QUANTIFYING THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DESIGN: ASSESSMENT TOOLS BASED ON DESIGN MATURITY LEVELS

This article explores the topic of assessment of design’s economic impact within organisations, with a focus on tools developed in the past decade to assess and quantify such impact in business terms. Despite the growing interest in the strategic role of design, isolating and quantifying its effect remain difficult due to the evolving and varied nature of design practice. The article examines three prominent tools, each of which develops a matrix exploring the relationship between the design utilisation at various design maturity levels and existing business metrics. While these tools offer valuable insights for companies, they also reaffirm significant challenges, such as the expanding scope of design practices, the difficulty of distinguishing design’s impact from other business functions, and variations in organisational forms of design utilisation. The article concludes that a more nuanced approach is needed to assess the impact of design at different maturity levels, particularly at the strategic level. Additionally, considering the increasing interest in design utilisation in the public sector as well, which prioritises the social and environmental impact of design, the article underscores the importance of enhancing the assessment capabilities of individual companies in both private and public sectors by developing appropriate tools and methods for evaluating the full spectrum of design’s impact.