RGE Design

27/03/2025

Design Outcome

During Silvia Weidenbach’s lecture, one question she posed really kept circling around in my head afterwards: ‘Do we need a final outcome?’. This is what I want to reflect on in this blog.

The first instinct in answering this question is yes. Without a final outcome, then what is design? You might argue, from an engineering stand point, that without a final outcome you can’t have a product, but is that really the case?

Engineering and design are about the process. Yes, they result in products, but those products wouldn’t exist without a process. A process that can continue to be refined and changed until the final outcome itself changes.

While consider the question about the outcome I found myself coming back to SharkNinja and their success drivers. A company which really encompasses their first two success drivers, rarely satisfied and progress over perfection, in every aspect of the business. Yes they have a final outcome in their products but behind the scenes they are always moving and improving the design and releasing newer, better versions. As a designer is easy to get caught up in the need for a perfect outcome that we forget to enjoy the process. This is something I believe SharkNinja manages to do well, they allow designer to always be moving forward and creating something new, which builds resilience in their designers and engineers while still enabling them enjoy to the process.

Upon further consideration Weidenbach’s question, I found myself drowning in others: is a product ever really final; when is enough enough in the design process; what does final outcome mean and how do we define it; are we ever finished designing?

I think that no product is ever fully finished, there is always more you can do to improve it, and advancements in technology creates new avenues for design. Does this then mean there is never a final outcome? Coming back to the question of how we define the final outcome is the only way to answer this question. If we decide that a final outcome as a point and place we are happy with finishing our design process then yes, we have a final outcome! But, if we define it as a point in which no more design or engineering or improvement could be made then I think there is a case for their never being a final outcome.

The case of never having a final outcome invites questions about when have we done enough as designers. When is our design finished? When is it time to move on to the next thing? This is something I think only we can decide for ourselves.

Overall, I think this question is a difficult one to answer. We could probably say that there is never a final outcome but rather an end goal. And, I believe, most of the time we need that end goal so we can know when to stop, to prevent overcomplication of the design, over designing and creative burnout. I invite you to take a moment and consider this question yourself.