Author Archives: Behzod

Design as a Literacy

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“The journey is more important than the end or the start.” 

I first heard these words when I was 13, but the message has become increasingly more valuable as I’ve grown up: focus on process, not just the product.

One of the biggest problems I’ve seen in my own schooling, as well as in the American education system, is that the emphasis is reversed. Too often students are focused on (and encouraged to focus on) having the right answer, regardless of how they get there. In reality, life has few “right answers” and many unsolved problems.

I can’t fix the American education system with a simple idea, a set of lessons, or a whole new set of curriculum, and I’m not trying to. But I do believe that students, schools, and, ultimately, society would benefit from teaching and practicing the design process as a way of thinking as it encourages intentionality, dialogue, and reflection. In fact, for most schools, this wouldn’t even be a massive shift, as many schools already teach the writing process, which is the design process as practiced within a specific domain.

Although the “design process” differs depending on who you talk to, there are a few key elements:

  • Ideation
  • Creation
  • Iteration
  • Reflection
  • Production 

The writing process, as it is commonly taught, involves similar elements:

  • Brainstorming
  • Prewriting 
  • Drafting 
  • Editing 
  • Publishing

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Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge that neither of these processes are linear. They are both messy, cyclical, and have feedback as well as iteration based on that reflection as a key part of the process’ success. Furthermore, this is not a suggestion to teach the design process instead of the writing process, it is a suggestion to teach the design process before the writing process, and continue to help students integrate it into their way of thinking.
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In both of these processes, the first step often involves identifying the constraints of the object to be produced (e.g. “Who is my audience?” “What type of object am I creating?” “What resources do I have to work with?”). From there, a basic artifact is produced that roughly addresses the goals, though perhaps not in the best way. Then, the object and its producers (and hopefully peers) undergo an iterative process of evaluating the designed object, identifying elements that are successful about the object (in hopes of keeping them in subsequent iterations), and identifying elements that are less successful (in hopes of improving upon them). This part off the process is perhaps the most important, as the ability for an individual to step aside from their work and embrace other perspectives (whether self-imposed or brought on by others) is crucial to the development of the work. This cycle of evaluation and evolution is often repeated until either the timeline for the project ends or a object is declared “finished” by the creators, and thus is produced.

While there are many benefits that the design process has over the writing process, some of the most important are that the design process can be applied to any situation, because it asks for the individual to make intentional decisions about a desired outcome based on a set of constraints (e.g. “What do I cook for dinner?”, “What do I wear today?”, “How do I talk to one of my colleagues about an obstacle that we’ve come across on this project?”). Although the writing process does much of this, it does it only in one context, and rarely, if ever, do schools have a conversation about how this process can be abstracted and applied to more broadly.

Everything in the world we experience is designed in some way. Some things are well-designed. Some things are under-designed. Some things are poorly-designed. But at some point, individuals made decisions that resulted in the products and experiences that all of us have. By teaching the design process and the practice of reflection and iteration, we are encouraging individuals to identify in what situations, and how, they have agency or control over an outcome, and to exercise that agency in an intentional way.

Good design is not necessarily about making “beautiful” things. Good design is about creating value within a set of constraints.

As a final note, I do want to acknowledge that I see the design process as a foundational way of thinking, because design is neither a spice you can add in at the end of a project, nor is it a “ cookbook to guarantee a given outcome at a certain date.”

“How not to die”

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“Unwanted treatment is American medicine’s dark continent. No one knows its extent, and few people want to talk about it. The U.S. medical system was built to treat anything that might be treatable, at any stage of life—even near the end, when there is no hope of a cure, and when the patient, if fully informed, might prefer quality time and relative normalcy to all-out intervention.”

There is so much to say about this article, and I will definitely return to this post and add more thoughts, but in my mind, unwanted treatment is perhaps the single most disgusting example of capitalism there is, where ridiculous costs and treatments are heaped upon dying individuals and their families even when trained professionals know that these treatments will have so little of an effect they are useless.

I would wish that we may all die surrounded by our loved ones, floating away in the warmth of their presence, rather than the cold, dry air of a hospital, though I am not so naive.

Teen Night Out with Greg Nissen and the Blue Scholars

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The past few months for me have involved a lot of reading and paper writing, so I was pretty excited when my friend Greg Nissen told me he was coming up to Seattle for the day on Friday and asked if I wanted to hang out and shoot some photos. Greg is a super talented kid that I met through the Internet thanks to Drew Levin. He’s been doing great work up and down the West Coast, with his work for Seattle hip hop artist Macklemore receiving the most acclaim. But Greg is a really centered person and we had some great talks about mindfulness practice and meditation amidst our walk this past Friday.

We met up at Glazer’s in Seattle since he was picking up some film developer, then quickly headed down to the market to find some interesting characters to shoot. While Greg will likely have a whole roll of film of unique individuals, I was mostly enjoying the sun and watching Greg work. After we walked around for a bit, we headed to the Seattle Art Museum to hang out with Geo since the Blue Scholars were playing at SAM’s “Teen Night Out,” an event that happens three times a year and exposes students from the greater Seattle area to a range of arts. It was awesome to see high school students so excited about art and asking great questions of Geo and others about the significance of different art pieces and periods of art history. Below are some photos from the walk with Greg, as well as two gif’s I made from my photos of Geo getting the crowd excited during their short performance at the end of the night.

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Mentors were the Original Google Search

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking and writing a lot about my life, both since reflection (and meditation) is a part of my daily routine, but also because I’ve been applying to fellowships and PhD programs and need to paint vivid pictures of myself for the committees that will read my applications. While some of what I write is about work I’ve done previously, places I’ve traveled, or what motivates me, a tremendous amount of what I end up discussing is the people who have helped me get to where I am today – my mentors.

This past Thursday, my sister and I were fortunate to be invited over to spend thanksgiving with a close friend of mine and his family, since our own parents are down in Florida. While this family has been very welcoming to me since graduation and my semi-orphanhood in Seattle, conversing with them over dinner made me realize that they didn’t know much about my parents. My sister ended up sharing a lot about our upbringing and diverse family situation, and in listening to her, I realized that we have a very similar perspective about how our parents influenced our lives, both emotionally and intellectually. It was also clear (to me at least) that both of our parents have a teaching background and often guide or mentor us through our experiences rather than just give us information that we need. This new insight helped me realize why I find myself so drawn to many of my teachers, as they help me in the same ways that I get help at home.

Aside from my parents, I have been quite blessed with the teachers and mentors that I have had throughout my life, from the elementary school teachers that helped other students pronounce my name correctly, to my Willamette family, many of whom invited me into their own families for holidays and celebrations. All of these people have been willing to walk alongside me in my journey, allowing me to fall with the understanding they would be right there to help me get myself back up. They were the ones always ready to take my questions, often answering them with a series of questions to help me reason my way to an answer, or at least find the path to where I needed to go. They were the the ones who, in those dire situations, helped re-orient me. This has been true in my academic life, in my years of drumming, in photography, and in any sport I have played. The human connection and compassion that helps us lead others in the right direction is incredibly powerful.

Every day that I step into my own classroom, I reflect on the role that my mentors have played in my life and the way I turn to them when I most need something. Recently, when I was explaining the connection I have with my parents and mentors to a friend, I told him that they were like Google for me – they help me filter away the less important stuff and bring only what is most relevant or useful to the surface.

Thank you to everyone who has walked with me on my journey, especially when neither of us knew where we were going.