[VBD] How value-based design came to be

Before we go into detail on value-based design, it’s worth talking about how it came to be. After all, it’s not how most design is practiced (yet!) – and by talking about the history, you’ll get a clearer sense of the context.

How design was

The kind of design we’re talking about here was first called “applied art” or “commercial art” back in the days of handmade advertising. Now, design is better defined as shipped work for active businesses that are able to take money for goods and services.

After World War II, the advertising industry revolutionized graphic design. Ad agencies built their success on pitching emotionally driven brand narratives to business, hoping that their work would translate to real business gains – because there was no real way to precisely measure their work’s effectiveness.

What design became

It’s hard to put a price on emotion, and advertising happens entirely before money changes hands. Yet graphic design proceeded to root itself in the precedents set by the advertising industry for the next 40 years – and user experience and product design followed suit.

This situation is changing. It’s now possible to measure the precise consequences of specific, technological design decisions at scale. And it’s already shaping the future of our industry.

At the same time, most people graduate from school – usually, as of press time, art school or a coding bootcamp – and they practice design without much understanding of the context in which they exist.

I won’t mince words: if you want to be on the right side of history, you’ll join the ranks of those who are already practicing value-based design. Value-based designers know what success looks like, and they have little to prove. They work quietly, speak softly, command respect, and make a mint.

Value-based design as response

Design’s purpose is to provide economic benefit for businesses. The best way to do that is by clearly articulating, reinforcing, and promoting the value of design within a business. Design affects how the business is perceived, how a product operates, and how the business’s service is executed.

Every design decision has a corresponding business ramification. And it’s possible to measure the economic impact of design decisions, so that you can make a more forceful case to those with the power to pay for design.

Every time designers fail to do this, design loses its way. Think about a time when you worked on a project that didn’t focus on business needs. (We’ve all been there.) Perhaps it was a rebrand that didn’t measure the effect on the business afterward, or didn’t ask customers what they looked for. Surely there was a business reason for the project: defending against competitors, perhaps, or freshening up a stale design. If the project had no purpose, it wouldn’t have been approved in the first place.

But if there wasn’t a way to assess whether the project was successful, then why did the design team put in so much effort? If there wasn’t a clear motivator for the design direction, how were you able to effectively critique any finished work? Why were design resources allocated at all?

There might be cultural precedent for the importance of design, but that won’t sustain our industry in the long term. We need a new way to approach design that focuses on how it serves others. We’ve developed a practice that’s focused equally on what design is and how it’s received by a business’s customers, which we call value-based design.

My own journey to value-based design

For over a decade, I practiced design like most people do: by taking projects and doing good work. But it was messy, and I, like most of you, struggled to be accepted in various organizations. Why was I doing projects that didn’t have a good chance of succeeding? Why was the work being chosen in the first place? Where did the money come from? What happened to the work after it left my hands?

I never got adequate answers to these questions until I founded a business of my own and grew the practice such that I could sit alongside executives. Turns out, most decisions aren’t made with design in mind, both in terms of process and product. And when you’re a designer watching all of this, you get to wondering how you can meaningfully influence the final product.

After all, even if you have a seat at the table, you can still be ignored at the table.

What will design be?

Think back to our lesson a couple of days ago, where we talked about risk. What do you think people are thinking when they wonder whether to buy design from you? Whether they choose to hire designers at all? Are you a low-risk investment, or an unknown variable?

Design works best when it shows its power & expertise to those with the ability to buy it. Knowing this, we propose an expansion of a designer’s practice to include activities that both connect to design and influence business. Much like the debate over the past decade about whether designers must code – which, for the record, largely got settled in favor of code –value-based design focuses on three main components: research, measurement, and experimentation.

In our new self-paced workshop, we go deep on each of these components, weave them into a typical designer’s practice, and show you the best way to exert your authority & expertise.