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4 Meanings of Design

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Design is a plan to create something. This comes from the Latin designare meaning "to mark out" or "designate." Design is the basic process whereby humanity creates the future by progressing from imagination to plan. The following are the common meanings of design.
Design thinking - to solve everyday problems by creating things such as a process, procedure, standard or principle.
Experience design - designing things that people use or experience such as a mobile app.
Structural design - planning the architecture of physical things such as buildings or intangible things such as software.
Visual design - to create visual artifacts and compositions for products, services and environments.

Misconceptions

It is common to assume that design is visual. Design applies to anything created by people including engineering, software, fashion, architecture, interiors, environments, landscapes, research, experiments, processes, procedures, standards, communications, media and games. These may or may not include a visual element but are seldom completely visual.
It is common to assume that you need to be a designer to design. In fact, everyone is a designer and most people will design many things in a year. As such, it is in everyone's interests to learn about design approaches such as design principles. Design education could be a basic subject in school and probably will be at some point in the future when education systems catch up to the realities of post-industrial life and work.
Overview: Design Meaning
Type
Definition (1)
A plan to create something.
Definition (2)
The portion of value creation between imagination and plan.
Etymology
From the Latin designare meaning "to mark out" or "designate."
Related Concepts

Design Theory

This is the complete list of articles we have written about design theory.
Design
Design Meaning
Design Theory
Minimalism
Modernism
New Complexity
Postmodernism
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Design Theory

A list of design theories that are potentially useful.

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The definition of context with examples.

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A general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem.

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