In a time of speed and uncertainty of the future we often talk about ways to improve our productivity as designers yet not often nurture and build upon what inspired us to become designers in the first place.
At its roots, design is a process that helps to problem solve and bring to life solutions and experiences that may fulfill someone's needs. Tracing back to the time of the Neolithic Age when humans began creating their own tools, we can infer that as long as we exist, we will have needs and design helps create things that fulfill those needs.
Advances in technology affected our needs in that it sped up many processes. Things are now expected to happen faster and be more perfected. Increasingly people are moving away from things that slow them down, such as writing by hand or thinking longer about questions without asking for answers.
In the journey of a designer, the speed we live in is incredible for learning and efficiency. Yet designers may also go back to asking essential questions: Who am I designing for? How can I better understand my users? Will the solution I’m creating meet their needs in the short term, and will they continue to use it in the long term?
This is where the tools have some limitations. They can help us create faster, but they cannot teach us how to see and understand more deeply. In response, in addition to adapting to new tools, designers may also begin to look beyond speed, toward the quieter, inherently slow to understand concepts, and less visible skills that can improve the long term impact of the work they make.
Slow design is not about working slower to achieve perfection, it’s about noticing more.
It means taking the time to learn things that may feel quiet, unseen, or difficult to grasp, yet can later inspire and guide the design process in meaningful ways.
Here are some ideas for exploring slow design:
Developing Intuition - How many times have you had a subtle voice suggest an idea which may have felt not good enough at the moment yet later on realizing that you are not the only one that shares the same feeling? Intuition is important in design because, while many books offer guidance on how to create solutions to problems, they cannot account for every context some of which only you can grasp. In a fast world of information, it is also easy to by pass the quiet voice since there are many external ones that exist. Yet this quiet voice may give you additional insights such as asking users more questions, taking the unexplored path, or merge a few concepts together that were not done before.
Intuition can be built through prior experience, reflection, and willingness to trust your instincts (and make mistakes) even during uncertainty. Learning to listen to that inner voice may help uncover insights that are not immediately obvious and guide one toward more ideas.
‘Transformism’ of Old into New - How often do we overlook what is already around us in search of something new or trendy? It’s easy to assume that a complex or exotic solution is the right one, yet sometimes the most meaningful ideas are hidden in plain sight. Interior designer Harry Nuriev calls this practice “Transformism” which is the ability of closely observing the world around us and giving existing elements a chance to live a “new life.” By paying attention to our rooms, daily walks, old memories, or personal belongings, we can discover objects, patterns, or ideas that can be thoughtfully reimagined, reused, or transformed. This mindset embraces curiosity, and reflection, allowing creativity and solutions to emerge not from continuously adding things to a solution but through thoughtful re-interpretation of what already exists.
Studying Typography - Take the time to notice and explore the many ways a word can be written both online and offline. Its comfortable to gravitate towards familiar fonts or stick to our favorite ones, but slow observation of the way words can be written can reveal subtleties that are often overlooked. By studying how different languages represent the same word, and how variations in inclination, shape, and spacing shape perception, a designer can develop a deeper sensitivity to tone, meaning, and the emotional impact of written communication.
Becoming a great communicator - Whether through dialogue or writing, becoming a great communicator takes time, yet it is essential for a designer who wants to help others. One of the most interesting aspects of communication is that it can be challenging to fully understand one’s own mind, let alone to understand the minds of others. For this reason, getting to know yourself, how you communicate in different situations, and which areas you would like to improve comes first. Developing this self-awareness can also help you better understand and communicate with others too.
Seeing the world through someone else's lens - One skill a designer can nurture is the ability to zoom in and out of the world they live in, building the capacity to understand the perspectives of different users and needs that have not yet been addressed. If one is too zoomed in, they may see only a few stars in the night sky. Zooming out reveals a whole universe filled with stars, each unique in shape and light.
Through a zoomed-in lens, a designer’s view can be shaped by algorithms, popular trends, or familiar ideas. Zooming out allows a designer to see the experiences of a broader range of people, understand how their needs make sense in context, recognize patterns in problems, and learn which solutions have already been explored. This approach nurtures empathy for the diverse ways users experience the world.
Honoring emotional needs - When thinking of deliverables, it is often considered that physical deliverables such as a slide deck, a website, or a prototype are that which matters most. What is often overlooked is how those deliverables are brought to the user. Similar to how many stores can produce the same drink, people may prefer to visit the few where they can experience a particular atmosphere or level of customer service that brightens their day or goes as far as inspiring them to believe in their dreams.
In design, this means not only working toward final deliverables but also recognizing that every step of the user’s journey is an experience in itself. Emotions are often unspoken, yet learning to care for them and using thoughtful design details to reveal a bigger, more beautiful world, can make a long term impact.