[Sigia-l] Does interface design matter?

[Trenouth, John]

Listera said, 

>> Perhaps a product's success is due more to marketing and promotion 
>> than to design and quality.

>I know this'll sound like a broken record, but product Design (w/ a 
>capital D) must necessarily address product positioning before 
>anything.

I had a professor who used to say that "great products can sit on the
shelf as well as lousy ones."  His point being that it takes more than a
well made product to achieve market success.  

I agree whole-heartedly: marketing, promotion and sales activities all
have an enormous impact on the customer's/user's overall experience.  I
would go a step further and say that the capital-D designer should also
consider post-sales support as well.

Of course trying to have such broad involvement can spark political
drama for designers who often find themselves relegated to a tiny
functional box.  

Listera said, 

>So as designers we have to insist on maintaining Design consistency
>and integrity from concept through sales as a continuum, and get 
>involved.

I think Fred Brooks would agree.  He claims a lack of conceptual
integrity as one the biggest threats to a software development's
success.  I think we can expand this more generally to
products/services.