Design Is How It Works - Not Just How It Looks

I work with several product management and user experience colleagues. When I tell them that I do not understand some of the screens they show me, they tell me that the visual designers will make it look good and then I will understand the screens. It deeply disturbs me when I hear something like that in this day and age. There is this flawed belief that visual designers will make poor or non-existent design look good. I just want to quote what a wise man from Cupertino, California once said.

"People think it's this veneer -- that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."