Clmnt

… The individual techniques and skills are only preliminaries to learning a discipline, but you must also learn its core elements —the things that will help you know the when and the why— in order to be any good at it.

… Are you hiring a designer for their knowledge of WordPress functions or Photoshop filters, or are you hiring them for their understanding of human nature —i.e. user experience, interaction design, usability, psychology? Of course you want somebody who can deliver the latter, since the tools themselves aren’t the end product. One is a prerequisite for them to be able to do the job, the other is prerequisite for them to do a good job.

… specific skills do not make a good designer. … Effective design relies on understanding the audience and using this knowledge to communicate how your website or product works. … Knowledge of areas like user experience, interaction design and psychology help the designer understand the when and the why, and this is the sort of knowledge that isn’t tied down to specific techniques—the sort of knowledge that can be applied in a wide range of contexts and industries.

This is essentially what we do. We are part of creating an experience. We are manufacturing something that wasn’t there before. Sure usability is important. Yes, it needs to be designed well. Of course, it should function without a glitch. But, are those really what sell the experience? There’s something more intangible that drives people to products: The desire to use it.