What you can learn from Edna mode as a designer in 2023
An Introspective into Edna, her design process and design ideologies.
Who is Edna mode?
If you ever watched the Incredibles, you would most likely be familiar with the fashion designer Edna mode. She’s the sole designer of the super suits of Mr. incredible , Elastigirl and Frozone and one of the most loved characters in the Incredible’s franchise.
She’s most known for hating capes, being dramatic and slapping the shit out of Elastigirl in that one scene.
When I watched her as a child, I didn’t think much about her and what exactly she did, (I just thought she was short and cool) but after rewatching the movie as a product designer, I noticed a lot of her interesting approaches and ideologies about design and I thought “Hey, I could write an article about this”
Also before moving forward, I just really want to appreciate the creators of the Incredibles (mainly Brad Bird) for making the effort to actually highlight the work that Edna does as a designer and for creating the most loved designer in the cinematic universe.
The purpose of this article is to accentuate Edna’s design process and her ideologies and really explore how exactly they can be applied to design or more specifically, digital product design in 2023.
Edna’s Design Ideology
First of all, what is a design ideology in this context? A design ideology is a set of values and principles people have about design that forms how they design and what they look for in a design.
Every designer has one, even you I guess.
Design ideologies are subjective to each designer and are formed from design education, experience and personal convictions.
So, by studying Edna’s design ideology, we’re examining what she values in design and what she design should be.
Now lets get to it.
Design should be Progressive
I noticed this ideology of hers when she refused to fix an old suit she made a long time ago and instead chose to design a new suit for Mr Incredible. Her notable words at that time were,
“I never look back darling, it distracts from the now”
Progressive design in this context is simply designing according to new trends and changes in technology.
As Information grows and new technologies enter the market, people’s needs and problems change everyday and thus your designs should change too.
The standard for what is good design is continuously changing according to new discoveries, technology and most of all new needs, especially needs concerning accessibility and inclusion.
Thus, I think its our job as designers of products and technology to stay on top of these trends in technology and continue designing our solutions with those new needs, standards and technologies in mind.
Functionality first
I’m sure we’re all very familiar with this popular design ideology which means to prioritize function over form when designing solutions.
Edna also seems to be a firm believer of this because of her stance on not designing capes in any of her super suits because of how ironically dysfunctional they were,
Beyond her hatred for capes, there are many instances when she’s shows her functionality first principle when especially when designing for other members of the Incredible's family.
She always tailors each suit to the specific needs of the user beyond its visual aesthetics and design.
Design Wide
What is means to “design wide” is to design for every possible circumstance and edge case that the user might experience.
I noticed this design ideology in Edna when she presented Jack Jack’s suit design, she didn’t know any of Jack Jack’s powers so she designed his suit for every possible circumstance.
This is so important because as you conduct user research, not every user group or behavior in your target population can be covered in your research.
So that means that there are various user groups and needs you don’t know the same way that Edna didn’t know about jack jack powers or behavior.
That’s why you should design for every possible edge case or situation a user might experience while using your app, because even though we can’t design for all user groups and needs, we can ensure a smooth experience for all our users as we ideate more ways to include more diverse behavior and needs to our products.
Design should be holistic
“Holistic design goes beyond problem solving to incorporate all aspects of the ecosystem that a product is used in. It is concerned with aesthetics, sustainability, spirituality and other aspects of ‘wants’ rather than ‘needs’.”
— Interaction design foundation
Holistic design to me is designing solutions considering all the interconnected factors in a problem space. You’re not designing on island, you’re designing for every possible factor and stakeholder involved.
Here’s an example of what holistic design would be,
Imagine you’re solving a problem on improving focus while studying, one option would be to design an application with a reward system which would incentivize focused studying, another approach however would be to be to consider time and task management.
Time and task management aren’t directly related to focused studying but they are an external factor that could affect focus, thus we need to consider that when designing holistically.
So when did Edna design holistically?
When she was designing a suit for Jack Jack who has multiple powers, she designed a customized suit AND a device for tracking and understanding the baby when he was acting up.
She wasn’t hired to design a suit for Jack Jack , but she understood a need to solve his problem; his family needed a way to monitor him. So, she did it anyway.
That’s holistic design. Going over and beyond to fully solve a problem.
Edna’s Design Process
Okay, so the next thing we’re going to be covering is Edna’s design process, what’s the first thing she does when she starts designing? How does she define the design direction? Does she do user research?
Let’s find out :)
First, Observe
This is the first thing she did when tasked with designing a suit for Jack Jack was to ask him to show her his powers, which didn’t go so swell for her as you can see, but regardless she was able observe and understand him enough to start designing a suit for him.
Second, Define
After research the next thing you need to do is define what your strategy is, what design principles are you using?, how are you going to solve the problem?, which user needs should you prioritize? Stuff like that.
Edna did this when designing a suit for Mr Incredible, she probably already knew about his powers and his specific user needs (because she had designed for him before) so the next thing she did was to define the design direction and cancel capes.
Third, Sketch
Yes, Edna sketches first, and so should you.
She often sketches her designs based on her notes and observations from research before bringing her prototypes into higher fidelity, which I assume helps her define and explore various design ideas before settling on a final design.
Finally, Presents
I recently learnt (the hard way) how important good communication and presentation skills are to being a designer, so its imperative that I include this part of her design process.
Edna is a great presenter and often presents her design in such a dramatic but simple way so that any of her clients or stakeholders can understand the problems she was tackling and how exactly she solved it with her design.
Good presentation and communication can also help your team understand the direction of the product better, easily collaborate and contribute to the design of the project and identify potential flaws and faults in your design.
I think the power of good communication in a designer is something we don’t talk about enough, because we’re so focused on portfolio reviews, visual design heuristics and landing that “dream job” that we forget to talk about what actually happens when you do get that job.
But that’s a story for another day.
Overall Edna is by far one of the best designers I’ve ever watched and i hope to have the pleasure of watching more designers represented in the future.
I loved how Pixar spared no expense to show us her design process in the most fun and comedic way. The only part of her design process I wish we got to see is how she actually tested her designs and how she iterated during designing, but beggars can’t be choosers I guess.
Thank you for reading (for those of you who read) and I hope you learnt a little more about Edna and a lot more about good design from this article.
Till next time.
