"I've always wanted to create a really expensive hard-bound coffee table book that outlines 1,234 definitions of design, with large colorful diagrams, pictures, and examples from various creations and industries - all legitimately falling into a unique definition of design. The thought that it could appeal to so many people because it hits such a multitude of professions and contexts in different ways. BTW, I'm calling dibs publicly now, so don't even think of stealing my idea."
"It's strategic and tactical. Buttoned-up and messy. Detailed and conceptual. Sexy and vanilla. Post-it notes? Design. Moodboards? Design. Wireframes? You got it. As words go, it holds infinite meaning from the people who invented it - us humans. In overly simplistic ways, it represents the output. In other more complicated ways, it signifies the methods and the process. It reflects our thinking - our intuition and our exploration."
"I get it. I really do. I've seen "design" slapped on everything from metal tumblers to data architecture plans. But my instinct isn't to walk away from the word. Not at all. It's to hold onto it. To keep fighting for its depth and specificity - even as it keeps stretching into infinity to fit new tools, new contexts, and now, our conversations with AI."
Design appears across many forms, from visual artifacts to purely planned, nonvisual activities. It operates as both noun and verb, strategic and tactical, detailed and conceptual, tidy and messy. Everyday tools like Post-it notes, moodboards, and wireframes qualify as design across professions and contexts. Design represents outputs while also signifying methods, processes, intuition, and exploration. A critique claims the word has become so broad that it lost shape, meaning everything and nothing. The response is to retain the term and advocate for depth and specificity as it stretches to include new tools, contexts, and AI.
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