In a recent interview, John Maeda, head of inclusion and computational design at Automattic, made the firm claim that “In reality, design is not that important.” Yes, I know, this statement is rather shocking for a designer to say about his own craft and work, and it has become a rather contentious topic in the design community. Nonetheless, the designer simply thinks that design should take on less of a leadership role in companies and more of a secondary role, or “supporting actor” role. In a tech company, at least, he believes the leading roles should be assigned to the developers and product managers…
Maeda’s controversial claim has made designers everywhere from all walks of life question the very importance of design, as they have either completely disagreed with Maeda, completely agreed with him, or are stuck somewhere in between on the matter.
You can read designers’ different responses to Maeda’s claim here:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90320120/john-maeda-in-reality-design-is-not-that-important
What do you think?
You can check out Fast Company’s full interview with Maeda here:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90320120/john-maeda-in-reality-design-is-not-that-important
