SocialTimes.com

The Social Web Economy: Designers Posted: 27 Aug 2008 10:51 AM CDT This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“ You can't have a good product if it doesn't look good. While the initial launch of the Facebook platform brought about applications with poor design but broad success, the quality of design has slowly begun to improve. The reality is that designers give products that extra bit of appeal necessary to get users to try it out. Absolutely everybody in the social web economy wants to have a good image and design is the best way to instantly get a great image. While a great logo doesn't mean you run a great company, having a good initial image is important part of any business. Since everybody wants their company to look good, designers frequently get to know just about everybody in the social web economy. They design everything from websites to applications, from user interfaces to color combinations, from logos to brochures. Everybody can give you their own opinion on how important design is for your company. A venture capitalist may tell you that having an amazing looking presentation with great slide transitions isn't as important as having good content. That doesn't mean they will take you seriously if your presentation looks like a third grader designed it. While developers are hard at work ensuring that products work properly, the designers are making sure that the product looks good. Interestingly enough, developers are frequently one of the sources of tension for designers. Some times extravagant designers are not easily implemented and as such designers are forced to work with constraints, which is something no designer enjoys. The primary source of design for designers? Clients. Regularly, a client will come to a designer with preconceived ideas of how they'd like something to look. This immediately places more restrictions on the designer, something I just said they don't enjoy. You will find designers working within just about all the companies in the social web economy. While you can debate the importance of top tier designers, you can't debate whether or not design is an important aspect of the social web economy. Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Consumers”

You are subscribed to email updates from The Social Times To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner
Inbox too full? Subscribe to the feed version of The Social Times in a feed reader.
If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: The Social Times, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610