Designing for kindness

The Pandemic has been a traumatic experience for us all physically and mentally. As a society, we’ve experienced a storm of emotions throughout 2020 and 2021. Often felt simultaneous, these emotions reflected the volatility and uncertainty of a world in flux.

The emotional plurality experience has created a rise in emotional burnout. As COVID medical innovation advances are speeding us back into normality, we are now ready to heal and embrace the new normal.

The design has always played a big part in our lives and is a true thermometer of the emotional state of the mass. What makes the design more powerful is that it can act as a medicine. A good design can change the state of our emotions to fulfil our new emotional needs, even if it’s just for a moment.

As designers, we have high emotional sensitivity to our surroundings and intelligence which allow us to create products that are relevant and make a positive impact in our society.

Our emotional intelligence stems from kindness to create something that is pleasing for the consumers. Looking back on my own journey as a designer, what drove me wasn’t the aesthetic side, it was problem-solving through design for people’s needs and knowing the designs I create can make a positive impact on the emotions on a macro scale for consumers. It was always about the people!

We are ready to heal as a society, our creativity starts with kindness to bring joy into people’s lives by creating the right solution to current emotional needs. This is important more than ever as the past 18 months has impacted negatively on our emotional wellness.

It’s the time for creatives to lead the healing through kind designs and drum up our natural skills to design what people need rather than want.

Designs have always been consumer centric and we’ve always cared about people. It’s taken a pandemic for me to define this clearly! A good design is kind and this is a new KPI for a successful design.

The kindness KIP is not just about the people but also for the planet as the designers are able to make a bigger impact on suitability by re-thinking the design process and by weaving the suitability into the products we create.

Most of us have re-established the new priorities for our lives and while the relevant data is emerging, to spear ahead into the new kind of world, I believe this is where the creatives can show the ways for the new consumer mindset and pivot the business quickly to match our new normal.