What is design?

A classmate of mine recently asked about using my personal portfolio as a template to build his own portfolio. He asked me an interesting question: "How can I get better at design?" which prompts the thought - What is design really?

To me, I see design as the intersection of practicality, beauty, and interaction. The aethesthic beauty of a well-designed product or web-page should be conducive to its praticality and the way a user might interact with the page or product.

Conversely, the way in which a user interacts with a product can be beautiful and aethestically pleasing to watch in its own way. Through both of these qualities, the frequency and overall utility of the product with regards to the user is increased.

In regards to designing a web page, I tend to take inspiration from products I use often where the design leads my interactions to be positive and reoccuring experiences. At the time the Windows 8 theme on my family's laptop was a common experience that I went through daily. It became the basis of my design for the portfolio with the color pallete inspired by Google's flat pastel hues.