The Role of Doubt in Design

Re:The Role of Doubt in Design by devins on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @05:41PM (#20510472)

Casting such a broad net with the word "doubt" suggests that all questions are argumentative. But in fact, almost none of the questions listed here are necessarily expressions of doubt or the basis for an argument. They are expressions of seeking understanding, which is a designer's job.

A designer who is not a question machine can only ever put lipstick on your product, not really make it better.

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Re:The Role of Doubt in Design by devons on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @07:35PM (#20511157)

Ditto - these are exactly the questions that must be asked, frequently:

> he asked “one of the good ones, or one of the bad ones?” A designer on his team — a “bad one” — asked too many questions. Questions like “Why are we building this now?” “Are we sure this is the right problem to solve?” “Why don’t we approach the problem in a different way?”

Calling those questions 'doubts' just doesn't seem quite correct.

In the best teams I've worked with/on, designers [1] aren't afraid to frequently ask these questions. I have yet to see a case where that's been a problem. Quite the opposite - far too often, there aren't enough deep / 'stupid' questions asked, especially at the outset & middle of projects.

[1] and everyone else on the team

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