This note by @rnorgan has been hiding in the back of my mind for the last few months.

I am _constantly_ finding flaws in everything. From bad kerning* to door handles... I won't even enter a that shop in downtown SF that uses Comic Sans on their logo. Don't even get me started on café tables with those damned uneven legs.

When I (inevitably) observe these problems in front of others, I feel like a cynic. Why do I always have to fixate on negative things? But then I think about (or maybe even mention) the article, and it makes me think about it in a different way. I'm a designer, and it's my job to make the world better through design. If I can't identify bad design when I see it, how can I avoid it in my own work?

What's your take?

Designers can learn by being passive observers rather than critical ones. There's inspiration everywhere if you know how to look. Firstly, I'd recommend meditation, which encourages passive observation and, more generally, promotes control over sub-conscious thoughts. Secondly, look at how design anthropologists derive inspiration from "everyday design" - the hacks, creations, and adaptations people use to get by. You'll find plenty of ingenuity around you, even if the aesthetics are lacking in the academic sense. Here's a video from Anil Gupta (bit.ly), who explores rural India by foot each year in search of grassroots innovation. At 2:22 he shows rubber tire used as hinges and says, "So low-cost and amazingly simple... Why shouldn't cheap things look nice? We have to change our aesthetics." For more insights, look to the work of design anthropologists Jan Chipchase (janchipchase.com) and Jane Fulton Suri (thoughtlessacts.com).

Is it an ego thing? I feel like pointing out flaws gives one the impression that they know better, and the designer ego feeds off of it.

I also sometimes wonder if it's driven by education. Design school crits are harsh, and maybe continuously watching others get publicly torn down makes designers more likely to see flaws first. I wonder if designers from different educational backgrounds, or those who are self-taught are less likely to fixate on flaws.

@cemre that's an interesting perspective. I spent five years in design school, and crits were (sometimes) pretty brutal. I think there's a difference, though, when you're critiquing a door handle and when you're critiquing a colleague's work. The motives are definitely different.

This clip from Objectified also made a huge impact on me. youtube.com
And it's probably a huge contributor to my attitude towards the 'worldwide crit' I do in my mind every day.

I love me some @rnorgan, but I disagree with about half of what he's saying here. Observational discontent is only one way of putting it in my opinion. Another way of declaring this is that we've been given an inner sense (augmented by training) of what a thing "should" be and when it feels out of kilter or chaotic we want to give it order and make it right.

I will say though that I'm a realist when it comes to design and try to always take everything in stride. If you can't let something slide now so it will be amazing later then you're missing the point. If you can't let something mature over time so that the great design you have in mind can reach a much larger audience, then you're missing the point.

I don't think this is specific to designers.

Any professional who has spent enough time honing their skills should be able to critically view their own work and the work of others. It’s an essential skill. We can only do good things if we can identify bad things.

The next step beyond that is being able to turn it off. Focus on things that matter. Focus on things you can influence. Seeing poor kerning or an uneven margin on train station sign isn’t much good to you if you’re not in position to alter it.

@marc Everything is designed though, which makes all the difference.

I've been joking that designers don't smile because the world is ugly.

But I think there some truth to this. Design is something you see and can touch all the time, so it's hard for a designer to forget. Like for a musician it's hard to listen to music that's bad or off-note. There is different styles, but I think you can feel if something is right or not. (And didn't go to design school).

Badly designed products or environments makes me sad because I feel it's a wasted opportunity. When I was a child, I was wondering why some bikes were cool and others were quite ugly. If they had just painted them with different color or style, they would look much better.

I wish people would care more about the things they do and wouldn't waste things

I'm a product manager rather than a designer, but I've had the opportunity to get usability training from Jared Spool. He taught the valuable technique of critique rather than criticism. The technique he was was that in a critique you are forced to call out the things about a given design or idea you like and then ask questions about whether something was considered as part of the design. For example, "I like that you can control the temperature on this car AC, but did you consider whether someone would know why they have to press the AC button when lowering the temperature?" It's a much more disarming technique than just saying "It's stupid that someone has to also press the AC button when they lower the temperature."

That's a good point when reviewing other people's work, but usually it's hard to contact the person who designed the bad door knob or uneven table :)

It's definitely a more grownup approach though. The passionate way in which designers are used to expressing how there are flaws in everything usually comes off as whiny and immature to non-designers.

I agree with @cemre - it's a design school thing. When your work (literally) gets torn up by tutors and your classmates are (literally) left in tears, it becomes very easily to try and replicate the behaviour of people you admire (i.e. your teachers).

It starts small - after the crit you gossip with your classmates. 'Jeez, Bob really can't kern'. Then on guest lecturers - 'urgh, Carson?'. Before you know it you've graduated and you're still bitching like an 18 year old. Design school instills 'Designer' in you as your sense of identity, and it's hard to not take things personally.

It's also a habit I'm trying really hard to break - instead of ranting about skeuomorphism *again* why don't I go and Make Something Better?