The Factors behind the Design Value

There is a rule that creative matters can never be judged with the right or wrong situation just like the logical matters do because it is affected with opinions and personal factors. Having the design process as part of economical projects does not exclude it from the idea that the design is actually part of the visual arts and this rule applies to it.

Unlike the traditional or the digital art, the design process is ruled with many factors which make it hard to determine if the design has a value or not. Does the value means a satisfied client? Good design that everyone likes? Or a design that anyone can easily use?  There are many factors that affect the design’s success but actually not all of it can affect the design’s value.

Actually, some factors limit the designer’s ability to reach the valuable design such as the client needs and cost. Recently, I read an article by Helen Walters about the Value of Design and the design role in the project. As a designer, thinking of the design that has a value is similar to the idea of Utopia and the perfect city, the only difference is that designers believe they can reach this valuable design but do not know how. Maybe they need to find out a clear definition of the value of the design first before thinking in reaching it.

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Judging the design as a valuable design does not need us to analyze the different factors that affects the design and see which can give a value to the design. Actually, this was the initial method that I had before starting this article. Then, I thought that it would be easier if we analyze some of the designs that prove to have a value and see why these designs got a value comparing with other designs in the market.

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The Apple designs have proved to have a design value and respectable reputation in the community. The Apple design line has specific characteristics with regards to both the company theme and products.

However, if we try to summarize the general characteristics in Apple’s design we can notice the following:

• Although Apple design scheme maintains a sustainable design line. This design is flexible to reflect a unique creativity experience along with the line with each new product release or product update.
• The design process is supported by a deep research to the user experience and needs.  This helps the designers to produce a usable product which can gain the products full satisfaction.
• The design line is unique compared to other products in the market.

Image by shutterstock

In the auto industry, let us take Mercedes Benz as an example of a German car that gained a good reputation in the industry among other top notch manufactures. You can easily identify that Mercedes’ trademark shared a lot of characteristics with Apple such as the unique design, the ability to meet with the client requirement and reach the client satisfaction without affecting their design process’ general rules.

Actually, there is another interesting notice on Mercedes Benz’ trademark. It has built a reputation in the market and trust based on their originality and unified concepts in different production process including the design.

Based on what was mentioned above, we can easily identify that there are some factors that can affect the design value. Others do not have real effect or even have bad effect on the way to reach the valuable design stage. For example, the project budget does not have direct effect about the design value, but it can help to give the design process more ability to conduct more user researches if there are enough budgets. But on the same time, the client that wants to limit the budget by limiting the design process steps can affect the final design in a bad matter.

In another example, the trademark forms the client satisfaction. So, the client trusts the mark whatever the final product is such as auto marks as BMW and Audi. This trust comes after the manufacture spends ages to produce a well-designed product which builds a solid client base that can trust the future design by this manufacture.

This adds a time factor as an essential factor to judge the design value and if the design really holds a value. The time turns a valuable design into a part of the client culture. This only happens when the design process works hard on a long term to maintain this level.

The conclusion to what we have briefly discussed is: the design value is the sum for number of balanced factors managed by the design process. These factors include design concept, quality, studying the client needs, unique design and sustainable design process through the time.  These factors can give the design a value and subsequently a successful important part in the project.