Translating Design Value into Business ROI :: DesignIntelligence

It’s been said that “design” is both a noun and a verb—a product and a process. While we may have words to describe design, it’s devilishly difficult to define because it means so many different things to so many different people.

Indeed, architects and designers are so notoriously diverse in their opinion about what constitutes “good” design that it’s nearly impossible to achieve consensus on even the most basic issues. A big reason for this is that designers are creative people, adept at inventing more than one solution for a given problem. Asking which building is “best” is like choosing between Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson; it’s a charming question without an answer.

Other professionals encounter similar ambiguity. In medicine, there are many ways to diagnose and treat an illness; each patient is slightly different. Lawyers are skillful at arguing both sides of a case (sometimes simultaneously!). Even in mathematics or engineering,…

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