Just Grow Up: Why Design Maturity Models Might be Harming Our Industry!
Designers often look to design maturity models as benchmarks, comparing their own companies to idealised industry standards and thinking, “We’re so behind!” This can spark a drive to “improve” the company’s design maturity, which often translates into attempts to “educate” leadership on what they’re doing “wrong” or how the organisation can “catch up.” But is maturity really the most useful framework here? Or might labelling a company as “immature” potentially miss the point? 🤔
Strategic Choices or Environmentally Emergent Design?
Rather than viewing these organisations as falling behind, we could recognise their design choices as deliberate — or, at the very least, shaped by their business environment.
Consider budget airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet, which operate on tight margins, compared to luxury airlines like Qatar Airways or Emirates, which invest heavily in a premium experience. On a maturity chart, budget airlines might appear less advanced due to limited investments in experience and aesthetics. However, these design decisions aren’t signs of immaturity but strategic choices made to align with a market where affordability is more important than luxury. 🧩
