Rethinking Design

Nike recently launched its latest innovation the Nike GO Flyease. It is an innovative shoe that takes on the hands-free shoe to the next level. The shoes can be easily worn and taken off using the flick of their feet. It mimics the way any user puts-on and takes their off shoes when in a hurry. The shoes stretch the boundaries of what design can do. The design understands the user behaviour organically; Hereby not only creating a shoe that becomes desirable to the general population but also which can cater to the needs of people who need shoes without lacing such as pregnant women, a person with chronic back pain, or just a parent with their hands full. The design is inclusive and intuitive.

Needless to say, this design innovation is supported by technical inventiveness to which brings to reality a vision; the vision of a more user-friendly hands-free shoe. However, none of this would have become reality if not for the user. Had the designer not studied user behaviour, they couldn’t have come up with such an intuitive design. An in-depth observation of what the user wants and needs along with understanding their daily subconscious behaviour is central to designing a product with good cognitive ergonomics.

As important as user study is, the design process does not necessarily begin with the user; it begins with inspiration; A purpose. As an aspiring designer of the 21 st century, I look around to see a plethora of products that have been created by innovators and designers of previous years. It seems as if everything that we might ever need has been designed. But what we fail to see we have become so used to certain ideas, that we do not question them anymore. What we take for granted can probably be reinvented for newer times. Just like with the Nike shoes, maybe innovation comes from asking the question what if? Maybe innovation lies in not creating something new but in rethinking the old.