It really is all about design after all. So why doesn’t our industry reflect that. It has become abundantly clear, design rules. Design has become the determining factor on whether someone chooses to use a system or not. We all know that that bad design is the number one factor for usability, user acceptance, and overall adoption.

I know this firsthand: users are willing to except slow performance and system architecture issues because much of this they cannot see. While performance can be devastating to the over arching user experience of a website, the data indicates that if other factors are favorable, users are more than willing to wait-especially when there is a gratuitous payoff.

I’m not saying performance is not a usability issue-and I’m certainly not saying it’s not a huge user experience culprit-but system architects and engineers have a tendency to prioritize architectural issues over design issues.

I certainly believe we all have a place in system development. What I will not accept, however, is the omission of a great design feature that greatly improves the user experience, because the feature is not congruent with the established architecture. It’s almost 2012 people, we can do just about anything we put our mind to.

It’s time to begin to prioritize design with equal attention to architecture and engineering. The truth is we all have a place in the design of the system-but I know for a fact, and I know like I know like I know that: design rules nowadays.

Many people may argue that design is already prioritized in most development projects. If this is true, why is it that user experience designers are not the highest paid employees at companies-or at least the highest-paid contractors on development projects? In my experience user experience designers usually make less than six figures. Even worse, why is it the visual designers and web designers often make below $50K a year—when their responsible for an integral part of the customer experience? System architects, DBAs, and high-level system engineers can make significantly more than that. I’ve seen architects that make a quarter of $1 million a year and sometimes more.

Can anyone give me a definitive answer on why designers don’t make as much as engineers? I would really like to know. In the fashion industry, for example, designers are the top paid employees. Just look at the greats like Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Versace. What can we do in the software industry to be more design progressive?

• 62% percent of projects fail to meet their schedules
• 49% are over budget
• 47% have higher than expected maintenance costs
• And get this—25% are canceled before they are ever deployed!

If you’ve been in the software industry long enough, you’ve probably seen all of these things happen. The funny thing is, it doesn’t really come down schedule, cost, or requirements—it comes from bad design. When software companies think design, they’re thinking about contractual obligations and meeting commitments with their stakeholders.

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