The Value of Good Design

What does good design do for your business?

As a designer, I’m navigating this question all the time. I also see SO many missed opportunities – designers being brought in late in the process, after many important design decisions have already been made. One of my hopes and goals is to get designers working at every level of product and service development, in every company—especially in the c-suite—because design is that important. Even if you’re not planning on hiring a designer, thinking about the design of whatever you’re creating from the get-go can be incredibly beneficial for your end result.

I know for a fact that good design is foundational to everything your business wants to do. How do I know this? Because I know that most businesses want their customers to understand what they’re offering (Clarity), remember them (Notability), and enjoy using their product or service (Pleasure).

Clarity

Good design adds clarity. It helps people understand what you’re saying, more easily and clearly.

Imagine reading a book that had no table of contents, chapter breaks, chapter titles, or visible page numbers. Or walking into a train station/airport and not being able to easily decipher the signage (haven’t we all had that experience?). What about watching a presentation at a conference or meeting where the speaker’s slide deck is jam-packed with long, unreadable paragraphs of text? And of course, the frustrating experience of trying to find the right button on a poorly marked electronic device.

Good design helps us navigate spaces (like an airport), information (like conference slides or a book), and products (like our phones and the many other electronic devices we engage with daily). When the design is clear, we often navigate through the space/information/product without a second thought, our brains free to focus on other things. In terms of clarity, good design is almost invisible: we usually only notice it when its bad.

Notability

Good design creates notability – in other words, recognition or memorability. It helps people remember your product and/or service, so they can find it again in the future.

This (at its simplest) is what a brand is all about: good design helps customers to remember your brand. Virtually every company in the world needs to be recognized – there’s no point in having a storefront, advertisement, or even a product if people don’t know its yours. Even if a customer loved your service or product, they’d never be able to find you again, or refer you to anyone else! Good brand design has a consistency and memorability that makes it possible for people to recognize you out in a wild and colourful marketplace, both physically and digitally.

Pleasure

Good design adds pleasure. It makes your services and products (whether physical or digital) more pleasurable to interact with.

You may have noticed that all three of these design benefits (clarity, notability and pleasure) all overlap and work together. For example, it’s more pleasurable to navigate through a space or product that’s clear and easy-to-use. In addition, if a design piece is pleasurable and delightful to interact with, it’s more likely to be notable (notable in a good way – obviously a very unpleasant experience also becomes notable, but not for reasons you’d generally want associated with your brand!).

A positive (pleasurable) association with your brand will also make people more inclined to engage with your service or product again, leave you good reviews, and recommend you to future customers.

How much are clarity, notability and pleasure worth to your company?

If they are worth a lot to you (and I’ll bet your favourite customer they are), it’s time to integrate a designer’s perspective into the process from the very beginning, and at the very top.