My scientific design methodology

About me

In short, I’m a product designer with a background in biology. What does that mean? Well, from a technical standpoint, it means I have strong research and analytical skills. However, a more nuanced interpretation of this fact, might be that I am a highly empathetic individual with a natural tendency to be curious about how things work. Highly empathetic because it’s impossible to like biology without caring about people or living things. Naturally curious because loving science is only possible if you enjoy diving deep into topics and breaking them down into their most fundamental basic truths.

I like to use my background in science to help inform my design process and this article will outline exactly how I do it.

Here’s some background before I explain my process

Design Theory

Design theory is the essentially the “why” behind the “what” when we design. It is a collection of fundamental understandings about human behavior and psychology, that we as designers use as tools to influence perception and achieve objectives.

Design Process

My original design process, during my design thesis, is a 7-stage process.

Scientific Theory

Scientific theories are explanations and interpretations of measured or observed facts. For example, we can observe that apples fall from trees, and we have the theory of gravity to explain why that happens.

Scientific method

Scientific method is an experimental process that is used to construct and test a scientific hypothesis, and a hypothesis is an explanation we make based on a small amount of observations. Hypotheses become theories after we accumulate enough evidence to support them, and we use scientific theories to guide us when forming hypotheses and creating experiments.

The intersection of science and design

One positive result of learning design theory in tandem with my required science courses was naturally noticing parallels between science and design. Primarily between the design process and the scientific method.

How does this impact my design process?

Recognizing these parallels helped me to notice two very important areas to consider during the design process.

1.    There is a direct parallel between identifying variables and understanding users and context when designing.

 When creating experiments, one important thing to consider is to identify all dependent and independent variables. The reason for this is that an improper understanding of the variables can cause your experiments to yield misleading results. An incorrect understanding of users or the context in which they may be interacting with the product, can cause us to make the wrong design decisions.

2.    The methods in which information is gathered to support hypotheses and the methods we as designers use to ideate solutions are very similar.

One of the first steps taken after creating a hypothesis as a scientist is to research whether or not anyone else has done work on the topic already.

I found this to be very similar to the process of “looking for design inspiration” or finding articles or statements in textbooks that support certain claims to guide our design decisions.

So why is this important?

1.    Bad design decisions lead to bad products, and bad products lead to lost money and lost time. Most of the time when this happens it is a result of a poor understanding of users and the context in which they might be interacting with the product.

2.    User testing takes time, money, and resources companies often do not have. So using multiple references and good sources of data is often key to be able to make properly informed design decisions.

Conclusion

At first glance it might seem as though there is no tangible connection between science and design. But in my experience, there are many parallels that can be drawn between the two. If science is a tool we use to understand life, design is the process of using that understanding to create a better life for others.