Rule 4: Good Design is Inquisitive

Rule 3 ended with a few questions to stir the mind.  But honestly, good design should START with questions.

• Who's the intended audience?
• Who's the client? (sometimes they're different!)
• What's the intended use?
• What are the desired results?
• Where is it being used?
• Will it need upkeep?
• How is it expected to maintain upkeep?
• Why is it being commissioned?
• How does it work?
• What resources are at the designer's disposal?
• etc
• etc
• etc

The list is endless, but each question has the potential to unveil new things that may make your life easier, give you insight into the project, or completely change your POV about a project.

Ask questions, get answers.  If the client can't answer them, hold their feet to a fire until they have an answer.  If they think it's irrelevant and don't want to answer, just wait.  It'll become relevant enough. 

Ask them of everyone, especially yourself.  If you can't answer, "Why is this particular item here?" in your own designs, then maybe you need to reevaluate your design.  "Because there was no where else to put it," is not a good answer.  Be truthful, be brutal.

Sometimes the question that needs to be asked is, "Is this any good?"  And the hard answer might be, "No."  And then you have to ask yourself, "How do we fix it?" or "Can this be fixed?" or "Is it worth fixing?"

Sometimes the right question will save you an enormous amount of time.

And as a last bit of sanity checking, don't forget to ask questions of your answers. "Does this answer make sense?"  Because not every answer is the right one.