[Sigia-l] "Trust me. I'm a designer."

[Will Parker]

On Feb 5, 2007, at 7:31 PM, Ziya Oz wrote:
> "It's the design world's dirty little secret. Despite the growing  
> consensus
> that "good design is good business," most companies lack objective  
> financial
> metrics to help them calculate whether increased investment in  
> design will,
> in fact, generate increased profits. Does it matter? Chuck Jones,
> Whirlpool's design chief, certainly thinks so."
>
> <http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/112/open_next-essay.html>
>
> Is Chuck right?

Let's put it in front a customer focus group and find out.

Per the description of Westinghouse process given in the article, it  
looks like there's a reasonably strong split between the design and  
engineering groups. Perhaps it's because I've done all my design- 
related work at software companies, but that seems like a very  
artificial split to me. To me, engineering equals design, and vice- 
versa.

Any other formulation of design leads to 'spray-on design' (see  
http://daringfireball.net/2004/04/spray_on_usability), and questions  
like "How much money can we make from aesthetics?"

OK, here are some related questions for anyone who works or has  
worked as an in-house designer, rather than as a consultant:

	How does your company place designers in the org chart?

	Are you off in a design ghetto, or are you on an integrated  
development team?

	Who above you justifies the expense of your work? Design chief or  
dev team lead?

	Is there a difference in the way 'shrinkwrap' software, Web and  
hardware companies
		traditionally handle these roles?
	
- Will
Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier