You don't need professional designers to develop good products

“Design can never be complete because design solves people’s problems, and people are constantly changing,” said Kevin Fox, a product designer of Mozilla Labs, in concluding the Rainmakers LIVE! 2011 mini-conference in Silicon Valley.

With the theme “Bridging People and Technology with Design”, the Rainmakers put Fox onstage together with four other Silicon Valley-based designers and/or start-up founders; Luke Wroblewski of Bagcheck, Jason Putorti of Votizen, Garry Tan of Posterous and Y Combinator, and Jessica Mah of inDinero.

Three hundred participants made up of design and product enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and students based in Silicon Valley attended the event held at the AOL Auditorium on Jun 20, 2011.

Panellists (from left): Garry Tan, Kevin Fox, Luke Wroblewski, Jason Putorti and Jessica Mah

Audience. Photo Credits: Quek Siu Rui

We bring you the key takeaways of the panel discussion:

Q1. What does design mean to you?

Jessica Mah: Helping solve problems for users. In the case of InDinero, design is about helping business owners track their money online. It does not matter how something looks visually, but more of the user interaction.
Jason Putorti: Design is a process. In design, we work to find the intersection between user needs and business needs.
Luke Wroblewski: It depends on whom you ask the question to. To me, design is all encompassing.
Kevin Fox: Design can be anything. But it has to be functional, appealing and gratifying. It is important to give joy to the users.
Garry Tan: Good design is making something that people want.

Q2: What is your top principle in web design?

Jessica Mah: Test your design out with people. Go through your mock-ups with people.
Jason Putorti: I come from an advertising agency background. To me, user comprehension is very important. What is the most important thing in the page for the user?
Garry Tan: People do not get copy correctly. As a result, users get lost. This is a big problem. Designers should think about how they are communicating to one single person, what is in their mind, and what needs to be done to make the person do what they intend.
Luke Wroblewski: This is a big question. To me, the number one principle is “Do no harm.” Do not communicate the wrong thing and waste the users’ time. Today, time is the most precious thing. Wasted times means doing harm.
Kevin Fox: Design should make something very easy to understand yet seemingly invisible. Design is creating things to make things more productive.

Q3: Is there a shortage of designers in Silicon Valley? If there is, what can be done?

Jason Putorti: The stereotype of a designer in Silicon Valley is someone who has done “XYZ”, has “N” years of experience and maybe lives in San Francisco. The point is, most of them are happy. It is tough to move these guys unless they are inspired. However, most people (founders) do not have things that are really inspiring. Great designers want to work on something inspiring; something that is going to create social impact and change the world.