nervetattoo/the-designer-is-dead-long-live-design

## the-designer-is-dead-long-live-design
# The designer is dead, long live design

Design is a hotter subject than ever before. Apple is the most successful company in history, fueled by design, and the subsequent "design thinking" philosophy.
The concept of "design" is a far too important thing to be left to a designer. The designer is dead.
Long live design.

Design is a misunderstood practice, and one that I misunderstood for a long time myself. Being a developer – in itself a misunderstood practice for most as well – I long thought    that we needed designers to design the stuff we were building. I expected upon the poor designers to produce blueprints for what we were building.
We often see clients reach out to us to buy a UX revamp, or some design touches, on their applications, websites or other visual properties.
Many think that the visual expression designed by the previous designer 5 years back is a replaceable skin with few ties into the application, or anything deeper.

Open your eyes, the designer is dead, design is not the act of painting, or picking, pretty colours on a house, an application, a brochure or a website!

My realisation came, slowly, as I realised that the art of design was an activity equally dependant on me – the developer. And over time I saw how design is in everything, and how  design is a process utilised by people you would never, ever label as designers.
Would you consider Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla a designer? Sure is.
How about Christiano Ronaldo, the portugese footballer?
What about the engineer that elaborately places electronic components onto a breadboard?

When Christiano Ronaldo spend hours at the court practicing free kick technique he is in fact designing the perfect free kick. A kick with just enough power, just enough swerve and just enough trickery to both pass the wall, hit the goal and fool the goal keeper.
Granted, these are outlier examples and not that useful in helping you and your organisation reason better about design.
What we need first is a better way to frame "design".

## A better way to define design

Design is the process of doing, only with afterthought.
Design is the process of creating, with careful intention for the end result.

The important thing about design is that in this era of design you cannot afford not to be a designer.
You cannot afford to hire an employee who is not a designer. What and how you and they design, is a different story.
We meet with a lot of clients who in reality are in a dire need to transform into more design driven organisations, and we merely help bridge the gap they've created over the years.

In the case of an organisation living off selling an application you need your product managers, your customer liasions, your system developers, your CTO and your CEO to all be designers!
The CEO and CTO need to think in terms of design for every choice he makes. Either he/she operates under false protection of a good revenue stream, or he/she is under pressure to turn a sinking ship around.
The product managers need to think in terms of design in order to make the right choices for the product to compete in a market that is increasingly driven by design.
The system developers can not implement a design driven system if they themselves does not speak design. Every micro interaction, every path a background process takes is part of the overall design that makes up the sum of the product.
The customer liaison need to be a designer in order to transfer the customer domain knowledge and feedback into valuable design parameteres for the further product development.

## What about the designer?

When the entire organisation are turned into "designers", what happens to those with that job description? Are they out of business? Not even close. Given that design is now even more important, their jobs also got more important. And the fact that the rest of the organisation are learning to design, the designers both have a big role in teaching how to think in design, and also to mediate the design processes.
Some designers might find it hard to share more of the creative processes, and they might feel they are giving up control of something that used to be "theirs". Good riddance!

## The shared vision of the future

In order to create exceptional products and services, which should be the aim of the company, one of the most important tools will be the shared vision of the future. We are not talking about the mumbo jumbo vision you already have. It needs to be shared understanding of an attainable purpose, and the uniqueness you will possess that make you stand out amongst the crowd.
In order to reach this shared vision you need to talk, stress out, argue out, analyse and synthesis the choices you make. You need to drill the way of thinking so that every employee is comfortable that when making micro decisions they choose the option that leads to this shared vision of the future.
Building this intuitive shared mindset is the biggest investment you have to make. And when doing this, its important to not have a fixed idea at the beginning of this process because the process itself is what shapes the end result.


## Design vs evolution
	# The designer is dead, long live design

	Design is a hotter subject than ever before. Apple is the most successful company in history, fueled by design, and the subsequent "design thinking" philosophy.
	The concept of "design" is a far too important thing to be left to a designer. The designer is dead.
	Long live design.

	Design is a misunderstood practice, and one that I misunderstood for a long time myself. Being a developer – in itself a misunderstood practice for most as well – I long thought that we needed designers to design the stuff we were building. I expected upon the poor designers to produce blueprints for what we were building.
	We often see clients reach out to us to buy a UX revamp, or some design touches, on their applications, websites or other visual properties.
	Many think that the visual expression designed by the previous designer 5 years back is a replaceable skin with few ties into the application, or anything deeper.

	Open your eyes, the designer is dead, design is not the act of painting, or picking, pretty colours on a house, an application, a brochure or a website!

	My realisation came, slowly, as I realised that the art of design was an activity equally dependant on me – the developer. And over time I saw how design is in everything, and how design is a process utilised by people you would never, ever label as designers.
	Would you consider Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla a designer? Sure is.
	How about Christiano Ronaldo, the portugese footballer?
	What about the engineer that elaborately places electronic components onto a breadboard?

	When Christiano Ronaldo spend hours at the court practicing free kick technique he is in fact designing the perfect free kick. A kick with just enough power, just enough swerve and just enough trickery to both pass the wall, hit the goal and fool the goal keeper.
	Granted, these are outlier examples and not that useful in helping you and your organisation reason better about design.
	What we need first is a better way to frame "design".

	## A better way to define design

	Design is the process of doing, only with afterthought.
	Design is the process of creating, with careful intention for the end result.

	The important thing about design is that in this era of design you cannot afford not to be a designer.
	You cannot afford to hire an employee who is not a designer. What and how you and they design, is a different story.
	We meet with a lot of clients who in reality are in a dire need to transform into more design driven organisations, and we merely help bridge the gap they've created over the years.

	In the case of an organisation living off selling an application you need your product managers, your customer liasions, your system developers, your CTO and your CEO to all be designers!
	The CEO and CTO need to think in terms of design for every choice he makes. Either he/she operates under false protection of a good revenue stream, or he/she is under pressure to turn a sinking ship around.
	The product managers need to think in terms of design in order to make the right choices for the product to compete in a market that is increasingly driven by design.
	The system developers can not implement a design driven system if they themselves does not speak design. Every micro interaction, every path a background process takes is part of the overall design that makes up the sum of the product.
	The customer liaison need to be a designer in order to transfer the customer domain knowledge and feedback into valuable design parameteres for the further product development.

	## What about the designer?

	When the entire organisation are turned into "designers", what happens to those with that job description? Are they out of business? Not even close. Given that design is now even more important, their jobs also got more important. And the fact that the rest of the organisation are learning to design, the designers both have a big role in teaching how to think in design, and also to mediate the design processes.
	Some designers might find it hard to share more of the creative processes, and they might feel they are giving up control of something that used to be "theirs". Good riddance!

	## The shared vision of the future

	In order to create exceptional products and services, which should be the aim of the company, one of the most important tools will be the shared vision of the future. We are not talking about the mumbo jumbo vision you already have. It needs to be shared understanding of an attainable purpose, and the uniqueness you will possess that make you stand out amongst the crowd.
	In order to reach this shared vision you need to talk, stress out, argue out, analyse and synthesis the choices you make. You need to drill the way of thinking so that every employee is comfortable that when making micro decisions they choose the option that leads to this shared vision of the future.
	Building this intuitive shared mindset is the biggest investment you have to make. And when doing this, its important to not have a fixed idea at the beginning of this process because the process itself is what shapes the end result.


	## Design vs evolution