What is good design? (part 3)

To read part 2: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-good-design-part-2-david-berigny

When we talk about viability in nature, we'd look at how plants and animals thrive in an environment. A business is no different. It has an environment where it operates. When it works well, it thrives; and when it doesn't, it struggles to survive. Economic viability, or running the business in a profitable way is only one part of viability.

People, culture and natural ecosystems affect any business in a big way. In fact, they are the foundations of it. A business needs people and natural ecosystems supporting those people, to be viable. How does a business survive without people? How do people survive without a healthy environment? We can see how viability for a business, like in nature, is about life. It follows that the most successful businesses would be those that most enhance life. All life. 

So businesses of course needs people. But people only need businesses when they provide value to people's lives. Does the business solve problems for them? Does it make them healthier, happier, more connected to others, more fulfilled? This is what we value or desire from businesses. So a business also needs to have desirability to thrive.

They need to offer products, services, and experiences too that they can realise. There’s no end to what we can imagine that would have a positive impact on people’s lives. But if it's not feasible - when there’s no way a business can provide it - there’s little value in. They need to provide what they can within the limits of reality. That's often time, budget, resources, capabilities etc.

How do we describe the sweet spots?

So good design is always seeking that sweet spot. That's the one between viability, feasibility and desirability. Good design is also about finding many other sweet spots too. We don’t look only for ways to serve one individual, group or community for example. We look for what’s common between them. Finding a point of mutual benefit will more likely have a significant impact.

We also define what’s common or provides a mutual benefit in clear short statements. We call those design principles. They're like slogans. We want to be able to capture all those sweet spots - in short, punchy, meaningful and communicable ways. This helps us to focus, describe, collaborate and arrive at what we set out to do better. They act like guiding frameworks to work and design by.

Moral and ethical principles function in similar ways. Rather than frameworks to work and design by, they are frameworks to live by. In a way they also are about articulating the sweet spots. These are about ways to live that benefit everyone. That is individuals, groups, communities, society and more. We could say, our ecosystems and environments that we live within by extension too. 

What are moral and ethical principles for?

We can look at what’s called the Golden rule for example. That is - treat others as you want them to treat you. This is a rule that comes up across many religious texts of the ages in some way or another, across the world. When we apply the Golden rule we act with integrity. But we also are more likely to pay it forward. There’s few of us who would avoid care, consideration, forgiveness, respect, kindness and compassion. Extending those towards others first, goes a long way to heal our social rifts. It’s a simple principle.

Add that to more; and there's a further healing effect. Being in the moment is a good one. We described that earlier as flow too. This puts us in a mode of balance between thoughts, feelings and action. Feeling, sensing and empathy shaping our thoughts and actions, will do us good!

Those principles all together can provide a more significant and deeper impact.

We can talk about that balance seeking; that alignment of all the sweet spots as - a higher purpose. Or we could call that the highest good. Could a service towards a positive impact for all, be the right definition of good design too? Remove the "o" from good, if that helps define it better?

A service meeting the needs of individuals, considers their uniqueness and individual expression. A service that benefits all the possible social groups, cultures and communities. A service that enlivens our physical environments. Those being our ecosystems, natural and built environments too. Doing all that together is a service for all. It's hard to argue that it's not a service for good. Could that be the ultimate "why"?

Where to go from dream to reality?

Getting there could feel like a dream and wishful thinking. Dreams don’t need to manifest right away. What kind of life is it anyway without any dreams? We start with our dreams to get our sights towards the highest purpose - the North Star. After that, we build a roadmap to get there by taking many small steps along the way. 

A service to all is an great vision. ALL is also an interesting acronym. The more aware we become, as individuals, as a society, the more we seem to love every aspect of life. Aware people respect life and generally act accordingly. As a design principle we could say - Awareness Loves Life. Could that be the meaning of ALL?

Our long lasting archetypal stories are often embedded in religious traditions. That appears to have had good and bad results. But what if we understood these as roadmaps to something better? Old attempts that need adapting for new contexts? Our history shows our capacity for creativeness and destructiveness. So how might we change that? How might we make new roadmaps and refine old ones and then realise the rest of this story as a service for all? 

For me, that's what good design is all about.