The Inner Layers

I was talking to a friend one night as she was complaining about a new project. Did I say complain? Obviously this is again going to be a typical client who doesn’t give a damn about design; who doesn’t want no research, user studies, or style guides. What they’re looking for is a beautiful, pretty-looking, skeuomorphic skin. Classic story; A design disaster.

I couldn’t get hold of why this kind of thing is still happening nowadays. Clients who micromanages their designers; Clients who think they design things so much better than their designers; Clients who don’t understand—or worst, don’t care about—their users. These happenings are simply disgusting and sickening.

I believe for a product to be successful, the bottom line is it being helpful to the user. To do so, design plays a very integral role. Design doesn’t only exists on the outer layers, they should be buried deep inside, so deep you won’t even notice it. But does it mean it’s useless? Definitely not, in fact when design culture is integrated so deeply in the creation process, it means everyone working on the project is on the same page to create and better the product only for the users.

I think the general public still hasn’t realize what design really means to them. For most of them, design is just a piece of art, or a commodity that won’t immediately affect their lives. They don’t understand that design is a process of truly understanding the problem and making your life better. This has to change.

Design is not only the pretty outer layer; Design is the core of changes.