What designers do
Design is becoming an increasingly important feature of corporate and public life; it is also a field that is expanding as it encompasses more design disciplines. As these areas require their own specialist skills, the presence of unrivalled expertise in each one is becoming more and more paramount.
Professional designers are often university trained in one specialist area, such as industrial design, graphic design, interactive design (e.g. web design), interior design, or design strategy.
The designer's work is a creative process performed almost always in conjunction with other specialists. The success of this process depends fully on the combination of the analytical powers, systematic specialist skills and aesthetic awareness of the designer and his/her sense of style and holistic approach. The goal of such work is to fulfil the needs and wishes of both the end-user and the immediate customer as regards function, content and appearance. The designer's efforts to create added value for the end-user also boost the immediate customer's profitability and growth.
In the development process the designer adds:
-
Creativity
The ability to generate ideas and make use of other people's ideas
-
Vision
The ability to express his/her own and other people's proposals
-
Customer focus
The ability to create and coordinate the customer's identity and requirements
-
User focus
The ability to define and adapt to the user's circumstances and needs
-
A sense of aesthetics
Knowledge of form, colour and design trends
-
A holistic view
An ability to see the project in its full context
-
Coordination
The ability to synchronise contributing specialists and external formal requirements