Have you ever wondered how in the world a design or a solution speaks to you loudly? For example, while you are at REI, shopping for a hat. You trial several hats, but there is one that flawlessly sits on your head. It is so timely that it feels like magic. You start wondering how you made so far in life without one. This is what good design feels like!
Underneath that magical feeling the form is shaping into context. The form being the hat and the context being the shopper with specific needs.
But you magically do not arrive at context while solving for problems. You have to seek context in order to genuinely solve problems. You have to look up and notice things around you. You have to investigate. This is what Christopher Alexander (author of A Pattern Language) meant—the form fits the context.
Context provides detail that you cannot find otherwise. Spotlighting our REI example again—if the product team did not account for outdoor features such as brim design that shields the face and neck from UV rays, it might not attract the right customer. Aesthetics alone won't cut it. Context is where you find nuances and information.
There must be feedback loop between form and context. You have to embody discovery and research at both quantitative and qualitative level. Talk to users and your customers. The more you collide with reality, the faster you will get feedback. You will reach velocity that you can be satisfied with.
Then after you can mold the form. You can fine tune your design and observe whether the context fits the form (not the other way around, i.e., starting with form first). This is when good design feels good and results in happy feeling.
Collaborate with context.
Observe the context.
Don't fight it.
Form mental models based on the observation.
But turn off your confirmation bias.
Don't observe with a solution in mind.
And you will form an understanding of the problem.
New information will flow.
But more questions will rise.
Ask those questions.
Do not fear of looking stupid.
The more you do, the easier it gets to find form.
And this is when form meets the context.
It results in good design…
…which creates magical feeling, my friend!