“Startups, this is how design works,” a guide for non-designers

If you’re thinking of starting a company or already run your own, here’s a site that deserves a long look. ‘Startups, this is how design works‘ reflects on the growing importance of quality design in the products companies ship. Technical co-founders dominate the startup scene for many reasons, but when designers aren’t nearby, things can get messy.

The role of design is to make sense out of chaos. Design is so important because it’s the face of your company. In other words, it’s what everyone sees first — and first impressions matter.

In recent years, beautiful design has become more and more necessary for success, especially as the web continues to grow more and more accessible for designers (since its early days of table-driven layouts and blinking text).

Creator Wells Riley, a graphic, UX and interface designer, on the importance of design:

Companies like Apple are making design impossible for startups to ignore. Startups like Path, Airbnb, Square, and Massive Health have design at the core of their business, and they’re doing phenomenal work. But what is ‘design’ actually? Is it a logo? A WordPress theme? An innovative UI?

It’s so much more than that. It’s a state of mind. It’s an approach to a problem. It’s how you’re going to kick your competitor’s ass. This handy guide will help you understand design and provide resources to help you find awesome design talent.

So, if graphic design sounds like a foreign language to you, you’ll want to take a peek. Not only does it provide an inside look at how designers think (including a mention of TNW’s piece on hiring a designer), but it also provides a stunning example of the design industry with resources and history. Check it out!

➤  Startups, this is how design works