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The Value of Design
And how to talk about it with others who aren’t designers.
Design is a funny thing.
It’s one of the few professions where you can be an expert at a thing but still be unable to communicate the value of that very same thing.
Still with me?
Think about doctors (I know — here goes another designer comparing their job to that of someone who saves lives. I promise, I’m not going there).
Doctors spend their days seeing (too many) patients, diagnosing health issues, triaging symptoms, and coordinating patient care with other specialists, all while still being expected to treat their patients like actual human beings (make no mistake, this should be part of the job description for any good doctor).
Do you know what’s not on this list?
Explaining the value they provide to others.
Do you want to know why? Because it’s obvious to any human who’s gotten hurt, had a health issue, or lost a loved one (which includes almost everyone). In fact, there are people that think healthcare (i.e. services that doctors provide) should be a basic human right, but that goes way beyond the scope of this post.
In other words, doctors show their value every day instead of having to explain it.
Can you imagine if the value of design was as obvious?
Most designers would be less stressed out, make way more money, and have almost nothing to complain about on Twitter.
You see, for those of you who don’t call yourself a “designer,” you might not be aware of one overarching truth about us:
We secretly love complaining about everyone’s inability to understand the inherent value of design.
And cue the angry mob of designers with pixel-perfect pitchforks ready to tear me limb from limb.
They’ll argue I’m not being fair because they’ve tried (and failed) throughout their entire careers to explain why design is so valuable to others who need it.
