One side effect of working in the design industry is that you often find yourself thinking like a designer well beyond work hours — in a good way.
Since becoming a UX designer, for which I spend my day analyzing situations and thinking about how to make things better, I have found myself tuning in more closely to the world around me. A psychologist might call this "mindfulness," or awareness of your present thoughts and surroundings. They say mindfulness is one secret to happiness, and I can see why. When I take the time to look around and think about why things are the way they are, why people do the things they do, and whether things have to be this way, I feel refreshed. I step outside of my head for a moment and appreciate just how weird and wonderful the world can truly be. Here are some of the ways this mentality has seeped into my life outside of professional design:
Attention to Detail
Designers make deliberate choices about every single detail in their designs, no matter how small. As such, I often can’t help but notice the little things throughout the day — everything from "Why did they decide to lay out these buttons on my coffee maker in this way?" to "There has got to be a more efficient way to get us all through airport security." Thinking this way helps me to savor experiences that are done right and flex my design thinking muscles when I know something could be improved.
Attention to Others
When defining a user experience, designers must deeply consider the needs and behaviors of others. I find myself increasingly curious about why people do the things they do. Sometimes when I arrive early at the Caltrain station, I like to take a look around at the crowd: how people disperse themselves across the platform, how many of them are hunched over smartphones, how long it takes someone to buy a ticket. There are so many opportunities for improvement in any given situation that it’s hard not to get excited.
Attention to the Present
Technology is usually about speeding things up — making things faster, better, and more efficient. For me, design has afforded me more focus and, in a way, slowed my life down. When I catch myself tuning in to the details and people around me, I feel like I’ve squeezed out just a little bit more of life — almost as if I should earn bonus points for noticing something that would have otherwise floated through my day.
The best part is, you don’t need to be a designer think this way. All you need is the curiosity to tune in from time to time, and you can earn some bonus points of your own.
