Unpacking exploration

Insights from Jon Kolko, Donald Schön, and Design Academy Eindhoven

I first used the term 'exploration' in 2015 while designing hypothetical UI screens on Dribbble. For me, it described a designer's process of discovering ideas—often wild ones that went far beyond conventional boundaries.

However, I'm not certain if 'exploration' is the standard term widely used with the same meaning I had in mind. Over time, my understanding of exploration has evolved as I've encountered different perspectives.

Exploration can have different expectations: iteration or variation

Jon Kolko, a design professor at The Savannah College of Art and Design, discusses design exploration in his book "Well-Designed". He describes typical types of exploration used when designing digital products:

Two of the most basic principles of design process are iteration and variation. They aren’t the same, but they are related. Iteration is making informed changes to an existing design.¹

Variation is a way of adding a sense of objectivity to design exploration. Variation is an exploration of alternatives. Where an iteration moves an idea forward (or backward), a variation moves an idea left or right, and is not productive in a typical engineering sense because the expectation is that all of the variations (except one) will be rejected. But variations act as provocations for what-if scenarios.²

– Jon Kolko

TAKEAWAY

Before you start design exploration, set expectations. Are you exploring to find different possibilities, or do you want to develop a single idea?

Three approaches of exploration: free roaming, move and see, and elimination

I found another reference in "Reflection in Action," a book by Donald Schön, an MIT professor of urban planning. Schön discusses how professionals like architects and therapists engage in reflective practice while performing their jobs.

From the architect's anecdote, notable similarities exist between product design and architecture. Schön breaks down exploration (or, as he refers to it, experimentation) into three different approaches:

When the practitioner reflects-in-action in a case he per­ceives as unique, paying attention to phenomena and surfacing his intuitive understanding of them, his experimenting is at once exploratory, move testing, and hypothesis testing.³

Exploratory experiment is the probing, playful activity by which we get a feel for things. It succeeds when it leads to the discovery of something there.⁴

– Donald Schön

TAKEAWAY

1. Exploration - Free roaming
Explore without any rules or specific goals. It's about letting ideas come freely and seeing what happens.

This might look like brainstorming sessions where all ideas are welcome without immediate judgment. The goal is to come up with many different ideas.

2. Move Testing – Do and see more to learn about an idea
Take action to see the results. It's about learning by doing and watching what happens next.

This could involve making quick models or mock-ups, testing them, and seeing how they work. Based on what you learn, you make changes and test again.

3. Hypothesis testing – Eliminate to see which one works
Make guesses about what might work, testing those guesses, and then getting rid of the ones that don't work. It's more structured and scientific.

Exploration as experimentation: to test, fail, and see if it works

Often, I experienced impostor syndrome because my ideas failed—people didn't understand what I had designed, or those ideas simply didn't bring the conversions the team expected. I tied this to my belief that my skills weren't good enough.

The truth is, with exploration, you can't predict the results; unexpected outcomes are normal, and failures are part of the process.

Experimentation is the term used at Design Academy Eindhoven to refer to the process when a designer is trying out as many possible options as he sees or finds, usually within the confines of using a certain material, construction or technique, within a (self-)determined framework. It is related to both the thinking and the making process.

In contrast with experimenting in a scientific way, at Design Academy Eindhoven experimenting is a more open process, not restricted by scientific procedures, specific (laboratory) environments, a specific hypothesis that needs testing or a theory that needs to be developed. Instead, experimenting results in a series of designs that can not and should not, in the end, be replaced by theory.

Experimenting involves iterating, repeating design and research activities in slightly different ways to get to different results. Failure is inherent in experimenting because unexpected results are to be expected. If you know what the result of your action will be, it cannot be an experiment. Hence, experimenting favours a very open-ended way of doing research.

This does not mean that experimenting at Design Academy Eindhoven is random.⁵

– Design Academy Eindhoven

TAKEAWAY

Failures are inherent; they're a natural part of exploring unfamiliar territory. Don't automatically attribute them to a lack of skill.

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Here are three ways I can support your growth as a designer:

1. Check out my Substack Notes for quick and free tips.

2. Purchase my book, "The Practice of Design Practice," to adopt mindsets and practical tips on how designers can engage as lifelong learners.

3. Purchase my UI Kit and Design System, Nucleus to level up and accelerate your process. I also share tips, and ideas on Nucleus Substack.

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1. Kolko, Jon. Well-Designed (p. 177). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

2. Kolko, Jon. Well-Designed (p. 178). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

3. Schön, Donald. Reflective Practitioner. (p.154)

4. Schön, Donald. Reflective Practitioner. (p.152)

5. Design Academy Eindhoven | Experiment