Mike Monteiro is my new favourite writer on design

Food for thought from Design is not an investment, An Event Apart - Speaker Spotlight, Oct 2014

Design - It's plumbing, it's foundation

Design is core. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s plumbing. It’s foundation. You don’t invest in design. You can’t exist without it. A website without design isn’t a house without art, it’s a house without a bathroom.

Good design is how things work well

Design is how things work. And good design is how things work well. A well-designed site, or app, or product, is going to stand a better chance in a crowded marketplace than one that isn’t. Because good design is about making something’s value more apparent.

Selling the value of design work is a core design skill

First off, the work does not sell itself. Never has, never will. I’ve seen a lot of great work thrown in the dumpster because the designer could not explain to a client how that work solved their business problem. Knowing how to sell work to a client is a core design skill.

I really liked these points and the way Mike covered some of these critical issues when considering web design.

Makes me pretty keen to read 'You're my favorite client'