Design is not a formula, it’s an odyssey: replacing the Double Diamond

Double-Diamond and Design Thinking are inaccurate. There’s a better way to think about process.

Much has been written about the practice of Design, largely in service to the idea that it’s a process.

Many books have been written about the subject, for example, each spending multiple chapters elucidating to the reader via tales of well-planned structures that help Design run like clockwork. “This is the way the Design process was meant to work,” they’ll say.

Meanwhile, Medium itself is a haven for “Design Process” articles, listicles, and opinion pieces. Any person who’s been in the industry of Design for a few years will no doubt have been asked to adhere to some Process that’s been informed by a viral Medium post shared by Kevin Rose. “This is the way the Design process was meant to work,” they’ll say.

Here’s the truth of the matter, from somebody who has been doing Design for well over 25 years: Design is not a Process, it’s an Odyssey. It is not a rigid structure with steps to follow, but a path you discover along the way with dangers, villains, and wisdom to be gained, and you often wind up right back where you started.

Allow me to explain.

Double Diamond, Design Thinking, and the Illusion of Structure

The most popular Process applied to Design is “Double Diamond.” You’ll find Medium, as always, is ripe with articles championing the original Double Diamond methodology, as well as updates to Double Diamond. Here’s a thought-provoking Medium article entitled The New Double Diamond Design Process is Here. Please feel free to read and absorb it. But, of course, I’ll summarize:

1. The original Double Diamond model, proposed in 1996, attempted to define how Designers worked.
2. It was an attempt to resolve the notion that there was no actual Design process, that Design was a chaotic mess.
3. A new model has been illustrated to reflect how modern Design, born of a computer-driven technology age, ought to work.
4. The only part that is fundamentally agreeable is this line: Design is not a linear process.

Double Diamond