Dangers of Aimless Design
Everything in the known universe has a purpose. Even you have a purpose on this earth. There’s a light that only you can provide the world and should you choose to not be the version of yourself that can do so, you’ll just wander aimlessly. And we’ve all wandered aimlessly in life at one or another point in time.
Imagine that feeling of aimlessness you had when you had no idea what to do. The state you were in at that point, is exactly the state your design would be in if you don’t give it a purpose.
But what is purpose of design?
Whatever you design, it has to be backed by a rationale, a thought process, or an idea. A clearly defined purpose allows you to align your designs with a single core objective.
Realistically speaking, everything we do either aligns us or brings us apart, there’s no middle ground. The same is true about your design as well. Every step of your design thinking process is either going to align your designs on a singular purpose or make them fall apart entirely.
So the first thing you need to ensure throughout your design journey is to check if what you’re doing aligns with the initial design purpose you set.
What if you don’t design with purpose?
If you’re designing for the sake of just designing, you might make awesome Dribble shots. But that’ll be it for your designs. That’s all they’ll ever be good for.
We’ve all seen really awesome design inspirations on Dribble and Behance that make us go ‘Wow’. But in a realistic setting, they would be nearly impossible to implement.
So in a way, it’s almost a fairytale idea of what design could be. Hypothetically, that’s great. But it’s a trap.
It’s a design trap that pushes you to make something ever so beautiful and all it has is beauty and nothing else to offer.
The roadmap of design
That’s the road you’ll end up on if you choose to wander your designs aimlessly. And we know that we’re just people trying to be good designers. We also know we’re not as good of a designer as we could be.
But if we try to push forward regardless of that feeling, and align our designs with a purpose, then we might become that designer that we could be one day. Even if your designs aren’t visually as ‘cool’ as some of the Dribble shots, don’t worry.
Just focus on giving purpose to your design. Similar to how a person with a purpose always ends up better than one who doesn’t. Design is exactly the same as well. The designs you make with a purpose and a set objective will far outweigh the ones that are just random fluffed-up thoughts.
That’s what I think about the dangers of aimless design. Let me know what you think!
