I know some people respect it but overall, I feel true design (not UI output) is thought of as unnecessary by devs and directors/managers think they can do it, which is why we get prescriptive feedback.
Design isn’t super important if the core product is compelling enough. See Craigslist for example.
Not true. What will happen is if something better designed comes along and offers the same thing as CL, CL will be dead. MySpace, MP3.com, you name it. Also the first MP3 player to be put in a phone was invented by Samsung. Just no one has tackled the CL area. Probably because it’s really not super interesting.
There are dozens of better designed Craigslist alternatives. The reason you don’t use them is that while Craigslist isn’t beautiful it’s effective. And that’s what you need when trying to use this service. MySpace wasn’t compelling. It was just the most accessible option. When a better option came around people rotated to it. A better example would be google. It is a very simple design, it doesn’t have the best features when compared to bing or DuckDuckGo, and yet, it’s still #1. This is because it is able to accomplish its core dusty effectively, and thus even when newer, possibly better designed alternatives, with more features arrive it maintains its staying power. Same could also be said of salesforce. There are tons of better designed, easier to use, alternatives and yet, they maintain. Additionally it shows a massive amount of hubris to just state that my point in untrue in its entirety. Perhaps this is part of the reason you, in particular, are not well respected. You should work on this.
IBM values design over product. Which one is doing better?
They absolutely do not. I worked at IBM for almost 4 years on several big products. That company is a damn mess. Design isn’t valued. We couldn’t get shit built.
Design isn’t valued. We couldn’t get shit built. Those two aren't mutually exclusive. While I was there we had several floors of designers who kept making shit we never made work and then replaced it with something shiny before the old one ever worked.
The moment employees are respected
Might have to leave the US for that
Most companies don’t respect design as much as they should. It’s not an Amazon specific thing.
Yeah prob right. The trick is finding a company that values it enough because they know if they don’t they will be behind.
While I value good design, my experience is that it is easier to find bad designers than good ones. That might be contributing to the problem.
Exactly. That points to the same problem being brought up. If directors that have no or little knowledge of design there are no checks and balance. They hire the managers and tend to hire the ones who fall in line with their ideals not ours
When someone proves with data that design is important and increases sales, revenue, customers satisfaction, or any part of the flywheel.
Um it is proven. Most projects are shoved over to design because there is a huge problem, like with the business side of .com or prime now. Every minute a package is late, that is tied to a dollar amount. If the package can be delivered faster then it obviously saves money. Not sure where you are going with that. Do you think the echo would sell like it does if it looked like a modem from 1980? Nope. That’s a design call.
Who looks at echo anyway? Wasn't echo show stolen from Nucleus? Can Amazon design anything better than Braun ca 60s? If it is proven, then someone at amazon owns a one pager which directors jump at, without knowing anything about design. Simply because its numbers are too good to be true. Business people are simple creatures. They will do everything for better sales or higher profits.
The one pager is the idea. The design is done by after that. The idea comes from gaps in products or brands. It usually comes from a need. Someone can have a great idea without knowing anything about design, happens all the time.
Jeff fundamentally does not get design. At all. until he defers to someone that does, Amazon will treat design as a just a value-add of its processes. See fire phone, Wayfair’s entire existence etc.