Output details

Measuring Design Effectiveness

Improving innovation through design has been a strand of government policy for some time, but there is not an established and recognized set of metrics by which design effectiveness can be assessed nor like-for-like comparisons made. In this context, design effectiveness is defined as how well a design project (public or private) meets the business objectives set at the start of the project. The paper reviews extant literature in the design arena and draws on measures of effectiveness used in other business disciplines such as marketing and accounting.

The research pulled together selected measures proposed by other authors to form a new tool and a concept has been developed as to how project logic models may be used as a means of thinking through how design effectiveness could be measured from the start of a project.

To further the development of an agreed set of metrics this embryonic methodology for measuring design effectiveness is presented. It is proposed that such metrics could be useful for both government and private industry alike in order to demonstrate the tangible benefits that investment in design can bring. This work contributes to current debates on impact by considering how this may be measured for design related projects.

This is the first paper to bring together the extant literature and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches reported. It is also the first paper in the design arena to present a technique to enable practitioners to explore the potential impact from the earliest stages of a project in order to maximize its ultimate effects.