| Holy cow what an ill-informed article. Many on this thread have illuminated it's weaknesses, here's my two cents. To single out design from any other process involved in creating value makes zero sense. In fact in many products design, including visual design is a key differentiator that actually gives the product value (think iPod vs all other mp3 players). Only programmers or engineers creating extemely cutting edge products that have no competitors could take this attitude than design issues can be set aside till later.
What serious person would consider starting a business without incorporating design from the beginning? Whatever meme out there about design being an edge in a startup is responding to what I see is an incorrect undervaluing of design in the tech community. Another subtext in the discussion is many tech start ups are making software, web based or otherwise. On a typical program huge amounts of value are delivered as pixels. The user interface is also pixels. A lot of software are tools. Graphic design is mandatory for the thing to exist! Widgets are make or break whether a software tool even works at all. I use audio software in my job (all day) and many competing applications in this space are at feature parity. UI and Ux is what separate apps that work really well from apps that are painfully slow and frustrating to use. Just consider how color is used in a complex app. It communicates feedback, breaks up function grouping, it helps you find and remember features, it provides a hopefully not unpleasant visual experience since one is staring at for extended periods.
I think we are in the Dark Ages of human computer interaction and that bad visual design is a huge contributor to the problem. BTW, anyone have examples of web services with great design don't offer value? |