How to make design work.

As a marketer or decision maker, there are three critical components you need to make great design work for you. When reviewing your next project, remember these points and take them into account.

1. Collaboration: A great designer can't take your ideas and "run with it." You need to properly communicate with the designer and come to an agreement on what needs to be done, listen to them as well. If you don't communicate with your designer / design department this project won't work. Guaranteed.

2. Cognition: Is the brain going to visually understand this piece? Design can look cool and completely lose your audience. The design must use the correct visuals and must be easy for the brain to comprehend. The visuals and text can't be distracting, they must accomplish a purpose. Is there pointless clutter on the page that doesn't need to be there?

3. Congruence: Our brains have been trained to dump inconsistencies. Your design must be innovative and creative but at the same time must agree with the message. The copy on the page and the visuals used to communicate that message must agree with each-other. If your target market is confused you are in trouble. Do you have metallics and crazy colors with a black background on your day care website? If so, the prospective parents are picturing a Heavy Metal, Harley ridin' care giver.

Put your current pieces through the steps. Are your collateral pieces visually confusing? Are there red-flags popping up in your head reading this? How much farther could your marketing dollars be stretched by making your designs work?

Give 'Em the Paisley Duct Tape.

Do customers really care if you look cool as long as you can deliver a great product? Can design be used to enhance customer experience?

The answer is yes; having a product that works, simply isn't good enough anymore. Oh sure you can get by, but can your business truly reach its potential? The United States consumer is more picky today, especially in an age where everything has been commoditized. I will outline some practical examples for you to chew on.

• Altoids: Those mint tins are expensive to produce. Seemingly the company would make more money with a paper box or even a roll. They understand their customers love the nostalgic tins, and will gladly pay a little extra for them. Would you be as likely to buy Altoids if they were in a paper roll?
• Dirt Devil: They hired Karim Rashid to design cool looking vacuums. He came up with Kone. Even though there is no difference between a regular dirt devil, his new design sold more vacuums. It did so well in fact they now have added Kurv and Brum.
• Duct Tape: Have you seen the new designer duct tape? Seriously, I have attached the image to the right.
• Target: They carry designer stuff all over that store, not all of which is stuff you would publicly display in your home. Michael Graves designs items for target from wine racks to ironing boards and toilet brushes.
• Apple: After you buy your iPod, the sale is done. So why does Apple bother making the un-boxing experience so enjoyable? (People even post un-boxing photos online when new products come out) They know that design enhances experience.

These are just a fraction of the many examples that your prospects require great design. Keep in mind that if your product is terrible, good design can't help you. Your customers want both, not one or the other. Do you have any super examples of design enhancing customer experience? How are you enhancing customer experience? Are you giving them form, function or both?