Desiderata: The Voice Of Design

I had to learn about Desiderata the hard way. And nope, I am not talking about the 1927 Poem although if you know it you are in a better position to kinda understand what I will be going on about in the next couple of sentences because the poem refers to ‘desired things’.

"Change in the world can be initiated in two ways. We can act because we want to move away from a situation we do not like, or we can act towards an imagined and desired situation. However, when trying to effect these changes, unfortunate situations arise where the common foundation in solving the existing problems is focusing on only that-which-is (description and explanation), verses that-which-ought-to-be (ethics and morality) without much consideration for that-which-is-desired (desiderata).

In the UX/UI context, desiderata can be seen as the voice of design. Every significant design situation is complex and unique. Design solutions that have been created for other complex and unique situations may not match the particular situation at hand. In addition, generalized solutions that fit all or most situations are course and grossly formed and will not have the complexity and refinement of detail sufficient to match the richness of a unique design situation. This doesn’t mean that designs must be complicated, or expensive, or excessive in any other way as a consequence. As a matter of fact, the best design for a situation may be elegantly simple and economic while at the same time being the most appropriate response to the unique requirements for the design situation." 

- The Design Way by Harold G. Nelson and Erik Stolterman

I am having an easier time understanding this ‘theory’ because I have read that chapter for give or take a hundred times and also because I practically did it thrice as part of my projects in the +iHub UX Lab Training. And while at it, I had my fair share of success and failure.

By practically I mean, as a UX designer, it is part of the UX process to have a meeting with the client (someone who needs the change in design/ a system/ prototype) and that is what is referred to as the UX consulting. I had my first consulting meeting without prior knowledge to what desiderata in design meant. Instead, I had my developer instincts on overdrive. I felt really good about the outcome of the meeting because it seemed like I paid attention to everything the client said. I even went ahead and did a small prototype later on to show my supervisor how much I listened.

Design Thinking Method

However, when she saw it, she smiled and told me politely that she had set up that meeting as a test and I had failed miserably! But because she knew I would fail, in retrospect I had succeeded. I had succeeded to fail! How paradoxical, hehe! That is the point where she gave me the book to read and from it I understood why I had sort of failed.

You see, there were two types of listening skills involved in that test. There is listening as a developer and listening as a designer. When I developed exactly what the client wanted, that was me listening solely as a developer. But during consulting, it is necessary to also listen as a designer. Here, you will hear what the client wants but won’t necessarily say. You will read to what he desires but doesn’t know how to bring out because what he says may not be what he actually wants. Listening as a designer will give you an opportunity to hear his desiderata, the voice of design!

After I got that chapter down, we had another meeting where I was able to put the theory into practice. And I am happy to report that it was a success…the good success this time. And I am currently in the process of designing and developing something that would be pretty and awesome!

Therefore, should all developers learn to design as well? I don’t know. But I think that having knowledge of both will make one a really powerful force to reckon with. However, if your abilities are permanently skewed to one sector then I figure you should just do your thing, be it being a super designer or a master coder of the backend. And if yours is the latter, you know where to find me :)

Thank you for reading. Do have a lovely day!

#HappyDays