How do we actually know when a design project has been successful?
As part of my In the Industry series, I've been speaking to people across the commercial world to learn more about their work, the challenges they face and the things we don't always get to hear about.
Recently, I sat down with a founder working in the education sector, and our conversation got onto something I've been thinking about ever since. How do we actually know when a design project has been successful?
We tend to measure success through fairly familiar things: delivering on time, staying within budget and getting through the project without too many problems along the way. And of course, those things matter. But do they tell us whether the project was actually successful?
Did the solution work for the people using it? Did it address the original problem? Did it deliver what the client really needed, rather than simply what was written in the brief? And how often do we go back and ask those questions once a project has been delivered?
It was a reminder of why I enjoy having these conversations in the first place. There's so much experience and knowledge sitting within different industries, and some of the most useful insights come from stepping outside your own corner of the design world.
The more we understand the context in which our work sits, the better equipped we are to make decisions about what we create. More conversations to come.