People have funny ideas about design in business software. There’s this whole industry of designers who will spend weeks debating whether your button should be “Ocean Blue” or “Pacific Blue,” or if your sidebar should collapse at 768 pixels or 800 pixels. They’ll show you breathtaking mockups with pristine data and talk about “visual hierarchies” and “design systems.”
Which is all very nice! Design is nice. Pretty things are nice to look at. Dark mode is easy on the eyes at night. But there’s a problem with this approach to business software design, which is that none of it helps answer the question: “Will I make payroll this month?”
Design as Financial Intelligence
The thing about business software is that it exists to help businesses make money. That’s it. It’s not art. It’s not self-expression. Nobody downloads your ERP system because it’s a profound aesthetic experience.
At Rare Digits, we have this radical notion:
Our design philosophy can be summarized as:
- Make software that predicts financial outcomes accurately
- Present that information clearly
- Don’t make it unnecessarily ugly
Notice that “implement the latest UI trends” and “ensure brand consistency in dropdown menus” don’t make the top three.
Look, we’re not saying aesthetics have zero value. Clean interfaces help people understand information. Consistent design reduces cognitive load. But there’s a clear hierarchy of needs in business software, and “tells you useful, accurate things about your business” ranks considerably higher than “uses your brand’s secondary accent color correctly.”
When your software can tell you at 3am, with reasonable accuracy, that “based on current trends, you’ll miss your revenue target by 12% unless you address the declining conversion rate in your European market,”
The Pearl Diver Analogy
Imagine you’ve sent a scout to find treasure in the depths of the ocean. What matters in this scenario? Only one thing: does the diver return with a precious pearl or an empty shell?
If you’re spending your time discussing the corporate color scheme of the diver’s uniform, you’re missing the point entirely. You wouldn’t care if the diver was wearing mismatched socks if they consistently brought back valuable pearls.
Does this mean Rare Digits is against design? Not at all. We pay careful attention to clarity, precision, and simplicity. Rare’s interfaces aren’t overloaded and have been thoughtfully considered. And if you don’t like the font? We’ve already thought of that—you can easily change it.
We just ask, respectfully, can we
Because when your business needs accurate financial forecasts, spending hours debating button colors is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic—a nice activity, sure, but entirely missing the urgent matter at hand.