14 Interior Design Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. The business and economic value of interior design relates to its ability to attract customers. For example, a well-designed coffee shop interior attracts people to visit, spend money, and stay longer. Therefore, the design brings additional business to the restaurant, generating revenue and additional client base. While many understand the value of quality interior spaces in the home, others are still learning how interior design brings concrete and measurable value to the workplace. A well designed space will maximize the use of real estate through the following: ■ effi cient space planning ■ appropriate levels of natural and electric light ■ incorporation of safe and appropriate designs and materials that protect human health and safety For companies, this means increased employee satisfaction, productivity, and well-being. It can also decrease absenteeism. In addition, if you consider design through its cultural and global impact, it is a factor in economic development and cultural sustainability. “The profession of interior design provides value to the stakeholders. It improves well- being as a factor of economic development. It provides strategic thought leadership resulting in multifaceted return on investment.” DFIE Declaration, IFI, 2011 Local Value Bad design has real economic consequences. In a recent study, Gensler—a well-known, world wide architectural and design fi rm—published a document entitled “U.S. Workplace Survey.” It explained that the effect of bad offi ce design on lost worker productivity in the United States is estimated around $330 billion annually for just the industry groups that were sampled in the survey. Redesigning the offi ces with open-access workspaces signifi cantly improved the decision-making process, group cohesion, and team effectiveness. This, in turn, had direct impact on the organization’s fi nancial bottom line. On a local level, organizations often view the hiring of an interior designer as an additional, unnecessary expense. Quite the contrary is true. Instead, professional interior designers can save their clients time and money while increasing effi ciency and productivity in the workplace. This leads to a more successful bottom line for a business. For economic value, a professional designer may ■ Bring design thinking to your project. Design thinking is an active practice that develops in the proper environment and causes you to look at the world with evolving potential and probable possibilities. It is a nonlinear problem-solving process that combines future thinking and analysis with creativity. Rather than a system of sequential steps, the ebb-and-fl ow (or back-and-forth layering) of design thinking allows interior designers to envision possibilities others cannot imagine and show how out-of-the-box alternatives can work. Interior designers bring that innovative, creative thinking to their projects to produce designs that can infl uence the home and workplace. Although interior designers have utilized design thinking in practice over many years, David Kelley of IDEO coined the phrase design thinking. ■ Save money by doing it right the fi rst time. Many times, people attempt to save money by completing design work themselves (for example, a home or small commercial project). In some cases, the scope of work is minimal, and a talented consumer can complete the work. For the more complex or technical work, hiring a professional can avoid costly design-decision mistakes. ■ Save time by completing the legwork. Time is money. In both residential and commercial design, a professional designer has an accessible resource network to tap to save you legwork on tracking down the best resources for the scope of work to be completed. ■ Capitalize on what the client already owns. There is a myth that interior designers want to toss out whatever the client owns and purchase all new items for the spaces. This is not true. Professional designers understand the importance of memory pieces that are important to residential clients. In addition, they appreciate that a corporate offi ce workplace cannot afford to recycle all their furnishings and equipment when moving into a new space. Professional designers are skilled in reusing existing items in the design of new or existing spaces, Figure 1-7.