You could say it makes a difference.
Design has passed through many stages and time periods and evolved through all sorts of artist’s/designer’s hands. Everyone seems to have their own say on what is good and bad design and the rules that should be followed or broken. Everyone is going to have their own opinion — some will agree and some will disagree. Despite differing opinions, one statement stands to be true. Design is the way we present an idea and design makes a difference. Richard Seymour stated it well when he said design is “making things better for people” during the Design Council’s Design in Business Week 2002. 1
Anything we make or design has some type of purpose. Why are we creating it and what is its purpose?Design is first off functionality with creativity involved. We are presenting information or an idea in a way that we feel like expresses it best. When we are designing or redesigning a product, we first need to understand all dimensions of the product. Understanding the pieces of the product will help the designer improve it and make it the most capable as it can be. The product that you are trying to create or revamp will probably be coming from one or more similar ideas. As you study and gain knowledge about the current designs, you can brainstorm ideas of what can be better for the user or “the people”.
Why is creativity important in design? Creativity is stated as “the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the productions of an artistic work.” 2 Creativity is what makes new and improved designs. Any inventions that have been made or improved in the history of time have come from a creative idea.
A few months ago, I had an interesting experience that proves that design has an impact. I began working for a few company full of accountants and left side of the brain people. We have a document that we give to our clients for them to fill in their information in order to complete what we do. When I began working there, I mentioned to a coworker how I felt the document should be updated because although it was functional, it was hideous colors. The colors were a horrible pallet in my opinion and it made the document hard to look at let alone concentrate on filling in. In a meeting, the document was discussed and the question was posed of the changes that should be made to make it more effective. My co-worker looked right at me and told me I should share my idea. I was still only a few months old as an employee of the company but I felt strongly about my design opinion. I said “I know some of you may not agree with me, but the design of the document is absolutely horrible and the colors are the worst part about it.” The lady who was running the meeting just laughed and told me that it doesn’t really matter what the colors are because they don’t have an effect. I asked for permission to just change the document’s colors and background. She agreed and I began to work. I tried a lot of different things to show options of what looked good and bad. Once, I was finished with the colors, I presented her with the different options and my opinion of what looked best. I had three top choices that I liked the best and she chose one of the top three. She then, began to see and mentioned curiously, what do you think about the font and other formatting? Using simple design principles of spacing, size and color I showed her what I thought looked best. She loved the changes and invited me to a small team meeting to discuss the changes. After the process was all over, I asked her what she thought. She told me, “To be honest, I didn’t think it mattered at all, but after I saw the changes of the color, my mind was opened to having you change more things to make it look even better. If someone gave me this exact same document side by side, I would NEVER choose the old one. I would want the new one because it looks so nice, clean, less complicated to fill out and professional. “It” makes a difference.” Anyone who looks at the documents sees that it is still the same document but it made a huge difference of how it looks and how someone feels about it. We have even had a few clients mention how they like the “new design”.
Design is important and makes a huge difference in how we as “people” perceive things. Design makes ideas come to life in a specific way. As designers we need to try to make our designs resonate with others making it the best for them and the best we can design. Everything around us has been designed and we need to make it the best we can for the users.
1- http://www.mech.hku.hk/bse/interdisciplinary/what_is_design.pdf
2-https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what%20is%20creativity
