FROM THE BLOG
Design-led companies outperform their competitors. Why?
Posted by Tarah Carlow on September 17, 2014
It’s the never-ending push-pull at the top of the house. Design-minded professionals are pushing for a beauty-led, user-friendly, designed product and the functional people don’t want to spend the money and just want to get a functionally sound product out. Notice one key thing I said- “at the top of the house”. The fact that there is a design-minded professional at the top of the house is a huge shift from prior decades where those people and that skill-set was seen as unnecessary and “just making things pretty”.
To all you old-schoolers: Design is way more than making things look pretty. It is about designing products with the end user in mind by integrating functionality with form to create a competitive advantage for a company. Guess what that does- increases profitability and productivity. Have you ever run into a product or software that does everything you want but is just clunky to use and not real appealing to look at? Chances are whether you know it consciously or not, you will go to a less than ideal product that is more pleasant to use and causes you less stress. Imagine a product that has everything you want and is easy to use and even enjoyable to use? SOLD. And by the way- the product can be YOU. Design a client experience that they wont forget.
The key to designers being successful? Finding out what the client really needs and wants.
This article “The Bottom Line Value of Design”, written by Jamie Skella, is a must-read for any skeptics or advisors looking to make a move upwards in their business.
Skeptics beware,
