How Critical Thinking makes us Better Designers? (with Free Cheat-sheet)

Every day we as designers deal with many questions and challenges in our heads. What design idea should I choose? How to find the best tool for this issue? How to solve this or that problem? or even, should I go freelancing or stay full-time?

Some of these challenges are easy to come up with a reasonable answer but some are very complicated to realize the best way for solving it.

There are some obstacles that make the problem-solving process complex and frustrating - like fear of making mistakes, fear of better options (FOBO), costly consequences, lack of time or energy to investigate, and having no idea to evaluate the solution.

Well, Critical thinking is here to help us to make that process so much easier and more efficient.

You may have already heard a lot of the term "Critical Thinking" in videos, blogs, or social media posts - But what is critical thinking?

What is Critical Thinking?

It might have happened to you that when you wanted to buy a product - you'd do a lot of research, reviews, comparisons, and ask for others' opinions just to make sure the product you're paying for truly fits your needs and budget. Well, we might not know, but that's a bit of using critical thinking in real life.

After all, critical thinking is a mental process of forming a rational judgment based on facts, observations, evidence, and evaluation.

This soft skill could also be applied to almost anything - What to say, what to do, which advice I should accept, which way I choose, which news I believe, how to solve problems, etc.

Critical thinking helps people think clearly and critically to spot any sort of fallacy, misleads, or biases and comprehend situations from different angles to have the most sensible inference and action.

Critical thinking is what leads to the next breakthroughs in any area. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

Main Principles of Critical Thinking

• Asking thoughtful questions
• Defining the right problem
• Examining evidence
• Analyzing assumptions and biases
• Avoiding emotional reasoning
• Avoiding oversimplification
• Considering other interpretations
• Tolerating ambiguity

Example of Critical Thinking (In design)

Example 1

The statement: "Sarah is a really good product designer, she's very lovely and I know her for the last 7 years. Her design is so neat and stunning, everything comes really well together."

Critical thinking approach:

• What's your definition of "a good product designer"?
• If "she's lovely" and "you've known her for 7 years" and "she can design crispy screens" doesn't mean she's a good product designer. all reasonings are good and positive but not persuasive.
• Sarah might be "a good person" or "a good UI designer" but for qualifying her product design skills you'll need to assess some of her other skills that resonate with the product design specialty.
• Have you had any cooperation experience with her? How's she performing on a team?

Example 2

The statement: "There's a feature requested by 2 of our customers, I really like the idea and we definitely should add this feature to our product."

Critical thinking approach:

A common feature request from some customers might be a valuable idea but before considering it to add we should ask some insightful questions:

• What problem does this feature solve?
• Is the problem towards the core problem our product focuses to solve? product's WHY.
• What percentage of users are being affected by this problem?
• What's the cost of adding this feature (time, money, tech effort)? Do we have limitations on that?
• Are the costs worth, compared to the value this feature could bring?
• What are the causes of that problem? can we find a solution to resolve the root of the problem?

How Critical Thinking Can Help us to be Better Designers?

We as creatives are constantly dealing with finding and solving problems, being creative and strategic with solutions, articulating our ideas, evaluating, and transforming them into design.

Critical thinking as a soft skill can empower a lot of our abilities towards our goals and here's how:

1- Makes the brain unbiased

Humans are dealing with lots of cognitive errors and biases that influence our thoughts and decision-making. Practicing critical thinking techniques lets you identify cognitive biases in yourself or others and overcome them.

It'll leave very little room for biases to infect your vision, thoughts, and the ultimate decision.

2- Reinforces problem-solving skills

Critical thinking can unlock and nurture the characteristics in our personality that help us to make more rational decisions and better solve problems.

These characteristics?are:

• Considering a wide range of perspectives
• Being open-minded
• Finding the rooted problem
• Being logical
• Accepting new evidence and findings even if contradict our beliefs
• Willing to reassess the information
• Open to all sensible possibilities
• Not making hurried judgments

3- Improves creativity and fosters curiosity

Critical thinking not only develops your problem-solving skills but also will train your brain to foster curiosity and enhance creativity to think out of the box.

It can open your mind to new and unconventional ideas, see problems from unusual angles, explore other relevant and non-relevant concepts to combine, and rationally evaluate the final decision.

3- Enhances feedback skills

One of the most important skills we designers need to develop and grow is being able to effectively give and receive feedback. Occasionally there might be some barriers to feedback being effective - like misunderstanding, mental biases, guessing what's unclear instead of asking, judging based on vague data, lack of proper communication, etc.

Critical thinking skills are here to help us to overcome most of these challenges and make the feedbacking experience as efficient as possible. For example, If we are the feedback receiver, by thinking critically we can understand:

• Without a clear articulation, probably there wouldn't be any constructive feedback.
• The negative feedback I'm receiving should be considered about my work, not myself.
• I should question any vague feedback to make it as clear as possible.
• Not every piece of feedback is constructive
• Embrace the negative feedback and consider it as an opportunity for growth

4- Improves communication skills

Like many other roles, designers should constantly communicate with their peers and articulate their ideas. Having efficient communication became even more challenging since more teams are getting remote, and diverse.

Practicing critical thinking skills enhances communication skills and helps to move towards being more efficient. It will boost mind visualization abilities to be able to observe subjects from various viewpoints, have more empathic feelings toward people who are different, and be able to understand their points.

Other than that, thinking critically helps to prevent any sort of misunderstanding by encouraging people to question any unclear and vague ideas to make things clear and understandable.

5- Encourage open-mindedness

Being open-minded is the willingness to be open to new ideas and experiences, curious to learn new things from different people, having the courage to challenge their own beliefs with no prejudice, and not being defensive about people who have opposite opinions with him.

Critical thinking enhances open-mindedness and makes teams and groups collaborate and communicate efficiently in a more empathic way and of course with fewer conflicts.

Critical Thinking Cheat-sheet Free Template (Notion)

You can get the Notion template from here.

Conclusion

In today's world, critical thinking become one of the most important soft skills that every individual needs to develop and practice. Since this crucial skill set can be applied to almost anything, it will not only help you grow as a professional in the business world but also will help you nurture and thrive in every position.

As a family member, as a student, as a friend, or as a person in any group.

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