Design (as a verb: to design) is the intentional creation of a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process.
Design (as a noun: a design) can refer to such a plan or specification (e.g. a drawing or other document) or to the created object, etc., and features of it such as aesthetic, functional, economic or socio-political.
The process of creating a design can be brief (a quick sketch) or lengthy and complicated, involving considerable research, negotiation, reflection, modelling, interactive adjustment and re-design. In some cases, the direct construction of an object without an explicit prior plan (such as in craftwork and some engineering, coding, and graphic design) is also considered to be a design activity.
Design can have different connotations in different fields of application (see design disciplines below).