Design became disconnected from it’s capitalistic frame (#5)

Motivation

The term design deserves better. It regularly gets underestimated because people think it’s only about making things pretty, chasing new trends, or cleaning up the interface after it’s been built. And a lot of so-called Designers are more or less only lip sticking the existing design because they have been told to do so, don’t know better, or don’t have any time for research. So it’s essentially about guessing and building shiny user interfaces (UI) without solving actual problems or creating real value, either for the User or for the company.

But there is slowly change happening, younger Product Managers, Developers, and Designers are more familiar with design processes like Design Thinking or the Double Diamond thanks to today’s curricula. Alumni who finished their studies in 2010 or earlier are less adapted to it and often hold leadership roles. The failure or success of design is tailored by the understanding and attitude of the team, management and organisation.

So, what is design?

Design is always about selling things. Even back to the area of the Bauhaus. But somehow design became disconnected from it’s capitalistic frame. The Bauhaus was created to enable German factories to create better marketable wares in reaction to the excellence of the British. – John Maeda

To give another example: The well-known Double Diamond design process model which is commonly used by design mature companies was introduced 2005 by the British Design Council. The Design Council has set itself the goal of improving lifes through design. It was founded in 1944 by Winston Churchill’s wartime government to meet the greatest challenge of that time: the economic recovery after the war. Link

Design is about capitalistic thinking and to improve profit through problem solving and optimization. That is why HCD/UCD or Design Thinking design strives to prioritize the user (emphasize). By taking into account the real needs of the customer. You can use the insights you gain to benefit the user and to maximize your companies profits. When executed well, design can be a very powerful instrument. It helps to understand the real problems or needs of the user and will validate your assumptions about him. Design creates not only output, but also creates an outcome, which are critical for driving meaningful change and delivering value.

How do we define an outcome?

By validating the design. This means that the product creates the results users, customers and businesses are looking for, after it has been shipped and revised if needed. Our constant goal is to influence user or customer behavior in such a way that it ultimately leads to an increase in profit. Jeff Patton's concept of "impact" emphasizes the importance of focusing on the value delivered rather than just the features shipped.

Behavioral UX KPIs: Task success rate, Time-on-task, Search vs navigation, User error rate, Conversion rate, etc.

Further areas where design can have an impact:

Challenge

A lot of companies are still immature when it comes to design. As a result, it is common for designers to spend more time and energy establishing design in the company than solving the actual problems of the customers and users. Frustration can occur as a result of this.

Therefore you should give your coworkers and managers a taste of design. Rather than desperately attempting to persuade them of the concept of it, you should streamline internal procedures and give them a delightful experience in their day-to-day work (like running workshops, better tooling, etc.). Or organize a retro first to get a better understanding from your colleagues.

Do internal research
This helps clarify misconceptions about UX. Because of this, instead of jumping right into operations as most companies and managers expect, you should first understand the strategic business and define your internal role. Otherwise, the design will have little or no impact on the product development, at best maybe UI-wise.

Your organization is perfectly optimized to produce the user experiences it currently delivers. If you want to improve the user experiences, you’ll need to change the optimizations of your organization. This is the core of a UX strategy. – Jared Spool

Conclusion

Design isn’t just about making things pretty. It’s about market relevance and customer understanding. Design is problem-solving. Design is optimization. Design is business.

The Design Value Index (DVI) serves as an example of just how significant the impact can be. The DVI shows a 211 percent return over the S&P 500 and is based on a portfolio of 16 publicly traded stocks of businesses classified as “design-oriented” mirrored on a set of criteria reflecting best practices in design management.

Sidenote

Design, however, is a nebulous term. The strategy used by John Maeda to differentiate between the three types of design (classical design, design thinking, and computational design) strikes me as being the most sophisticated definition (video below).