will "good enough" kill the digital design agency?

Ryan McCormack :: May 2010 http://bitstrategist.com

Will “Good Enough” kill the digital design agency?

Ryan McCormack :: May 2010 :: http://bitstrategist.com

Outline

•  Abundance, scarcity and commoditization

•  The “good enough” revolution

•  The spectrum of graphic design

•  Cathedrals, bazaars and the digital design agency

•  Summary & Closing thoughts

Two caveats

Designing for business

Abundance, scarcity and commoditization

“Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does.”

– Clay Shirky

Gutenberg Bible (Printed ca. 1445)

A Catholic Indulgence (ca. 1445)

Martin Luther’s “95 Theses”

Johannes Trithemius (Bishop of Sponheim) “In Praise of Scribes” (1494)

Scarcity drives commodification

Commodification: The process by which something acquires economic value (and can thus be sold).

Abundance drives commoditization

Commoditization: The process by which goods that used to be distinguishable in terms of attributes wind up becoming mere commodities.

What’s the tipping point?

Characteristics of a commodity

•  Product differentiation difficult

•  Competition based primarily on price

•  Increased competition

•  Reduced customer loyalty

•  Increased pressure on margins

The “good enough” revolution

See Wired: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough

Digital video

• Lower quality • Less features • Easy! Fun! Cheap!

• Great quality • Feature rich • Hard to use & Expensive

Telephony

• Lower quality • Calls drop • Cheap (or Free) • Location-independent

• “Reliable” service • Better call quality • Hard to use & Expensive • Geography-dependent

• Lower fidelity • Infinitely reproducible • Cheap and portable

• Higher fidelity • Harder to reproduce • Not as portable

Software

• Just enough features • Downloadable • Free (or $500)

• Feature rich • Complex • $4000

The spectrum of graphic design

Traditional

Graphic Arts

Politics and Propaganda

Advertising

Identity

Digital

The first web page (ca 1991)

Maturity and open standards make design easier

No wheel reinvention

Patterns mean different problems

Efficiency accelerates results

Processes are clearer

Platforms lower barriers to entry

Underlying technologies

Web server

Server software

Database software

Multimedia distribution platforms

Publishing platforms

Wordpress

Drupal

The pool of talent has exploded

Cathedrals, Bazaars and the digital design agency

Trust us…

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/a-perfect-dichotomy/

So what’s possible with free tools?

Summary & Closing thoughts

What separates the cathedral & bazaar?

•  Design “quality”

•  Cost of services

•  Uniqueness of design & experience

•  Systemic thinking and underlying strategy (e.g., scalability, extensibility)

Summary

•  Abundance creates more problems than scarcity

•  Digital design is evolving quickly due to an abundance of platforms, tools and knowledge

•  Quality differences are subjective

•  Business decisions can trump artistic value

So is the digital design agency doomed?

DIY Ramen w/cookbook: •  4 grocery stores •  2 days :: 12 hrs cooking :: 2 hrs cleaning

Closing thoughts

•  Digital design for marketing is a commodity

•  For every commodity created, a new opportunity is born

Thank you! Questions?

References

•  Clay Shirky: “Here comes everybody” (2008)

•  Eric Raymond: “The Cathedral & the Bazaar” (1992)

•  Wired.com: “The good enough revolution” (2009)

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