there is bad design everywhere
There is bad design everywhere. I know this is a pretty bold statement, BUT it's true. There are poorly designed customer service experiences, horribly designed signage experiences, and if I sat long enough, and had enough patience, I could probably rattle off about 100 other EXPERIENCES that are poorly designed. And if I am honest with YOU and MYSELF, I would have to admit that all of the BAD DESIGN is not 100% of the design stakeholders fault. IN fact, I would have to say that about 80% of the BAD DESIGN that we engage is the fault of the Designers.
Where We Miss It... Sometimes.
For a long time (real long time) Designers have been charged with making things pretty and not held responsible (at all) for experiences. We are not held responsible for insuring the experience associated with the "pretty thing" lines up with the really good looks. This is a broken practice. Over the last few years we have seen a surge in Experience Designers and Interaction Designers for this very reason. The Experience Designers and Interaction Designers are the insurance policy (or should be the insurance policy) that not only does a thing "shine well" on the surface, BUT it also "shines within" as it pertains to the experience...
Closing thoughts -
Start thinking about experiences. Start giving a damn about how people engage your designs rather you are the stakeholder OR the designer, we are all responsible (HELD RESPONSIBLE) for not only making things "pretty" BUT we are responsible for making them "make sense"...


