My Design Philosophy
I like to frame my design philosophy through the lens of my glasses.
My glasses have been a staple in my personal brand since 2013; when I began my design journey. In 2013, I registered for a digital art and animation course during my sophomore year of high school. I had been interested in technology for a while and I fell in love with the idea of using technology to be creative. This was also around the time in my life where I felt very different in terms of my who I was and my identity. Therefore, I began to use design to express myself creatively. I started to create posters for my room and started a graphic design business to keep me busy.
Fast forward to 2015, I got new glasses, which are represented in my existing logo. This felt like a turning point for me. I began to be more comfortable with who I was and I started to understand the importance of diversity and inclusion with accepting myself. Also, this is when I found my passion for UX Design. I began my undergraduate career at Purdue with these glasses.
So why do my glasses mean so much to me? For years my glasses have been a part of my identity.
To me, my glassses represent:
Clarity,
Diversity,
& Interactivity
Clarity.
Clarity.
My glasses represent clarity because, quite literally, they help me see clearly. However, this is how I approach design. I approach design with clarity by ensuring I am paying attention to detail and not rushing through my process. I am constantly encouraging myself to discover new areas to provide more insights into my design process.
Diversity.
Diversity.
Next, my glasses represent diversity. I’ve lived in 6 different states in the United States; including states in the West Coast, the South, and the Midwest. Additionally, I’ve visited various other states around the U.S. and a couple of different cities in the U.K. While I have a lot of places left to go, the best part about going new places is meeting and seeing all sorts of people. My glasses have allowed me to discover new lifestyles.
Moving around a lot has taught me to be accepting of others and to understand people who are different from me. This has caused me to seek diverse environments and bring these into my design process. I approach design with empathy, and while that is a buzzword, diversity has allowed me to do this.
When working with users, I am sure to pull from a variety of viewpoints because everyone is different. Therefore, when working with user groups or communities, I am designing for them and their specific needs, and not trying to design for all. To me, diversity is what keeps the human in human-centered design.
Interactivity.
Interactivity.
This brings me to the point of interactivity. With diverse groups of people, I interact with them and engage them in my process in various ways. Whether it be through conversation, workshops, or getting feedback. However, there are 2 ways in which I use the word interactivity.
In addition to interacting with people, I am a t-shaped designer, with an interaction design specialization. I have knowledge of and interest in the entire design process. However, my passion lies in interaction design. I am very interested in the various ways users interact with their products. I like to either build off of their existing mental models of interaction or challenge them and help them interact with their products in ways they haven’t before. This is shown in many of the projects I have worked on and are showcased on my portfolio. Examples of projects where I have taken the lead on the interaction design aspects include the Garmin LiveTrack and Smart Thermostat Design projects.
"Everything I create is a prototype"
As an interaction designer, I believe everything I create is a prototype. This allows me to see everything I create as able to be altered, never perfect, and always being improved upon. If we look at something that’s final, we see it as rigid and unable to be changed. This causes us to be complacent and settle for mediocracy.
To avoid that, I see my designs are modular. In particular times and contexts, they work. However, over time, they may change to fit new innovations or new patterns. The concept of designs changing very quickly is often seen in the real of lean UX and agile development cycles.
Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden state, in their book Lean UX, “We are still building linear organizations in a world that demands constant change.” To me, it is important that designers are able to evolve and adapt their processes to a rapidly changing world. Through working on various projects in my academic and professional career, I have learned how to learn quickly and adapt to new environments.
As previously stated, I go about my design process with clarity, diversity, and interactivity. However, these words do not exist in separate aspects of my design process. They are intertwined and go hand-in-hand. They create intersections just as messy as my design process can be.
Sincerely,
Drake Long
