Is the pen mightier than the keyboard?

Is the act of writing better for the designer than typing? Is it important to engage in the physical act of writing either old school (with pen on paper) or stylus on a tablet? hummmm ….

I guess you could say that this fellow is thinking, right? Design Thinking is the process of thinking creatively and coming up with innovative ideas to solve problems, while Design Doing is the process of implementing those ideas you've come up with during the Design Thinking process.

Writing is an invaluable tool for exercising our cognitive faculties. Extensive and diverse research has suggested links between writing and mental capacities in such domains as memory, critical thinking, creativity, verbal skills, and overall health. Just like with writing, you have to figure out which ideas work and which don’t, and which need to be better communicated. In writing you have to make your thoughts as cohesive as possible so as to make SURE that everyone can understand them - with design your visual interface must be obvious.

One of my mantras about writing is that writing is thinking. Writing is the expression of an idea. As we write, we try to capture an idea on the page, but in the act of that attempted capture, it's likely (and even desirable) that the idea will change.

I do this each time I write a new POST, I start the review and revise, review and revise and then finally ‘aha’ I know I have achieved my final thoughts (as clear as I can).

During this process I know that I am exercising my brain to learn to think more directly as well as to come up with new ideas/concepts.

Graphic Design is a Literary Discipline - Brian LaRossa, amongst other attributes, Mr. LaRossa participates in Adobe’s Type Advisory Council. He said - I propose that this important learning tool should continue to be important in the adult and all the more important in the designer - why?

Because clarity of what the problem is and who the audience is as always, is paramount, therefore in branding and marketing, a strong written component can differentiate a design by creating a unique tone and voice. Words are an integral part of the user experience and can significantly impact how a design is perceived and the action it prompts the audience to take.

Here Mr. LaRossa points out another important component of what writing can do for the designer - the additional quotient of ‘words’ being part of the necessary elements in design solutions, and practicing to ‘come up with’ and/or decide about their interpretation, is also on the desk of today’s designers.

So is writing better for the brain than typing as we do on a laptop?

To type or "tap", your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, and ‘cross-talk’ between brain areas, to write than type. Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. “Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning”, by Jonathan Lambert. May 11/2024 (NPR).

Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning - by Charlotte Hu - Feb. 21/2024. “Handwriting notes in class might seem like an anachronism as smartphones and other digital technology subsume every aspect of learning across schools and universities. But a steady stream of research continues to suggest that taking notes the traditional way—with pen and paper or even stylus and tablet—is still the best way to learn, especially for young children. Those writing by hand had higher levels of electrical activity across a wide range of interconnected brain regions responsible for movement, vision, sensory processing and memory. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that has many experts speaking up about the importance of teaching children to handwrite words and draw pictures.”

I conclude here with my most important 2 tips - 1. writing, taking notes (and sketching) makes me a much better listener, scribe and discerner of ideas. - 2. always carry a small notebook and pen, it’s not that you don’t know when you might need it, it is because you will always need it.

So at your next cocktail party or dinner with friends, writing on your napkin might be where your next epiphany will be documented.