My definition of design
Design is solving problems.
I use this broad definition because it helps frame the act of “design” as a fully democratic profession. Whether you are a manufacturer, product manager, technical lead, child, construction worker, nurse, or other - you are, most likely, a designer. Why? Because you are solving problems for someone else using your intellect, knowledge, and experience - then putting it into practice.
A definition like this can make designers break out into cold sweats of existential angst. ‘Well, if everyone is a designer... what am I?”
Relax, you are the person who gets to solve problems without being called anything but a designer. You get to switch industries without people batting an eye. You get to imagine, create, and make whatever you want to. You get to solve problems any place, any time, for any one.
There is only one catch to all of this - you actually have to solve (or try to solve) the problem by building something for someone else. If you only talk about the idea - you are just having a conversation. If you only sketch in a book - you are just a theorist. But, to actually build something, either alone or with others, that someone else interacts with, in an effort to solve a problem, well THAT is what makes you a designer.
