When Design Hits Different

I started my design internship this summer. I chose it over a development one, even though I’m a computer science and tech student, because I've kinda fallen for the work designers do.

There are tons of kinds of design; even just in software, the specialties are wild. It's not just about drawing buttons on screens. Personally, I'm into the user experience (UX) side of things.

Unlike any code I’ve written, design creates emotions. And those emotions can actually be predicted and measured, to a point. The design process is about decisions: what people do, how they do it, and how info is structured. The wild part is you’re making these abstract choices before writing a line of code or mocking up a UI.

Designing experiences

When you design experiences, you can change the world. Like, actually. One big thing is dignifying people. Take Uber and Airbnb for example.

Uber gives dignity to taxi drivers (setting aside my takes on the economic side), offering users a whole new idea of what private transport can be. Airbnb redefines how you deal with strangers, and that one’s still low-key blowing my mind.

Like, some random (possibly serial killer) is gonna stay in your house for four days, use your bathroom, cook eggs in your kitchen, chill on your couch. And you might go stay in their house, also a stranger, possibly also a serial killer. How the hell do you get users to feel safe doing that, just through interaction design?

Still think digital design is just picking fonts and colors?