about

design philosophy

We are all designers. Sounds like the opening of a TED talk, right? But it is also true. Design is the art of finding the optimal solution within boundaries, whether those are physical materials, time, budget, cognitive limits or biological laws. We constantly make decisions, evaluate and change within constraints; mostly without even being aware of it. However, some of us (especially those involved at a professional level, such as engineers, architects or artists) do that knowingly and systematically.

Whether developing a scientific experimental platform, making a comic, writing a story, preparing a lecture, or recording a multilayer music piece for fun, my process is not linear. It is an iterative process involving goal setting, idea generation, research, prototyping / trial & error and testing.

My process looks like a conical spiral with a crocheted mesh: Iterations continue while the spiral expands and moves upward, feeding on a wide range of inputs from my background and interests: engineering, science, arts, crafts, literature, observations, and experience. Eventually, this leads to a final version where I must choose what stays. Priorities can change depending on the aim, but I usually aim to balance simplicity, clarity, functionality and aesthetics so that the main point doesn't get lost in the noise.

Domain-Specific Design Elements

While the design process is universal, there are different elements of design when it comes to different domains and mediums. You can think of these as separate conical spirals that are part of a global conical spiral (my overall design). Every domain requires the same rigor when it comes to applying design principles and acquiring knowledge. Below are some key design elements for some of my domains; I chose comic and game design as examples because they are usually overlooked compared to other domains such as science, engineering, architecture.

Comic Design

Major Decisions: Panel size, shape, and layout, and image in the panels to control flow, pacing, space, time; combining text and visual for meaning, style…

Knowledge & Skills: comic literacy, visual literacy, storytelling, drawing…

Additional Decisions and Skills for Educational Comics:

Managing cognitive load via style, balancing and choosing the right amount of metaphor and analogies, balancing scientific integrity and compromises…
Critical thinking, subject matter expertise, translating complex data into accessible narratives...
You can check the introduction of the Invisible Wonders Extremophiles where I simplified background art to reduce cognitive load and explained my decisions on how to tell microbiology stories.

Additional Decisions and Skills for Accessible Comics (for blind & visually impaired):

Sensory translation and multi-modal information architecture to ensure the message is accessible through different sensory paths (narration, sound effects, tactile materials, material choice…)
Braille/tactile literacy, audio-description logic, cross-modal association…
You can check the detailed design process for making my comics accessible on the portfolio page

Game Design

Major Decisions: aim, game mechanics, rules, maintaining the right amount of challenge, character design, narrative, environment, music, sound effects…

Knowledge & Skills: Systems thinking, behavioral psychology, balancing interactive mechanics with narrative progression, math/probability, programming, music, art…

Additional Decisions and Skills for Educational Games:

How the game mechanics relate to learning content (i.e. will the game mechanics be the primary way to interact with the material or serve as a background), how to assess learning…
Subject matter expertise, translating complex topics into accessible modes, teaching and learning design…

Artificial Intelligence

In a world of increasing speed, the ability to process and think deeper is becoming rare. While one can’t deny how our evolution has been intertwined with technological developments, that does not mean we simply hand over all of our (creative) process. We must strive for mindful and ethical use of new technologies, including AI.

How I plan to interact with AI?

collaborative problem solving: how we can partner with AI to provide solutions for the global crises (including decreasing AI's own ecological footprints).
radical personalization: I believe digital technologies and AI are especially valuable to make the world more accessible to everyone; from allowing disabled people to playing instruments to personalized learning for individual needs.
rapid prototyping: using AI to help with some elements of prototyping may save us time to focus on more important aspects of design
remote experimenting