02 —

Question.

Asking why before how
What this is

Good design starts with better questions. Why does this exist? Who is it really for? What could be taken away?

We question conventions, assumptions and our own habits before we draw a single line.

Question — a figure lit by coloured light.
What we study & make
  • Design questionsStarting every piece of work with a question, not a solution.
  • AssumptionsNaming what we believe so we can test it rather than design around it.
  • ConventionsAsking which patterns help people, and which only exist out of habit.
  • First principlesReducing a problem to what’s true before deciding what to make.
  • Problem framingGetting the question right, so the design has something real to answer.
  • ReductionAsking what can be removed before asking what should be added.
  • Point of viewForming a clear opinion about what good looks like, and why.
  • Design principlesTurning what we’ve learned into rules we can hold ourselves to.
  • NamingFinding words that say what something is, simply and honestly.
  • Thought piecesWriting through ideas to see whether they hold up.
  • Open questionsKeeping a list of what we haven’t figured out yet, and saying so.
Read our notes
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