Will "Good Enough" kill the digital design agency?

Will “Good Enough”
kill the digital design agency?
Ryan McCormack :: May 2010
http://bitstrategist.com

1

Outline
•  Abundance, scarcity and commoditization

•  The “good enough” revolution

•  The spectrum of graphic design

•  Cathedrals, bazaars and the digital design
agency

•  Summary & Closing thoughts

Ryan McCormack :: May 2010 :: http://bitstrategist.com

Two caveats


Designing for business

Art


Abundance, scarcity

and commoditization


“Abundance breaks more things
than scarcity does.”

– Clay Shirky

Gutenberg Bible (Printed ca. 1445)


A Catholic Indulgence (ca. 1445)

Martin Luther’s “95 Theses”

Johannes Trithemius (Bishop of Sponheim)
“In Praise of Scribes” (1494)


Scarcity drives commodiﬁcation

Commodiﬁcation: The process by
which something acquires economic
value (and can thus be sold).


Abundance drives commoditization

Commoditization: The process by
which goods that used to be
distinguishable in terms of attributes
wind up becoming mere commodities.


What’s the tipping point?


Characteristics of a commodity

•  Product diﬀerentiation diﬃcult

•  Competition based primarily on price

•  Increased competition

•  Reduced customer loyalty

•  Increased pressure on margins


The “good enough” revolution

See Wired: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ﬀ_goodenough


Digital video

• Lower quality
• Great quality
• Less features
• Feature rich
• Easy! Fun! Cheap!
• Hard to use & Expensive


Telephony

• Lower quality
• “Reliable” service
• Calls drop
• Better call quality
• Cheap (or Free)
• Hard to use & Expensive
• Location-independent
• Geography-dependent


Music

• Lower fidelity
• Higher fidelity
• Infinitely reproducible
• Harder to reproduce
• Cheap and portable
• Not as portable


Software

• Just enough features
• Feature rich
• Downloadable
• Complex
• Free (or $500)
• $4000


The spectrum of graphic design


Traditional


Graphic Arts


Politics and Propaganda


Advertising


Identity


Digital


The ﬁrst web page (ca 1991)


Maturity and open standards

make design easier


No wheel reinvention


Patterns mean diﬀerent problems


Eﬃciency accelerates results


Processes are clearer


Platforms lower

barriers to entry


Underlying technologies

Server software

Linux

Database software
Web server

Multimedia distribution platforms


Publishing platforms

Wordpress

Drupal


The pool of talent has exploded


Cathedrals, Bazaars and the
digital design agency


Trust us…


http://www.chrisbrogan.com/a-perfect-dichotomy/


So what’s possible
with free tools?


Summary &
Closing thoughts


What separates the cathedral & bazaar?

•  Design “quality”

•  Cost of services

•  Uniqueness of design & experience

•  Systemic thinking and underlying strategy
(e.g., scalability, extensibility)


Summary

•  Abundance creates more problems than
scarcity

•  Digital design is evolving quickly due to an
abundance of platforms, tools and knowledge

•  Quality diﬀerences are subjective

•  Business decisions can trump artistic value


So is the digital design
agency doomed?


DIY Ramen w/cookbook:
•  4 grocery stores
•  2 days :: 12 hrs cooking :: 2 hrs cleaning


Closing thoughts

•  Digital design for marketing is a commodity

•  For every commodity created, a new
opportunity is born


Thank you!
Questions?


References

•  Clay Shirky: “Here comes everybody” (2008)

•  Eric Raymond: “The Cathedral & the Bazaar” (1992)

•  Wired.com: “The good enough revolution” (2009)


Will "Good Enough" kill the digital design agency?

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