should magically know things - but is that how we approach designing products for people?
Read 11 tweets
Apr 27, 2021
If requirements define the problem, how can a designer succeed if the problems they are supposed to solve are poorly defined or the wrong ones?
If the person writing requirements knows nothing about good design, why would anyone expect good design to be a possible outcome?

It's like someone who has never cooked writing a recipe.
Requirements:

- car that goes 1000mph
- lasts 1000 years
- cures cancer
- creates world peace
- makes selfish people generous for 10mile radius
- easy to use
Read 4 tweets
Apr 14, 2021
1. When people say "innovations happen faster today than ever before" ask:

Does this person know anything about the history of innovation?

It's an impressive sounding statement rarely challenged since we like to hear it. But it's misleading in several ways that I'll explain.
2. The pace of change is not the same as scale.

For example:

The shift from hauling water on your back to indoor plumbing is HUGE. The shift from iPhone 10 to 11 is SMALL.

Have there been shifts as transformative to your quality of life as plumbing recently? I doubt it.
3. We love Amazon for Prime delivery and consider it a breakthrough, but in 1900 Sears had the same business model: huge catalog + ship anywhere (thx to new railroads).

You could order an entire kit for a house and thousands of Americans did.
Read 9 tweets

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