Critical Thinking in Design
“Young designers or designers early in their careers don’t do enough critical thinking.”
As a designer early in her career, I had a difficult time understanding the job of a User Experience Designer. Resources out there tend to focus on the generalization that user experience designers are there to make things easier for the users. I have heard and read the blanket statement “If it needs an instruction manual, it’s probably not a good user experience.” more times than I can count.
After scouring the internet, I encountered Interaction Design Foundation’s article. They defined User Experience (UX) design as:
The definition did not state easy experience, it stated meaningful and relevant experience. Those words are synonymous with what Neuron had to say on critical thinking in user experience design: “The point here is that there are no hard and fast rules for what we do, it’s always conditional.”
Slightly off-topic, but this is why I’m glad that my introduction to the design world was through Rob Sutcliffe’s Udemy course on UX Research and UI Design. He repeatedly mentioned throughout the course that we need to challenge the status quo, question our assumptions, suggest where others can be wrong, and explore other opinions, including those that contradict ours. He even said that he might be wrong about things in his course, and honestly, I might be wrong in this article too, and that’s okay. This is where critical thinking comes in.
Defined by Think Design:
In other words, by assessing a situation, an idea, a problem from a different point of view, by challenging our own point of view, by questioning other’s points of view, we are practicing critical thinking. This exposure to other thoughts and possibilities might provide additional insights into our knowledge of the situation.
To put it bluntly, my opinions are never 100% correct, and other people are never 100% wrong. We need to constantly explore different perspectives. We need to gather all the information, data, testimonials, experts’ reviews, customers’ reviews; we need to be aware of the motivations and assumptions that are present in our problems. The following could be for another topic altogether, but we also need to consider that what is rational might not always be correct, just like what is correct might not always be rational.
The example that I chose was a simple one, the definition of user experience design. I challenged the definition that a few resources told me because it didn’t make sense. Think about it, if the job of user experience designers is only to find out what is easier for the users and make that, there will not be a career called user experience designer because it will be too easy.
In summary, we need to think critically about everything. All those generalized knowledge and blanket statements need to be questioned, analyzed, contextualized, and critically thought. As designers early in our careers, I understand that we are trying to learn as many things as possible from a variety of sources. Hence, we need to think more objectively and be more aware that even information from established institutions can be inapplicable, irrelevant, incorrect, or even obsolete.
Wait, hold up, must I question and be skeptical about everything? If I am skeptical about everything in life, including this post, how can I believe anything? Maybe critical thinking is not good after all?
Well, this publication by José Enebral Fernández differentiated skeptical activism from critical thinking. Or you might be more interested in this publication by R. R. Reno, who talked about critical thinking as a fear of error, illustrated by students who are trained to question but not prepared to answer.
Though, remember to be inquisitive and think critically as you read these articles too! (Or not ;))
Sources:
https://medium.com/neuron-ux/the-need-for-critical-thinking-in-ux-e5953cadaeca
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ux-design
https://think.design/user-design-research/critical-thinking/
https://www.udemy.com/course/master-digital-product-design-ux-research-ui-design/
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/humanities/beliefs/skeptical-activism-and-critical-thinking/
https://www.getprinciples.com/critical-thinking-and-the-culture-of-skepticism/
