
The design process takes aim at all aspects of a product or project. It is an important, all-encompassing process that can determine the success of the product. Some leaders have become very well known for their approach to the design process, including Frank Gehry. His process is explored here in this article from UX Design.
Frank Gehry is universally recognised as one of the greatest architects in the modern era. This article isn’t about ‘design thinking’ i.e the process made popular by IDEO and Stanford d.school but rather the thinking processes that guide a world-class designer. It’s about the mindset that Frank Gehry employs when trying to solve problems. The authors refer to this as having a design attitude
A Design Attitude
“He approaches each new project with a desire to do something different than he has done before and to experiment with materials, technologies and methods in his quest”
While working with Gehry the authors identify a real difference between the way Gehry sought to solve problems and how traditional managers reliant on default solutions approach problem-solving.
A design attitude entails problem-solving while absorbing a broad range of alternatives, a lot of the times well outside the field or industry. For example, to get the curves right for the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Gehry employed aerospace engineers and used software developed for the aerospace industry to get it just right. Steve Jobs another infamous design thinker didnt look to the retail industry when it came to designing the Apple stores, instead, he asked himself where do people like hanging out. And the answer was the lobby of 5-star hotels. So he put his staff through the Four Seasons training program to find out why. One of the answers was the hotel concierge, someone who was friendly to talk to and who could answer your questions. Hence the Genius Bar at Apple stores.
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