Design Is Inevitable

In one of my discussions with a friend I mentioned that, irrespective of the domain, I am spending more and more time on the design. Which made my friend wonder if we could skip designing, thinking that it will reduce the time required to do the task.

Can we eliminate design? I think Douglas Martin’s quote is the perfect answer to this

Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all. Everyone makes design decisions all the time without realizing it ­like Moliere’s M. Jourdain who discovered he had been speaking prose all his life ­and good design is simply the result of making these decisions consciously, at the right stage, and in consultation with others as the need arise.

You need to make a series of decisions to build something. Design is about making these decisions. If made consciously and purposefully, they can help you solve a specific problem. If not, they still happen, but without a focus and end up clashing with each other.

It is a different question if isolating a phase called design is necessary or not. Some might not need it. But design is inevitable, it is better to do it consciously than let it happen.