Importance of Design and its Evolution with Time

Design is both an integral and intrinsic part of a variety of business cultures that provides a fertile
seedbed for strategic growth and sustainable development. However, for this to be fully realized
into a cohesive vision, a framework of organizational planning is vital to ensure its successful
implementation and value.

The business landscape has undergone radical change with the erosion of global boundaries, new
emergent technologies and societal transformation all demanding reconfigured ways of working
and pervasive negotiation. One thing does remain - design is still notoriously difficult to quantify in
terms of its impact and many benefits. Design has many rols to play witin the organization and, on
reflection , it has varying levels of application; this ranges from minimal impact, mostly being used
as a tool to cosmetically improve the appearance of a product , right up to being at the core 'DNA'
business operation.

Through its many-faceted roles, design management has the ability to shape business decision
making and operation by influencing key individuals within the organization. With end consumers
and customers demanding greater transparency and honesty in organizational activity, extra
demands have been placed on the organization to fulfil these obligations.

By having a broader understanding and appreciation of design, its value and impact could be more
widespread and crucial to organizational activity.

It is now evident in many diverse and different industrial sectors that there is an increase in
turnover and profitability that can result from design investment. the consideration of design
issues. However, very often, for an organization, this message can be frustrating, despite the
evidence of research into and investment in adopting a design-centric approach; it can be difficult
to know how to value design within the company; where to start to augment its application and,
inevitably, how to manage it effectively.

Design management has emerged into an important stage of corporate recognition, placing
greater demands on the skills and competencies of design managers, whereby they have to utilize
their innate knowledge, interpersonal skills and forecasting strengths. Design-trained personnel
are now in an enhanced position to lead organizations along with their management counterparts
in fast changing commercial environments.
What is Design Management?

The concept of design management relates to certain management activities, methods and skills
that are required to optimize and manage design processes. This is dictated by the highly complex
nature of the design process. To detail this with example design management focses on a complex
of all visual manifestations of companies, brands and products. As well as on non-visual aspects
relating to the design process as such, or to processes for product development, production,
distribution, sales, delivery or service

Another explicit objective comprises the creation of synergy between the creative realm and the
business realm. These realms tend to operate with their own culture, own values and opinions,
and their own dynamics. This disunity is perpetuated by management courses’ lack of focus on
design as a business tool, and design courses’ lack of focus on business aspects, as these
predominantly choose a cultural approach. As a result, design specialists’ affinity for
communication marketing and business strategy tends to fall short. Design management aims to
connect these two realms, and bases itself on the idea that companies and organisations perform
better when they manage to successfully harness and exploit the potential of design.

Design as a Process and Tool:

The design process can be considered as the 'immaterial creation' of the product, that is, at the
end of this process the product does not yet exist but everything is defined beforehand. As a
consequence, design in its current conception incorporates a significant amount of complex
information and knowledge that must be properly managed. Therefore, a mature, sophisticated
and continuously improving series of processes is becoming increasingly important for
organizations. This, in turn, requires a sound and robust management of the whole development
process, integrating the appropriate tools and techniques and with the necessary supporting
infrastructure. These problems highlight the need for a set of flexible tools, which can help in
assessing the whole process and provide the opportunity to identify specific aspects in order to
later focus on them during the improvement phase.

One of the key contributors to the series of guidelines, Alan Topalian (Alto Design Management)
argues that the 'emphasis is placed on ensuring close coordination during the development
process so all disciplines contribute effectively at all stages, before and after introduction to
market' (Design thinking and collaboration techniques into the organisation). The series of
guidelines emphasizes the importance of financial planning; key decision pathways; roles and
responsibilities of design and management functions from the boardroom to the designer at
project level.

The 'Design Atlas: A Tool for Auditing Design Capability' provides straightforward and
highly applicable support information that measures design capability, processes and
planning considerations in three parts. Part 1 describes the frame of reference covered
by the audit tool and outlines how it can be utilized to review design capability within
an organization. Part 2 provides a detailed description of the questions that constitute
the entire three-part framework. Finally, Part 3 provides examples of actions that can be
taken to develop and augment organizational design capability in response to the audit.
Auditing/AUdit

Auditing refers to a range of activities aimed at improving how an organization operates.

This may be in a strategic area where current and past plans are evaluated against
results.

Alternatively an audit may apply to a management area where any aspects of an

intangible process may be considered. Operations may also be 'performance
researched', particularly from a compliance viewpoint where a complex range of goals
both precise and imprecise may be located against what actually goes on.

Design Audit:

Design Audit talks about offer a flexible framework whereby the organization could
undertake a full strategic design audit, taking into consideration four dimensions of
investigation:

 the wider environmental context in which the organization operates (External

Audit of the Market, Industry and Competitors Realm), and creating the business
agenda
 physical manifestations of design, focusing upon visual identity and
communication material (What does the brand/company mean, Branding,
Marketing, Perception with the people)
 Exploring the internal corporate culture and understanding of internal capabilities
that are inline to the Business agenda through Design and Design thinking as a tool
 Designing the management procedures and processes that can bridge the gap
between Market expectations and Company offerings.

The authors emphasize and signpost aspects of organizational activity to investigate but
do not provide an exhaustive list of considerations to adhere to. They provide a
cautionary note that using audits 'will help organisations to define current practice and
benchmark themselves against other organisations, but relying on audits to measure
practice, stimulate improvements in practice and for overall change is inappropriate'.

definitions of design (in the humanities) may even defy description. However

there are a variety of starting points for describing design activities within companies so
they may be assed or even measured. Initially the design department may be viewed as
a series of informal and formal networks. Common characteristics of networks include
(a) social measures and (b) performance measures. Social measures will include:
participation, communication, trust, professional norms and common purpose.
Performance measures will includ e: business contribution, product or service market
innovation. Clearly an audit of design (and the design function) is likely to have
particularly broad but interrelated measurement criteria.

To conduct strategic design audit to compare the inline capability and plans of the
company with that of the Changing landscape of market conditions and the
industry as a whole, by unfolding and reviewing the ineffi ciencies and dilemmas
through the lens of Design research tools and processes, plus suggest possible
design interventions at various levels of organization.