Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/the-cord-the-fog-and-the-stick-design-as-a-balancing-act-9faf771cc0eb?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Vincent Baas 
<h4>How design is many things, but above all the balance between them</h4>
In the past years I learned more and more about what design is and what role it plays in my work. So in my second blog in my short career as a blogger it is time to reflect on what I have experienced. Over the years design has been named a great many things: art, business change, giving meaning to new technologies, but above all: making great things for people. However, I feel that it is all of these things, but none in particular.
<blockquote>I feel that it is all of these things, but none in particular. What design is to me is a continuous balancing act between these things.</blockquote>
Instead, what design is to me is a continuous balancing act between these things. A perfect metaphor for this is slacklining: walking on a tightrope while always being in danger of falling off. Let me dive into this metaphor in three parts: the cord, the fog, and the stick.
<h4>The cord</h4>
First, let’s look at design as if it were the rope you’re walking on: it goes up and down, it swings left and right, but you have no way to exactly know where it will go. In itself the cord is a wicked problem: continuously changing and adapting as you move along. As you change one thing in your design, three other things may change as well. This continuous change and balance is the ambiguity that is natural to a design project.
<blockquote>As you change one thing in your design, three other things may change as well. This continuous change and balance is the ambiguity that is natural to a design project.</blockquote>
So the only thing you can do is trust your senses: feel, listen, and look what’s happening and try to make sense of what is happening around you. And that’s what designers do: observing and making sense of the complex tightropes that are modern-day design challenges.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Ir4O-hPOkMMX8a4YUuStnw.jpeg">Design is like walking on a tightrope: continuously changing without knowing exactly where it will go (Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/flEStjHTY14?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Leio McLaren</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/search/photos/leio-mclaren-balance?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>)
But if the cord were the only thing that mattered it would just be a straight walk to the finish. As you might know from practice: it never is. That’s where the fog comes in.
<h4>The fog</h4>
Imagine you’re still on the tightrope, but now a thick fog has formed around you you, blocking your view in any direction. Now you can no longer see how deep you will fall if you make a wrong step, neither can you see where you’re going. But standing still is no option either, because in that case you will fall for sure. Design is like this: balancing on a cord into the foggy unknown. You know have to cross the chasm without knowing where you’re going.
<blockquote>Design is like balancing on a cord into the foggy unknown.</blockquote>
Only by moving into the fog you will get to discover the route along the way. A while ago <a href="http://www.peterhinssen.com">Peter Hinsen</a> visited our KLM Digital Studio, and he explained that we were part of the 1% of KLM that has no clue where we’re going, the only thing we know is that we’re going somewhere. And that’s what designers do as well: move into the fog with confidence. The thing helping you through the fog is not fearing failure and experimentation. When you look for ways to experiment you might fall off sometimes, but by then you will have learned how to better keep your balance and prevent falling off next time.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*RCS5TG_MmAFsbEIU1Jj4bg.jpeg">Into the foggy unknown: no clue where you’re going, but you have to keep moving (Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/sqKJxvLue3Q?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Cédric Servay</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/search/photos/fog?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>)
So by now we’re moving into the unknown on a moving cord. Here we definitely need something to help us keep our balance.
<h4>The stick</h4>
Like a circus artist designers may decide to use a stick for balance while standing on the rope. Imagine your business stakeholder on the one end of the stick, and your target user on the other. Or your own well-crafted, optimal solution on one side and the poor developer who is under pressure to build things quickly on the other. Which one is more important? Which one prevails? Well, one thing is certain: if you don’t balance both, you will fall for sure.
<blockquote>One thing is certain: if you don’t satisfy both, you will fall for sure.</blockquote>
That’s why a great many design theories and models are represented as Venn-diagrams: a balance between factors that may seem impossible to combine at first. Among them is of course the good old desirability, feasibility and viability mantra. But how do you deal with those factors while using your stick for balance? Luckily, physics offers us a great tool for this: torque, or better known as the relation between force and distance. If one side carries more weight (e.g. you value your user’s opinion more than satisfying your boss’ opinion), you might need to make it more important and shift your balance a bit more to that side. Or can you work a bit harder and use more force to keep the balance anyway?
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*xO-sVlzp7TA5AUH92ZMB8A.jpeg">Using a stick for balance will help you conquer the toughest design problems (Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/BFJBY5a1b5w?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Juan Jose</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/search/photos/stick?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>)
Like understanding physics, design requires understanding. Once you know the things that impact your balance, you know the playing field and you’ll know when hit that sweet spot between all those factors. This is the point where you find your balance.
So I think the tightrope can be seen as a metaphor for what design is: a continuous balancing act between opposing forces while walking on a tightrope into the unknown.
There are three things you need as a designer to handle this: 1) ways to deal with ambiguity (the rope), 2) absence of fear (the fall), and 3) great understanding of balance (the stick). These things require confidence in knowing you’ll get there somehow and that you just have to have the courage to try.
Practice makes perfect: a young cord dancer will fall many times from a rope just above the ground before graduating towards longer, higher ropes. So with the help of our balancing stick you’ll learn to move into the unknown unafraid of failure.
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/the-cord-the-fog-and-the-stick-design-as-a-balancing-act-9faf771cc0eb">The cord, the fog and the stick: Design as a balancing act</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The cord, the fog and the stick: Design as a balancing act

How design is many things, but above all the balance between them

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