Like…what specifically makes it “lean”?
Hi, I’m brand new to the tech/graphic design world. I’m going for my bachelor’s degree right now but looking to get into design. Lot of quick questions and looking for a good mentor. Since this is a new site I thought this wouldn’t be too basic of a question to ask…
What makes it lean is not overdoing it. Less is more.
I think ‘lean design’ doesn’t refer to a design style. It has nothing to do with minimalism.
The word lean comes from the lean software development (LSD) and lean manufacturing principles. It’s a work process, which focuses on efficiency, immediacy and not fearing to try new things.
Hope someone can explain it better. 
UX is short for User eXperience, and was coined as a term used primarily in software development, meaning…uhmm…user experience. Or, to be clear, that which a user of software experiences during use (as opposed to whatever experience might be presupposed of the user). From what I can see, “UX” has become a specialty of sorts, perhaps akin to “screenwriting,” in which the UX Designer makes design decisions that dictate the course of this or that usage scenario. It appears to have become a sub-discipline of software engineering.
And on that note, as Ivan already alluded, “Lean” is an Engineering term that originated in Manufacturing, but carries varied connotations across different forms of Engineering with regard to “process.” Specifically in software development, it has come about as a re-think of a previously established approach. In that approach, development was accompanied in parallel by the practice of “documentation.” By comparison, the documentation element constituted the majority of time consumed by the process overall. When it came time for trials and testing, it wasn’t uncommon for all that documentation work to become time wasted, as revisions and the findings of testing often required the documentation to be rewritten, if not scrapped altogether. In the quest for “leaner” process, the newer approach is to forego documentation in the early stages, and go right to testing. As testing feedback materializes, changes can be made “on the fly” without getting bogged down in the “fat” of documentation, which is now saved for a later stage of development, when the product is much closer to finalized.
good reply hb
p.s. i think lean and 5s started in japan with their car manufacturing. looking for ways to be much more effecient. we implemented it at our printing plants. side note it has not resulted in making a dime bit of more money since we did so 8 years ago.