"is packaging design a complete waste of time and money? I’d argue that it should simply be the supermarket that is the entity. All products within the supermarket should be absolutely consistent."

makes sense? nope.

Apps across a platform would be far more consistent if the desire to visually differentiate from the next app was suppressed.

... if consistent was an end goal, but it isn't.

yes and no.

yes, one does not need 30 designers for few screens. and in most of the cases one also does not need to reinvent the wheel. using standard guidelines, patterns, icons, fonts... basically ensuring system consistency can in a lot of cases be better then trying to be super unique.

no, design is not waist of time and money. even if you consider only UI. doing basic user research, learning best (platform) practices, taking a problem and executing in the frame of those best practices. communicating with it devs, business etc... it does require a dedicated person.

I do agree that it will over time require less and less resources. and maybe in some environments it already happened. once "thinking mobile first" and best practices (+system guidelines) are common knowledge I guess for smaller project the one responsible for the UI can as well be the Product Owner or Lead Dev. especially if the goal of the app is to get a job done. if the objective is to impress in another way (e.g. brand impression, delighting users,..) then of course more UI expertise will be needed.

just my two cents - definitely a interesting topic! wonder where the discussion will go :)

no.

In my opinion, definitely not.. But I'm really curious to hear what others have to say about this.