DESIGNA MAGAZINE DESIGNA ISSUE III 2019 2 | Page 99

What's true in the lives of individuals applies to companies as
well—when you're exhausted, overwhelmed or confused about
what to do next, you never look your best. Consumers look at a
dirty store, picked-over merchandise and bad service and come to
the same conclusions. Good design is like putting on a suit for an
interview—it shows the other person that you care about the
relationship.
2. It is more important for me to offer a great price than a great
design. Some great designs and brands do cost more, but there is
no absolute correlation between price and design. Great design
exists at all price points. Some of the best-known examples are
companies such as Target, IKEA and LEGO that offer goods in
a budget-conscious segment. The pattern continues with the Top
20 global brands, which include luxury retailers but also
accessible goods and services like Coca-Cola, McDonald's,
Google and Gillette.
product launches. Indecision does. A widely shared set of decision
criteria around design can make the process more efficient.
4. Design and aesthetics are too subjective—I need data to make
decisions. Although great design speaks to a consumer's needs and
emotions, there is no single aesthetic that companies must drive
toward. Consistency between the brand values and the physical
design is what creates a superior consumer experience. BMW,
Honda and Hyundai have deep consumer loyalty with very
different looks and features. Moreover, design priorities are based
in actual data. Consumer testing and feedback can be achieved at
low cost today with the internet and social media.
5. I will create the product or service; I trust the advertising
experts to tell the story. The worlds of brand, advertising and
design are rapidly converging. Well-crafted marketing and
branding can boost the impact of a great design, but unless the
message is reinforced by real-world experience, the effect is usually
temporary.
Design doesn't work in a
vacuum—it's the alignment with
the right business model and
service that creates a compelling
consumer experience.
More importantly, some of the most innovative designs today
were created with affordability and scarcity in mind. The Tata
Nano, the award-winning portable ECG machine from GE and
One Laptop per Child were just a few notable efforts that
challenged assumptions about price-performance relationships
and generated design buzz. The push for sustainability across
industries is likely to amplify this trend.
3. I would like to have a great design, but I have to launch on
time. Design by definition must include execution. Focusing on
design forces an organization to test ideas, synthesize feedback,
and generate new concepts at a rapid pace. Historically, designers
were brought in at the end of the launch process—and creating
concepts under intense pressure is still the norm.
Look at the many of the companies that are strongly associated
with design today. Apple, P&G, Target, Amazon, LEGO and
others expand their portfolios and launch products more
frequently than their peers. Design efforts don't slow down
BMW has deep consumer loyalty due to its consistency on brand value
the physical design
In the best cases, the design itself can become the advertisement.
Some familiar success stories—Dyson, FlipCam, the iPod,
Method—illustrate this point beautifully. These designs fuel
demand and propel brand loyalty. It's no accident that great
companies often have great ad campaigns and use social media
effectively—they are leveraging the same deep understanding of
the consumer.
Business leaders don't need to go to design school to bring great
design into their companies. They need to remember bring their
own core skills—listening to consumers, asking questions, and
openness to new ideas—into the design process. Design doesn't
work in a vacuum—it's the alignment with the right business
model and service that creates a compelling consumer experience.
Getting to great design requires looking at consumers, not
competing products, more thoughtfully.
Source:
- hbr.org and was carried in designophy
May
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June 2019 | D E S I G N A