Designing With A Why

David Seah details why he is an investigative designer. The point that resonated with my thinking was the drive to understand “why”. I have had discussions with some of my colleagues who hate this, they hate asking why and then strugging to find an answer. Probably Dave has found an explanation that I can give them -

The realization that understanding things is the intrinsic motivating force in me balances the equation.

I have even wondered at times if I have killed my gut feeling entirely which makes me ask why. But this is what it is - understanding things. I cannot design, any design, without understanding the purpose, the intent. That is why I feel requirements are important, because they help in understanding things, and then in designing them.

It is also influenced by my belief that users do not know what they need, they only know what they have. They are not best at the solution, they are the best at locating pain points and then testing whether they have been resolved. And we need to investigate and we need to ask why to understand need from the want.

I ask a chain of why questions until it hits a natural answer or a consciously taken business decision that I can accept. I am usually not in a role to question these business decisions further, but I try to make sure that they align with the business vision or at least that they are taken consciously. All my technology decisions are dependent on these answers, in fact I cannot take any of my decisions if I do not know the answers. I cannot select technology, cannot design, cannot code and cannot test unless I know for what all that is being done. If the software does not provide ROI, it is treated as a cost and an expensive one. And I do no know of ways other than asking why to make sure that I do my part for maximum ROI. It has been difficult to explain this to others and Dave has found the right words for me.