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IBM, as of the past few years has become a ‘Design Led’ company. What that means is that IBM has started to involve design in all their projects and has shifted from a product focused to a design focused entity. This doesn’t mean IBM has forgotten functionality. In fact, they realize that design exists to facilitate functionality and not to limit it.

Perfect Balance Between Functionality & Design … Almost

I often find design guidelines which are either too function focused, or too design focused. You rarely get to see a perfect balance between the two in this era of ‘following design trends’. IBM has managed to land at an almost perfect position, where they were already experts in providing great functionality to the users, and now they’ve added great design to the roster.
Even though IBM has done a great job with building software with design in mind, they have definitely skipped a few ‘little things’. In some places the designs seem beautiful, and no doubt they are, but are missing some finishing touches. Some of the assets used around, seem old and out of place and you’ll sometimes think if assets have been reused.

IBM Really Wants You to Understand & Use Their Design Guidelines

Their website features a page called practices, where they explain what their design is all about and how to put it to use in one’s own projects. IBM designers explain in depth, how they use the design language, so that should help anybody wanting to try something new.

They have enlisted all their colors, icons, measurements and everything else that an open design language has. What really caught my eye though, was that they have a guide on how to create a better user experience with their design language. This is something unique and new, and I absolutely love it.

As Transparent As It Gets

IBM is extremely transparent in showing off their projects and how they have gone about designing these projects, They’ve posted case studies of different redesigned apps and services. This shows how confident they are when it comes to their own designs. Many designers only wish to be as open about their design process as IBM is and are still striving for originality in their work. IBM is nothing but all original work, something that I feel is one of the hardest to achieve in UI and UX design. Yet again, I won’t say they have ‘redefined’ design, because this is something that has been done before. However, I’m happy to see that IBM is following the path of creative and open thinking.

They’re Definitely Committed

IBM Design Studio, Austin, Texas

IBM has 42 design studios around the world which are occupied by about 1,600 fully formally trained designers, which make all designs from scratch and in house. Outsourcing design wasn’t what IBM wanted and that’s something more companies need to learn from them.

IBM has gone all the way and actually made videos for their Youtube Channel introducing their new design standards as a “culture centered” design that works best for the users.

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Is IBM’s New Design Worth it? was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Is IBM’s New Design Worth it?

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