During design class critiques in college, professors and classmates alike would throw around the words “successful” or “unsuccessful” like a paper weight. I often wondered “is there a pica ruler sitting around invisible only to me that actually measures this?” Design is all too often equated with art, and the value of an art piece is almost completely subjective. There is no measuring stick to determine why a painting makes you feel what it does, and there most certainly isn’t a set rule of whether a piece of art should be making you feel one thing over another. The design process includes a great level of science and methodology; “strategy”, if you will. So, if the process of designing something is so strategic, it only makes sense that there should be a clear-cut way of measuring the success of design.
While browsing around the AIGA (The Professional Association for Design) and DMI (Design Management Institute) websites this morning, I stumbled upon Ten Ways to Measure Design’s Success by Thomas Lockwood. This article is a fabulous starting point for understanding how to measure the success of your design projects, but there is too much left open to interpretation and imagination. If a client were to read this, and they don’t find something that relates exactly to a project of their own, then they very well could throw in the towel and decide that no designer they ever work with will ever be able to prove the value of their design project.
In this post and many to come I will attempt to cover as many different projects as I can. If you have a specific project you are curious about, please do not hesitate to ask in a comment or send me an email. Following the order of the article:
1. Purchase Influence
This measurement can be applied to almost any type of design project. Websites, for example, can be measured much the same. Wineland Tax & Business Services’ new website launched mid-summer of 2009, but their peak season of the year is tax season. An accurate measurement of increased sales will only be obtained after tax season in 2010. To measure the site’s success, the number of clients before the site’s launch and after April 15, 2010 will be compared.
Another measurement of success for the purchase influence of a website was illustrated when another client of Point Brake’s received an offer for a business merger just three months after the launch of their website.
2. New Markets
In every industry, their are weaknesses. For example, I recently reviewed multiple BBQ websites and found that none of the leading companies are utilizing design to their advantage in regards to their websites or interactive media strategies. This presents a great advantage for the underdog to sweep in and lay claim to a large portion of the market by making a statement with their design initiatives. New markets such as “Green” companies tend to follow the same trends as their competitors, only trying to out-do everyone else. This presents a weakness for most of the companies, yet an advantage for the few that prefer to set their own trends.
3. Brand Image and Corporate Reputation
Design awards aren’t necessarily the end of the means, but more so the means to the end. They signify that your efforts were not in vain and simply tell you what you already know: your design kicks!
For a more in-depth analysis of the design initiatives of two competing brands, request your free copy of The Value of Design.
4. Time to Market
Whether you have an in-house design team or contract out to a design studio, it is always important to not only compartmentalize the duties performed by your team, but also to entrust design tasks in capable hands. Though you might not pay in terms of a professional designer, you will pay in lack of ROI if you take the DIY approach. This will, in turn, greatly increase the cost in the long-run that it takes to effectively reach your target market.
5. Cost Savings
I have heard numerous clients balk at the price of professional design services. Designers on a collective scale have done an atrocious job of educating the general public of the value of design, and specifically how professional design can quadruple its cost in ROI.
6. Enable Product and Service Innovation
This example of the Toyota dealership proves what many of us already know: people loved to be cared for, and to be cared about. The dealership expressed their appreciation for their customers by showing that they understood them. HTC is taking the same approach with their new phone with their advertisement that says “You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you.” Designers help to bridge the gap between you and your customers.
7. Develop Communities of Customers
Take a look at this post: Using Social Media Effectively.
8. Create Intellectual Property
They say that imitation is the greatest compliment one can receive. If your brand is worth stealing, it is worth protecting. And it is also worth the attention of your potential customers.
9. Improve Usability
Going back to putting your customers first, it just isn’t nice to make a user pull a brain-muscle trying to find what they’re looking for on your website. Show your users that you have put them first by hiring a professional design team to implement superb usability throughout both your print and interactive projects. (More on how print design still incorporates laws of usability in the VOD booklet.)
10. Improve Sustainability
Since childhood, I have always had the most violent urge to break whatever trend the general population is currently following unless I come to an understanding of why it is a trend. Being Eco-Conscious is not just a growing trend these days, it is something that society should have been concerned about long before Al Gore came to existence. Consult a designer on how you can achieve great design without sacrificing sustainability.