The Design Concierge
Creating great designs by serving your guests.
You have 20 seconds to answer this question: What makes a great design?
… really stop and think about it. (queue Jeopardy theme music)
If you’re anything like me, you drew a blank. Not because you couldn’t think of any common traits of great designs, but because you thought of too many. How can a person answer such a complicated question in just 20 seconds? I would need a minimum of 3 days to wrap my mind around this.
I’ve been in the design industry for almost half of my life, and I can’t remember ever being asked this question. How sad.
Such a broad and overarching topic isn’t something you can casually chat about over lunch, and walk away from feeling like you have an answer. No, no. It’s much more complicated.
If you asked a handful of people this question, you’d receive a handful of different answers. In fact, I did just that, to prove a point.
Below I asked 8 different people, in 8 different professions this question…
I was expecting that I would find some sort of clarity after reading through all of these answers. Maybe I could compile them all into a some extremely meaningful, powerful, and digestible tweet. That wasn’t the case.
It’s nice that everyone has their own opinions, but is there not a guiding compass for designers to know if their design is great or not? Is there not one mathematical equation to follow? Is all design truly subjective, as I’ve been told throughout my entire professional career?
Everyone has their own way of describing what makes a great design, and it’s not just designers that have an opinion. Everyone has an opinion. I mean, everyone.
The problem with all of these opinions, is that humans like being right. This means that if someone else's opinion of a design differs from yours, then a battle must ensue. Many times this ends up with a designer biting their tongue, and begrudgingly pushing pixels to please their client.
This is the justification that designers use to make themselves feel better about someone not liking their design.
This is poor justification. It forces you to limit your definition of design. Design is commonly defined as how something looks, or how it functions. If you view design like that, then it’s very easy to view all feedback as subjective. However, design is much more than that.
I believe I’ve found a solution to end the debate.
I recently had the pleasure of attending a talk by Noah Rosenberg at a conference in St. Louis. His topic was “How to Create Gracious Experiences.” In this talk he proposed a very similar question: what is design? His answer was simple: design is how you treat your guests.
Imagine that you’re a concierge at a hotel. Your entire role is to make the guest feel welcome, feel important, and feel served. The success of their visit is largely determined by how they feel during their stay. So, to better serve your guests you’d likely want to make their stay as pleasant as possible.
Your entire focus would be on the guest, because if you’re guest wasn’t happy then you would have failed. The hotel would get poor reviews, and you’d likely be left without a job.
This metaphor perfectly articulates the way that we should make design decisions. Although things like aesthetic, color, typography, and layout are important, we must think at a much higher-level when considering the impact that our designs will have.
Here are eight common traits of an effective concierge that also translate effortlessly into our role as designers. Let’s use the word designer, instead of concierge.
- A great designer enjoys helping others.
- A great designer is a skilled listener.
- A great designer is an excellent teacher.
- A great designer goes above and beyond.
- A great designer is a natural organizer.
- A great designer has high work ethic and initiative.
- A great designer has integrity.
- A great designer is a flexible problem solver.
As a design concierge you have a great responsibility.
A great designer provides the guest with an enjoyable stay, and puts the guest first. A great designer helps the guest find what they’re looking for, or discover something new. A great designer listens to the guests feedback, and changes things accordingly. A great designer lightens the load of the guest, and makes life easier for them.
Now, I’ll ask you again. What makes a great design?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter. Tweet #GreatDesignIs
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