1. How did you begin working in the wonderful world of design?

My parents have always been extremely supportive. I’m privileged enough to have grown up in household that gave me access to personal computers at a young age. I spent entire days customizing our Windows machine to mimic the look and feel of Mac OS to the finest detail, much to my parent’s chagrin. I taught myself how to design my own icons and user interface styles. I ended up becoming very active in the GUI community of the late 90s/early 00s.

After school hours, I started taking on small freelance jobs designing business cards and flyers for whomever needed them. I learned how to make money doing what I love, and landed my first real design job at the Netherlands Cancer Institute There, I was responsible for designing patient trial systems, and electronic patient registration interfaces. After I learned I could apply design to anything, I got my MA in interaction design, while working mainly in advertising to advance my aesthetic skills.

2. What is the purpose of design?

To me, the purpose of design is contributing positively to society, in large or small scale efforts. All of us have the ability to improve systems, solve problems, or create something from a blank slate. Everybody designs, and we do it both consciously, and subconsciously.

3. How would you describe the intent (mission) behind Honor’s design? What core problem are you trying to solve? What experience are you trying to create?

Honor helps our parents and grandparents age in the comfort of their own home. We do this by employing the best caregivers, and designing a wide variety of tools that make the caregiving process more enjoyable, efficient, and transparent for everyone involved. We focus as much on designing a better experience for people receiving care as we do on the people delivering care. This approach is intentional, balanced, and design-first. Our audiences are vastly diverse in age and background, which necessitates a radical approach to achieve a deep understanding of the people we design for. It requires us to be as critical about how we design as we are about what we design.

4. What’s one thing you believe about design that most others don’t?

I believe that design can be applied to improve many intangible factors that would normally fall outside of the designer’s traditional responsibility. I often am excited to see folks on my team come back with proposals that suggest improvements to the way we operate rather than proposing interface patches or an ad campaign. Building environments where designers can flourish, elevating in-house design teams to operate at the same level as say, engineering and marketing, is crucial to the advancement of the discipline.

5. What key problems are often overlooked by design?

The path to becoming a designer is a path of privilege.

Many people who can call themselves designers today have had access to opportunities that many others won’t have in their lifetime. As designers, we tend to solve problems that are within our immediate reach of life experience. There is an abundance of problems that effect immense audiences of underrepresented people. Entire industries that have been untouched by high quality design and technology. That’s why its imperative for designers to stay in touch with what’s happening in the world around us, and to step out of our comfort zone to learn how to bring our talent to unexplored territories.

6. What is the most difficult thing about design?

I think there are many difficult things about design — it’s hard for me to distill design challenges to a unique problem. Gaining seniority as a designer often means you start seeing flaws in everything around you. You start noticing that the system you’re designing for is subject to many flaws. And the system that system sits in has even more flaws, because ultimately everything has been designed by others that may not have been as intentional about their choices. You need to learn how to rationalize inevitable imperfections — if not, you often end up questioning life, the universe, and everything. Knowing which battles to pick and where your focus can deliver most impact will always be difficult.

7. When is design “done”?

When you feel like it ;)

8. What does the future of design look like to you?

I’m slightly concerned by it. I hope we’ll collectively put less effort into designing apps for wi-fi connected salt dispensers or typesetting ads for organizations that make us less safe. I’m fully aware that my perspective is inherently privileged as well, but if we don’t focus on designing better systems for future generations, who will? Design is a discipline that used widely for exploitation — it should be used for positive change and a better understanding of each other’s lives and experiences. As a designer, you’re the gatekeeper.

Thanks for reading ❤

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This series was designed by Vasjen Katro, Visual Designer of Baugasm