Being a designer in a business world
The endless fight between value and revenue
Entering the corporate realm as a designer ready to change the world can be a massive wake-up call. The dream of having your voice heard is replaced by the stark reality that you are just a tiny cog in a massive machine. This means 10% design, and 90% learning how to communicate with the vast amount of people you collaborate with. Although this might not be what you had in mind, it is essential to your success!
Design: The black sheep
Many corporates are focused on revenue, and not necessarily providing their customers with the best experience. You may hear things like “design-lead” and “customer-centric”, but in reality many organisations see design as just a checkbox — something to tick off the list, and not a true priority. The biggest problem? No-one has any idea what design is.
Crazy little thing called design
Over the years design has gained a very specific and limiting meaning. Mention that you studied design and most people immediately assume all you do is “make things look pretty”.
But design is so much more than that. Design is a universal language, and like music it can break down barriers between cultures and religions and unite nations. In a business-orientated world, designers have the ability to translate complex numbers and graphs and weird money-talk in a way that fosters understanding and empathy in their audience.
Consider the following example when trying to understand the power of design:
Exhibit A: Some statistics about plastic pollution in the ocean.
Exhibit B: Those same statistics, translated by design
Which one of these made you feel something? And which one of these are going to persuade you to reduce your plastic footprint?
If you resonated more with Exhibit B, it’s probably because you, like billions of other people, are a visual thinker. In order for the human mind to make sense of numbers and statistics, it has to translate them into images, but since people often don’t understand what they are looking at in the first place, they can be left confused and uninformed. Design eliminates all of the confusion and provides its audience with a visual story they can relate to. Sapiens’ understanding of the world (their mental model) is shaped by storytelling and the things around them, not by an overwhelming jumble of numbers, and designers get that.
So how do we achieve what you see in Exhibit B?
- We understand people, their choices and thoughts, and we translate everything the world wants to tell them into a language they will understand and react to. A language that will make them feel something and possibly change the way they think and act.
- We fight the good fight to make sure that people are valued over money to make sure that everything they interact with was designed specifically and specially for them.
- And, on top of all that, we make things look awesome, because who doesn’t like aesthetics?
Show us the money
Businesses need to generate revenue, and they often overlook the role of design when it comes to achieving that goal. Design should be seen as the bridge between what they want and what their customers want.
Dan Ariely in his book Predictably Irrational makes a wonderful distinction between “humans” and “econs”. “Econs” are the business buffs, the ones who make rational decisions based on an assessment of risks and statistics. “Humans” on the other hand are very different. They make irrational decisions that are based on feeling, not facts. Designers are the third party. We are trained to understand both parties and to think in both ways. Hence, a bridge! One foot on the business side and another on the side of the customer.
Without that bridge, the communication between companies and their customers will continue to operate as a broken telephone, with neither party truly understanding the other. Alan Cooper in The Inmates Are Running the Asylum helps us understand that “econs” only provide customers with the basics, because in their (rational) minds that is all they need. They will give them “…flour, sugar, milk and eggs…”, but designers understand that what customers really want is a freshly baked ciabatta loaf.
How can we help more people understand the value of design?
In order for “econs” to understand design, they need to start start thinking like designers, and this means adopting Design thinking. Design thinking is simply a methodology that teaches people to approach problem solving with the end user/customer/human in mind.
Unfortunately following design methodologies is often seen as taking the“scenic route rather than a straight path to the solution…”
It is up to designers to help others see the potholes and road blocks on the suggested “straight path”, and that the poor car will never make it to the destination unless we take the long road. This can only be achieved by providing them with a design thinking lens to look through.
Conclusion: The golden ticket
The value of design, the universal language, needs to be recognised for the power it holds. For this to happen more people need to start ‘speaking’ design. This does not mean using abbreviations such as RGB and calling blue ‘teal’, it means adopting design thinking.
It’s about realising that money comes from people and meeting their needs is the most effective way to sustain income and customer loyalty.
But designers also have some work to do. Just as business needs to start speaking another language, designers need to learn a new one too. We are very eager to speak a language “humans” can understand, but we often fail to communicate to business/ “econs” in a way that they can understand. If we are to foster a better understanding and adoption of design, we need to be a bridge with a foot on both sides of the spectrum, otherwise we will surely fail.
Any thoughts? Post your comments below.
