Design for the Analytically Minded

I am not a designer.  But I’ve learned a lot about design, and I’ve grown to love it.

I’m probably your poster child left-brainer.  I went to Wharton and worked as a fund manager, managing investments for pension funds, central banks, foundations, and hedge funds.  I’ve also been writing software since I was eleven, and today, I’m responsible for the technology that runs Gracious Style.

“Designer” was simply never something I imagined myself to be.  Yet, over the last twelve years of working at Gracious Style, I’ve learned a lot about design.  This knowledge of design has opened up my eyes, and  I have a better appreciation of people and culture because of it.  It has also helped me in my other professional endeavors.  From software to real estate development, I can now see that success often hinges on better design.

I think — I know — that there are a lot more people like me out there.  We’re not professional designers, but we innately appreciate good design, even if it’s in the form of a well-crafted deal or a well-designed app.  We’d like to know more about design, but in that structured, top-down, ask-all-the-questions way of ours.

So today I’m starting a new series, “Design for the Analytically Minded,” to share with you how one finance/technology person learned design, what it’s taught him, and why it’s opened his eyes to the world.

– Si Chen


Comments

2 responses to “Design for the Analytically Minded”

  1. Dear Si Chen,

    Nice message you’re getting across, even though it struck me that you started off too many sentences with ‘I’…
    But you’re still young and for a left brainer that must be very easy to handle!
    Wishing you good luck with your next 12 years of design and who knows there will be a great writer in the making as well.
    Sincerely,
    Mariette

  2. Thank you for your comments! “I” will watch the usage more carefully in the future.