You can start reading The Design Manual at any page
As Julie Andrews sang, ‘Let’s start at the very beginning …’ This post is taken from part 1 [Purpose] and chapter 1 [What does design do?]:
Did you know that Florence Nightingale (yes, the famous nurse, the ‘lady with the lamp’) created a way of charting medical statistics? She demonstrated how needless deaths occurred in the Crimean War (around 1856). Her data visualisation predated infographics by more than a century. Yet she developed a particular type of pie chart, now called a ‘coxcomb’, where the slices expand beyond the edges of the ‘pie’. It was revealing. And it did save lives.
Good design can make a difference.
‘Design is the process of making experiences … Products, services and experiences already evoke meaning (even if companies do so accidentally or intuitively),’ says Nathan Shedroff in Designing meaningful experiences.
Good design is intentional.
‘Design is the rationale-driven process of creating something to serve a specific purpose,’ says Reinoud Schuijers (‘Why language is the most crucial part of any design process’, UX Collective, UXdesign.cc, 9 Jul 2021).
Design is not an optional extra. If something has been presented in a visual form, it has been designed. Anyone who presented that information in that chosen form has made design decisions. Even if they are ineffectual.
You can’t say, ‘Oh, we haven’t got the time or the money to design this – let’s just get it out there!’ because you will still put the material together in some visual form. Without considering the design decisions you’re making, or their effectiveness, you may as well forget the project.
‘Graphic design represents an emotional commitment to the work. Long before we read the words or understand the images, we see the layout. Kerning and color and weight and form arrive in our brains before we have decided what the words on the page actually mean. You wouldn’t wear a clown suit to a job interview, and yet people dress up their ideas in clown suits all the time,’ says Seth Godin (Seths.blog, 11 Feb 2021).
Good design makes sense.
A project that doesn’t meet its objectives doesn’t communicate to its potential audience. It doesn’t get seen, doesn’t perform. It is a wasted opportunity, wasted time and wasted money. And you probably still have to communicate that message!
‘The only way organizations that produce mediocre work improve is when someone with design knowledge either becomes a decision maker or improves their skill at influencing decisions. This means facilitation, persuasion and relationship building can be just as essential to good design as design plans themselves,’ says Scott Berkun (‘Are you a self-limiting designer?’, ScottBerkun.com, 16 Mar 2021).
So take the time now to consider design research to check and validate business assumptions. Then carefully consider visual design and its impact on every piece of communication you send and receive.
