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    "title" : "Understanding design in 10 questions |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Understanding design in 10 questions",
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    {"kicker" : "","title" :"Understanding design in 10 questions","deck" : "Background, practice, and relationship to customer experience","summary" : "How the discipline of design can help your agency improve customer experience.","date" : "2023-03-03T10:08:00-05:00","date_modified" : "2025-02-14T09:43:36-05:00","authors" : {"ana-monroe" : "Ana Monroe"},"topics" : {
        
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            "customer-experience" : "Customer experience",
            "design" : "Design",
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  "An abstract background of yellow and orange has 5 different sized question marks in white with a red drop shadow on the right. On the left is the title, Understanding design in 10 questions, and the summary, How the discipline of design can help your agency improve customer experience, in black text.", "width" :
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      "filename" :"2023-03-03-understanding-design-in-10-questions.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2023/03/2023-03-03-understanding-design-in-10-questions.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/replace-hugo-links-4-migration-archive/content/news/2023/03/2023-03-03-understanding-design-in-10-questions.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/replace-hugo-links-4-migration-archive/content/news/2023/03/2023-03-03-understanding-design-in-10-questions.md","slug" : "understanding-design-in-10-questions","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/replace-hugo-links-4-migration-archive/2023/03/03/understanding-design-in-10-questions/","weight" : "1","content" :"\u003cp\u003eDesign can seem confusing or even mysterious, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In GSA’s Office of Customer Experience, we get lots of questions about design, so we’re going to answer some of the questions we hear most often. Here we go.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-1-what-is-design\"\u003eQuestion 1. What is design?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to \u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/bio.html\"\u003eAmerican designer Charles Eames\u003c/a\u003e: “One could describe Design as a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYi2rd1QCg\"\u003eView the short film\u003c/a\u003e Eames made to answer this question (1972, 5 minutes, 28 seconds). You might recognize his voice; he was a frequent narrator for Disney Studios.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-2-what-kinds-of-problems-can-design-solve\"\u003eQuestion 2. What kinds of problems can design solve?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1960s, design theorist Horst Rittel\u003csup\u003e\u003ca aria-describedby=\"footnote-label\" href=\"#fn1\" id=\"footnotes-ref1\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e coined the term \u003ccode\u003ewicked problems\u003c/code\u003e to describe the issues design can address. He describes wicked problems as “\u0026hellip;problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn other words, design takes on complex problems that resist simple and singular answers, because those problems do not have simple or singular roots or origins. Using this definition, it’s easy to understand how design could be useful in complex spaces like the federal government. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-3-what-are-the-core-components-of-design\"\u003eQuestion 3. What are the core components of design?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1990s, designer Richard Buchanan divided design into four component parts\u003csup\u003e\u003ca aria-describedby=\"footnote-label\" href=\"#fn2\" id=\"footnotes-ref2\"\u003e[2]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e. These definitions describe the broad strokes of design practice. Here, we’ve mapped Buchanan’s concepts to terms in current use.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe four core components of design are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGraphic design\u003c/strong\u003e - The design of symbolic and visual communications\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct design\u003c/strong\u003e - The design of material objects\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eService design\u003c/strong\u003e - The design of activities and organized services, which includes the traditional management concern for logistics, combining physical resources, instrumentalities, and human beings in efficient sequences and schedules to reach specified objectives\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublic sector design\u003c/strong\u003e - The design of complex systems or environments for living, working, playing, and learning\u0026hellip;sustaining, developing, and integrating human beings into broader ecological and cultural environments, shaping these environments when desirable and possible or adapting to them when necessary\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-4-how-does-design-complement-other-disciplines\"\u003eQuestion 4. How does design complement other disciplines?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn conversation with designer and artist Sara Schnadt\u003csup\u003e\u003ca aria-describedby=\"footnote-label\" href=\"#fn3\" id=\"footnotes-ref3\"\u003e[3]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e, we find that design balances engineering and fine art. Engineering sits firmly, always, in the possible, and iterates forward, while art leaps from the possible to the impossible and purely imaginative. In taking on wicked problems in a practical way, design balances imaginative possibilities (art) with constraints (engineering), and charts multiple paths forward and multiple desirable end-points for any project.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-5-how-can-design-improve-collaboration\"\u003eQuestion 5. How can design improve collaboration?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith greater specialization in our working world, teams grew further apart. Modern design, with its roots in both art and engineering, grew out of the need for more specialized knowledge. Design enables teams with disparate specialties to more easily talk to each other, collaborate, and find answers that are not bound by disciplinary lines.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-6-what-is-service-design\"\u003eQuestion 6. What is service design?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eService design is a design speciality characterized by a multi-stakeholder and systematic view. Jodi Forlizzi, professor of human-computer interaction, put it this way:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“If I gave a set of user-centered students the task of designing a ride-sharing service like Uber, they would think about the driver and the passenger. But if you gave that same problem to someone who’s really thinking in terms of service or systems, they would start thinking about taxis, and public transportation, and other traffic on the road. They would be more aware of the multiple stakeholders as they affect ride sharing.”\u003csup\u003e\u003ca aria-describedby=\"footnote-label\" href=\"#fn4\" id=\"footnotes-ref4\"\u003e[4]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-7-what-does-design-practice-bring-to-a-customer-experience-team\"\u003eQuestion 7. What does design practice bring to a customer experience team?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnything with a set of problems and a set of possibilities can be designed. You can design your furniture, your workout routine, your career, or your neighborhood composting program, to name a few. What sets customer experience (CX) apart from design is the application of design to a set of business goals. An example of this is the design of what business theorist Jim Collins calls a business’ “flywheel,”\u003csup\u003e\u003ca aria-describedby=\"footnote-label\" href=\"#fn5\" id=\"footnotes-ref5\"\u003e[5]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e the set or formula of offerings businesses hold at their core that create their own momentum and keep the business moving forward.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA business flywheel can evolve without design, but trial and error are pretty inefficient working methods. With design, aspects of business can be ideated, tested, and advanced or discarded quickly. For this reason, business leader Danial Burka, called design “the scientific method for business.”\u003csup\u003e\u003ca aria-describedby=\"footnote-label\" href=\"#fn6\" id=\"footnotes-ref6\"\u003e[6]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-8-how-can-design-improve-customer-experience\"\u003eQuestion 8. How can design improve customer experience?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy balancing possibilities and constraints, and using interdisciplinary practices, design supports CX by engaging with and proposing solutions for facets of customers’ wicked problems, such as:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWas the customer experience of this program actually designed, or did it just evolve, trial-and-error style over time? \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIs it still serving customers as intended? \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWas it once designed and has devolved? \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhere should it go now? \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCan it even be redesigned? \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShould it be redesigned entirely?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDesign supports collaboration with multiple disciplines and stakeholders to tackle and solve customer problems.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-9-what-does-gsas-service-design-team-do\"\u003eQuestion 9. What does GSA’s Service Design team do?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn short, the interdisciplinary Service Design team supports GSA’s mission to improve customer experience through intentional, data-based arrangements of products, services, and governance practices that can be recurrently tested and iterated upon.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOr, to reduce it further: The Service Design team improves customer experience through intentional and testable arrangements of products, services, and governance practices. We help teams design better experiences with GSA services and systems, processes and products.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"question-10-how-can-i-hire-a-designer-at-my-federal-agency\"\u003eQuestion 10. How can I hire a designer at my federal agency?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/2023/01/27/bringing-design-in-house/\"\u003eBringing design in-house\u003c/a\u003e to learn about hiring designers in the federal government, and reach out to \u003ca href=\"mailto:customerexperience@gsa.gov\"\u003ecustomerexperience@gsa.gov\u003c/a\u003e with any questions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"dg-footnote\"\u003e\n   \u003ch3 class=\"dg-footnote__heading\" id=\"footnote-label\"\u003eFootnotes\u003c/h3\u003e\n   \u003col class=\"dg-footnote__list\"\u003e\n      \u003cli class=\"dg-footnote__list-item\" id=\"fn1\"\u003eDilemmas in a general theory of planning. Rittel, H.W.J., Webber, M.M. Policy Sci 4, 155–169 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730 \u003ca href=\"#footnotes-ref1\" aria-label=\"Back to content\"\u003e↩\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n      \u003cli class=\"dg-footnote__list-item\" id=\"fn2\"\u003eWicked Problems in Design Thinking. Buchanan, Richard. Design. The M.I.T. Press. Issues, Vol. 8, No. 2, (Spring, 1992), pp. 9-10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511637 \u003ca href=\"#footnotes-ref2\" aria-label=\"Back to content\"\u003e↩\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n      \u003cli class=\"dg-footnote__list-item\" id=\"fn3\"\u003ehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-schnadt-2735134 \u003ca href=\"#footnotes-ref3\" aria-label=\"Back to content\"\u003e↩\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n      \u003cli class=\"dg-footnote__list-item\" id=\"fn4\"\u003eDesigning the Invisible: An Introduction to Service Design. Author: Lara Penin. Publisher: Bloomsbury. 2018. \u003ca href=\"#footnotes-ref4\" aria-label=\"Back to content\"\u003e↩\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n      \u003cli class=\"dg-footnote__list-item\" id=\"fn5\"\u003eGood to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't. Collins, Jim. Harper Business. 2001. \u003ca href=\"#footnotes-ref5\" aria-label=\"Back to content\"\u003e↩\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n      \u003cli class=\"dg-footnote__list-item\" id=\"fn6\"\u003eHigh Resolution Podcast. Episode 7. 27 March 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeE6Tx_nO94 (1 hour, 8 minutes) \u003ca href=\"#footnotes-ref6\" aria-label=\"Back to content\"\u003e↩\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n   \u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e"}
  ]
}