Design first. It is a simple principle that is too often disregarded. I don’t just mean “Design” in terms of just aesthetics- also usability and user experience. Design often takes a back seat to feature sets, marketing/branding requirements, legality, and as a result becomes compromised. Good design is the difference between a stellar product, and a product that is lackluster. The fastest car in the world will never be popular if it is an eyesore and if it is difficult to drive. Design should not be an afterthought, but a defining requirement.
Until recently, design seemed ill-considered in the tech industry. Early PCs were cream-coloured boxes with an overwhelming array of buttons, switches, and dials that were unintuitively placed. Now PCs are sleek, sexy, and every button is purposefully placed. What changed? In 1998, Apple started to put design first in all of their products. From then until now, Apple created some of the biggest lust items in their industry, overtaking tech giants of the time in relatively short period of time. Arguably, their success inspired design changes in both the computing and mobile phone industries. Engineering-minded companies who were once very profitable have been forced to change their way of operating and put design first in order to stay competitive; as a result, this shift towards design has created some fierce competitors who are now starting to gain back ground. The end result will be a variety of better consumer products.
Working for one such ‘Engineering-minded’ company, I was told by a team of developers AFTER launching a lackluster product “we were told to ignore UX. We now realize that was a mistake.” This statement was both vindicating and depressing. Together, we had the chance to create an amazing product, but in the end it fell short. Functionally, the product was great: it met all the marketing requirements, and implemented new and useful features. However, the visually stunning and intuitive design we created for them was disregarded. As a result, the product looked terrible, and demonstrated a poor user experience. Users were unimpressed.
This is why I’m making a case for design. Design should come first. If you put design first, you are showing the end user that they are what’s most important to you, and you are designing for them. You make a personal connection with the user this way, and they reciprocate by investing in your product financially, mentally, and emotionally. If you allow a 3rd party to dictate your requirements (a seller of some sorts- whether it be a carrier, a retailer, a stakeholder, etc.), you are putting design and the end user last. They WILL notice, and reciprocate in the same way: by putting your product last.
Design is powerful. Please use it responsibly 
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