Intimate imagination

The most powerful design tool that we have is imagination. How strange, then, that we never see it spoken or written about. After all, it is what allows us to explore design ideas and step into the minds of possible users to picture how they might react to, and act with, the things we design. It is what a designer uses to design.

Imagination is an essential skill, but rarely taught. The following example of imagination in action may help to explain its use.

Start by picturing a person from your main target group. Remind yourself what they want to get out of your design. What will they get in return for spending time and effort on using the thing you’re creating?

Picture them in the context in which they will use your design. Where are they? Are they sitting or walking? What else are they doing? What else is going on around them? Are they in a hurry, or are things proceeding in a leisurely manner? Is the outcome of the interaction important, or is little riding on it?

Now enter into the mind of that person. What might they be thinking? What questions and concerns might they have? What do they already know, or have previous experience of, that is pertinent to the present interaction?

Also consider what was going on right before they started using your product or service. What brought them here? What is likely to be in their minds at this very moment?

As you continue to design in your imagination, there are two excellent questions that you can keep asking:

First, ask what your user needs to do with your designed thing in order to achieve the results they want. Are there sufficient visual clues in your design for them to understand what is required of them? What is there in your design that helps guide them to the next action they need to take?

Second, as you imagine your user successfully performing the required action with your product, ask if your design makes it clear what happened, or even that something happened.

Work through your design in your imagination, step by step, asking these two questions. Think of it as watching a movie in your head with a voiceover. You are picturing what your users will be doing and thinking, as well as how your design will respond. You can pause the action at any time. You can backtrack and try out alternative design solutions.

Can products be designed without this kind of imagination? They can. They often are. When the thoughts and reactions of future users haven't been woven in from the start, you can still click through the result, get from one screen to the next, maybe even finish what you came to do, but it feels like running up a hill instead of down.

And the usual remedies don't remove the need for imagination; they run on it. User testing and analytics don't tell you enough on their own. You still have to picture the person behind the numbers. What did they want, what did they try, what did they make of what just happened?

The most powerful design tool that we have is imagination.