Dear Design Schools,

Sometimes a few people enter your life normally and leave you with a tornado of thoughts, a few lines by such people shall always remain carved in your mind. One such individual I came across at the Figma Config 2024, was Karthi Subbaraman . Her talk was like a key to my locked questions which I had been finding in and out for years. Sharing is caring, and here is her talk for you, carefully crafted in this article.?

Karthi is an all-rounder, beginning from being a Senior Design Director at Salesforce (Hyderabad), to being an India lead for ‘Women in Product’, to being a visiting faculty at prestigious universities at MIT and NID, Karthi is a designer who builds product experiences. As a design leader, she leads design teams. As an educator, she helps designers and product managers grasp the fundamentals of product design, business design, and (sometimes) life design. As a coach, she helps designers and product managers make better decisions & actions. As a community builder, she builds maker spaces that enable learning and growth and as a creator, she shares her learnings and reflections of being a maker.

“We need schools that create designers like a wine, which gets better with time”.

We all have learned the theories of design, in our initial years. Do you sometimes feel you are stuck as a designer, your growth is stunted or maybe you have been losing the sensitive touch as a designer, and are having an empathy burnout? The perfect solution to this was found when Karthi threw some light on our everyday used basic word ‘Recognition’. She explained the meaning of ‘Cognition - The first time you learn about something’ and then comes ‘Re-cognition, to revise what you have already learned’. In our everyday lives as designers, we sometimes feel so monotonous and fall into a pattern of doing repeated design processes and it makes us lose the value of those. Practicing recognition can help us understand and be sensitive about our design process, further bringing out stronger outcomes! So someday again open your book of design notes and read it through, recognize, and come back stronger!

“Yes, yes I can very well collaborate with people and work”, this line is said by hundreds of people around, when trusted upon the true colors are seen, some are bossy, some dominant, some silent, and some are okay with everything, some who overwork and some who do not work at all. Finding individuals who are a perfect blend of everything to collaborate is always so difficult. Some people cannot collaborate or are learning to do so, which is completely fine too! But overpromising will always lead to a ruined outcome. The audience threw a question related to the same topic to which Karthi responded, “ The main ingredient to find the right collaborators is to do the right hiring. While all designers reflect a mindset of collaborating, the game lies in actually doing it. With the right hiring, comes the right recognized talent, and the right collaborators.?

“Creation is your imagination”

We are designers and yes we take accountability for solving each and every problem. While this might be possible while you are still in design schools, but with a client? We cannot take ownership of solving hundreds of problems, as it will risk the project timelines and efforts. Karthi reflected on how we can choose any three important problems out of hundreds and solve only those three that need your maximum amount of attention.

The talk then landed on a very interesting topic. Design schools! Our slouched backs straightened and our ears were all ready to listen to this most awaited topic. “Design is always taught as an expression, ‘Art’ is an expression, ‘Design’ is problem-solving. All budding designers are always taught to think outside the box, but the real skill for a designer lies in thinking ‘INSIDE THE BOX’, knowing and understanding the problem and solving it”. It has to be remembered that the ability to solve problems needs to be ‘Inside the box’ not outside.

Design schools do a fantastic job of teaching the design process to students, and students too create amazing projects with the most unique ideas. But, have you ever noticed how these projects are made just by the choice of what the student wants? Today’s market seeks young designers who not only have a great amount of design knowledge but also an intricate knowledge of the costs and legal procedures behind making a product. Where can this be taught? Design schools. While we agree that a designer grows by experience, the foundation of a designer has to be laid, design schools have to teach new lessons of costings, system powers, and legal procedures, and voila, you will have market-ready designers!?

As a designer, you cannot rush your learning, you will see the world one pixel at a time, be patient, and keep your trash can full of explorations. To satisfy the fire of hunger of the designer in you, keep up with the practice of having a desirable and doable page when designing. Let’s clink our glasses on this fact, that the client never approves any design which we approve of. Therefore, why not organize your artboard in two sections on the desirable and doable page where you can also design your wish and the client’s wish?

While working alongside engineers one shall understand prioritization and feasibility, the ability to understand the system and sub-systems and their relation to each other. It is important to understand that while designers do ‘Creative’ problem-solving, engineers do ‘Pattern’ problem-solving, but the common denominator for both is ultimate ‘Problem-solving’! In a design, if the designer plays the role of a doctor, the engineer is then a mechanic, but ultimately both are solving a problem!

Over the years, I have realized that one can make a good design by thinking emotionally, mentally, logically, and psychologically. While the first three are always thought by, we seldom forget about thinking psychologically. In a part of this world, a bullet train was built that thought of reducing the time of the train to reach the destination by 8 seconds, to give its passengers a better experience. Think, was this well thought out? In this world where no one keeps track of 8 seconds, this thought of enhancing their experience was of no use as no one ever felt a change with it. Instead, if they had thought of this issue psychologically, they could have given their passengers a glass of champagne or anything else that would have helped them pass their time easily while being on long journeys.

As the talk came to an end, it was realized that nothing industry-focused was being taught in design schools, while the best minds in design are working elsewhere, it’s now time to carve them out and motivate them to teach them, so that the stalk of true and real designers never comes to an end.?

On the ending note of this article, here is a sentence to take away and to keep with yourself forever!

THE BEST WAY TO CRIB IS TO BUILD