Who do we design for?

First, an admission of guilt.

I too have spent an excessive amount of time looking for the perfect render of my design to post to Instagram. After working so hard on a project, nobody's going to blame you for taking pride in it. The real problem rears its ugly head when that juicy render starts to consume a little too much of your headspace and you design everything else around it.

It's not uncommon these days for a design firm to receive a commission with the specific instructions that the finished product be utterly and perfectly "instagrammable", a request akin to asking a graphic designer to "make it pop" (I apologize for the cold chill running down your spine). The underlying issue of instagram-ablility is that it has nothing to do with the usability of the design, the benefits to the user, or even the experience of having the dang thing; all that matters on Instagram is that it makes people think:

"Wow, I've never seen that before!" *double-tap, keep scrolling*

And hey, I get it. Maybe they'll dig that slick render of your glass coffee shop so much they'll stop by to take a selfie. Maybe they'll salivate over that oh-so-smooth matte finish on your rebar hairpin legs and actually buy one. But maybe, just maybe, if we focus on the things that make experiencing and using the design a joy? They might just come all the same.

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