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The tectonic framework of Bangladesh and surrounding areas indicate that Bangladesh is one of the tectonically active regions in the world. Frequent earthquake events have encouraged the bridge engineer to think about the seismic response of the bridge. Generally, Force Based Design (FBD) method is a very common practice in bridge design. However, it cannot determine the level of damage of the structure which is required to ascertain the performance level of a bridge under different levels of earthquakes. The Direct Displacement Based Design (DDBD) method which is inspired by performance-based earthquake engineering can be a good choice in this case. Displacement limit is the key parameter of the DDBD method which measures the performance level of the structure. In this study, a concrete bridge pier located in Dhaka has been designed according to the performance requirement of expected, design, and maximum earthquakes in different seismic zones by the DDBD concept by following the guidelines of AASHTO (2011, 2012), BNBC (2020), and ASCE 41-17 (2017). In this research, a "standard" bridge is considered. For "Standard" bridges, it is necessary to check for collapse prevention during the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) and design earthquake (DE), and immediate occupancy during the expected earthquake. In addition, pushover analysis is performed to evaluate the accuracy of the DDBD method because it follows performance-based analysis. For this, the performance targets are checked by pushover analysis. Primary seismic response parameter such as base shear is varied with the seismic zones in both transverse and longitudinal directions. Furthermore, the FBD method is used in this study to determine the base shear of a similar bridge pier in various zones. The FBD method's base shear is then compared to the DDBD method's base shear for various zones. According to this study, it is clear that the DDBD method could be a feasible alternative to the present FBD approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]