Design is hard to define.  It is so many things.  And it is also not a lot of things.  I, honestly, would not know how to begin to define it.  So I am not going to.

What I will say, design is not just to be observed, but it is to be experienced and is an experience.  It is often accompanied by a feeling.  A feeling that whatever it is, it is beautiful and is how it should be.

For me, design is an MC Escher piece and the joy and intrigue I feel.  Design is the Apple Watch and the feeling and awe I am filled with as I explore it.  Design is a perfectly plated dish that was not simply cooked to perfection but arranged just to whet my appetite.  To me that is design.

Design is also the ease with which a wheelchair-bound person can enter a building and reach a certain floor.  It is the smile on my mom’s face as she is able to video chat with her grandkids at the touch of a button.

Design is so many things.  It is all around us.  In fact, it is interlaced into every decision from the new coffee shop owner’s choice of sign typography to the specific shelf the grocer places the can of corn.

There is also bad design.  Sadly there is too much bad design in the world: a wrongly placed ‘Push’ sign on a door meant to be pulled, a website that the rainbow threw up on, or a user interface that simply makes no sense.  These a just few examples, but you know them when you see them.

I am passionate about design for many reasons.  Poor/bad design is one of them.  There are so many poorly executed service experiences, products, and interfaces.  So that is why, design.