For people who come from a hard business or technical background – entrepreneurs, personnel administration, engineering – design can be a mysterious and suspicious thing. A nebulous phantom they know they have to broker with to succeed, but don't understand it's nature or it's reasoning. Captain Kirk trying to establish first contact with the electro-cloud people of the Zeta nebula, deflector shields up.

Frustratingly, some designers play into this image. They call themselves web-ninjas or some cutesy thing. They play up the image of being some sort of whimsical or irreverent breed. While its true that design takes a different set of skills and different way of thinking, it isn't a license to act like a cliché. When designers do that, it undermines the role of design in business and the practical value it offers.

Because design isn't all that mysterious or whimsical when you get right down to it. It takes a creative flair for sure, but at the end of the day, design is a craft. It's about solving problems.

Good design is about making decisions to further a goal. It's about bridging the gap between the goals of a business or product with the desires and needs of it's target audience. Strong design helps businesses communicate clearly with customers and customers recognize and access what they need easily, furthering both the business' goals and advocating for the user. 

It's not whimsical or ephemeral. Good design adds concrete value to a business. It's the glue that holds everything together.

Of course, because every product is different, and every business is different, and every user need is different, design needs to constantly adapt. There is no set checklist of what kind of design every product needs. That is a question that has to be answered by looking at the situation, and most importantly, the goals at stake. You have to problem solve.

Design can encompass many areas. It can be about presentation, communicating the idea of a product or service to the people who will be most receptive to it. It can be about how the product is delivered to the customer, influencing the business model of the venture. It can be about structure and navigation, how the site works. It can be about content, providing a reason for interested parties to come to a site. It can be about user experience, making something easy and intuitive to use like an app or a web store. Or information hierarchy, deciding what is important and should be presented at the top level and what can be trimmed. User behaviour, using metrics and analtytics to understand your customers and fine tune the site to make it the best possible experience. And of course, yes, it can be about picking out the right colour for the "Join Now” button and making things look pretty.

Design is a craft. It's a discipline. A good designer won't ask you what kind of colour you want for the header, a good designer will ask you what you want to accomplish with your site. They'll ask what problems you need to solve. Then they'll take their skills, experience, and judgment and help you execute on those ideas.

Design is a value-add for your business.