Good design brings a number of benefits to a project.

• Project teams have a clear focus and objective
• Design decisions are made in an informed and decisive manner, without relying on the project team’s ‘best guess’

The cost of change increases exponentially throughout the design and development lifecycle; hence these costs can be minimised by ensuring a thorough understanding of the real user and business needs at the start of the design process, and correctly translating these needs into an appropriate requirements specification.

Design decisions based on appropriate insight into user needs are likely to carry less risk, and ultimately lead to

• Clear differentiation from the competition
• Customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Market success