Seeing Differently: Reframing the way you observe design

Seeing Differently is inspired by questions we ask ourselves in the Morrama studio. Each card carries a question nudging you to challenge your view point, open your mind and see things a little differently. The cues are as follows:

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1: Take a product, how would you describe it in three words?

We often refer to ourselves as storytellers. As a designer if you can conjure up a product with a sentence in a way that people can immediately understand, then they are 100 x more likely to give you useful feedback or join you on the journey. That sentence is effectively your first prototype. Your first opportunity to get your product out into the world. It’s also what you aim to communicate with the final product. How would you describe the products you can see? Do you think that is what the designer intended?

2: Use the viewfinder to focus in on a detail you had previously overlooked. 

As Dieter Rams put it: good design is thorough down to the last detail. Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Whilst many of these details go unnoticed, the attention and care paid to the design as a whole comes across. However, we should avoid perfectionism for its own sake, especially if it adds time, cost or complexity to a product. Consider what details you could remove in a design without impacting the experience.

3: Sketch the object (In front of you) in 15 secs.

When sketching a product quickly, you draw only what stands out first, key shapes, proportions, or defining features. This reveals the object's most distinctive qualities, highlighting its core identity and what makes it memorable. The iPod, Eames lounge chair, and original Braun shaver could all be captured in a quick sketch. The simplicity of form and absence of distraction is what makes them iconic. 

4: Find something you don't like. Ask a stranger if they agree or disagree. 

Often people don’t know what they want until they see it, but they certainly know what they don’t want when they see it. As designers we aim to take the subjective and make it objective; we want to please everyone, make things work for as many people as possible. However you can end up making a product so utilitarian and devoid of personality that it's used but never loved. 

5: After your visit, what is the one thing that you still keep thinking about?

Sometimes design demands no attention at all. Sometimes its role is to challenge us and leave us thinking. Neither is necessarily better than the other, but in the context of an exhibition we should be left with something to take away and share. Something learned, observed or questioned. Does the act of narrowing all you observed down to a single object tell you more about the object or about yourself? 

These cues gave us a chance to engage with others at Milan, sparking conversations and often becoming the starting point for debate within our own team. We hope these cards take on a life beyond Milan, encouraging designers to challenge how they interact with both products and people, and inspiring new ways of thinking about design.

A special thanks to Moo for printing the cue cards, and to Batchworks for their playful paperclip that brought it all together.

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If you’re curious to learn more about Seeing Differently or are interested in collaborating with the Morrama design team on a project, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch!