5 tricks to help you think like the world’s greatest designers

Look for unique and hidden elements, then combine them with something else.

Twitter is an example of deconstruction. Blogging started in 1994. Over time blogs contained longer posts, pictures, and videos. In 2006, Jack dorsey launched Twitter, which let people express themselves in microblogs. Today, the company is worth more than $13 billion.

Aggregate is the opposite of deconstructing. It is the practice of combining different elements into a whole.

For example, the smartphone is so successful because it aggregates many things. It’s a phone, camera, text messenger, email provider, internet browser, music player, video screen, and source of entertainment.

Combine opposites in an unlikely way.

Coco Chanel was the first fashion designer to design the androgynous look in 1906. She combined straight dresses and pants previously reserved for men. In 1920, Chanel No.5, put her name everywhere.

Chanel desired perfumer Ernest Beaux to make an artificial fragrance as "a woman should smell like a woman and not like a flower.” She also desired the perfume to blur the line between a respectable girl and a seductress.

A cross-pollination between fields and industries leads to innovation in design. The innovative wearable-technology field is the result of cross-fertilization.

Wearable tech advanced when Polar launched the first wire-free heart monitor in 1982. It combined medical equipment, science, industrial design, and technology that became the go-to brand for sports and exercise.

Since then, Fitbit launched its wrist-worn tracker in 2013, and Apple released the Apple Watch in 2014.