“A great meal is not just great food, but is great
companionship. A great piece of design is something that allows people
to be together.” — Gianfranco Zaccai
Great food should be like great design. First sight should be very appetizing
And then when you taste it (experience it), it should be very satisfying.
Sometimes food is ceremonial—to make a statement
Sometimes it needs to be subtle—just needs to be there
Sometimes it should almost disappear
It is not just the design of the object, it is the design of the experience.
In 2006, Stefani Germanotta had hit a turning
point in her career. She had quit a rigorous musical theatre program at
an elite college to focus on her musical passion and, after a year of
hard work and little income, had signed a deal with Def Jam records.
But this promise wouldn't last. Just three months after signing, Def Jam
changed its mind about Stefani's unusual style and released her from
her contract.
Rejected, Stefani went back the drawing board, working in clubs and
experimenting with new performers and new influences. These experiments
produced a new sound that was drawing positive attention from critics
and fans. Within a year, there was another offer; this one from
Interscope Records. Nearly two years after her initial rejection,
Stefani was finally able to introduce her sound and her self to the
world – as Lady Gaga.
Rejection happens and, when it does, how we respond to it
matters. Lady Gaga responded by experimenting with new influences and
making her sound more unique. Just as Gaga experienced, recent research
suggests that when most of us experience rejection, it can actually
enhance our creativity, depending on how we respond to it.
Q: Why go through all this trouble to make the same thing?
A: Because people are different, and we each choose to appreciate different things.
I thought this classy cocktail is indeed a classic example of how to explain design. And yes, a lot of it has to do with presentation.
So...why would someone pay over 260 million for a painting? :)
Well I personally believe that we are made up of what we choose in life. Be it fashion, food, or whatever we consume (brands etc....the list goes on, even friends)
Also something else to take out of this is a reminder that people would be more willing to part with their money for something that looks better, or in other words, something that has a better perceived value.
The other day I sat in a brainstorm with a bunch of fellow
graphic designers, discussing the future direction of an international
business. Someone in the team made a flippant joke about the moment:
Most of us had gone to art school, not business school.
As designers we sometimes worry about engaging in the
“business side” of things. But today’s businesses are desperate to find
experimental and creative solutions and designers are just the
problem-solvers they need. We’ve been trained to take a brief, assess
the problem, instinctively create different directions, analyse the
positives and negatives, reject one, create another, see what works, see
what doesn’t.
We can rapidly create visual concepts that test how
products, communications, experiences and interfaces can work together.
And we can test multiple directions. It allows businesses to take risks
they couldn’t imagine, because they can see tangible possibilities.
That, is business prototyping.
There’s an opportunity now as designers to get beneath the
veneer of subjective aesthetics and establish design, and design
thinking, at the heart of tomorrow’s businesses – an opportunity we
should grab with both hands.
In 1984, Steve Jobs
introduced the Macintosh to the world. At that time, according to the
U.S. Census Bureau, only 8.2% of American households had computers.
Jobs wanted to see a computer in every home. The Mac was designed to be
“everyone’s computer”….not just a tool for scientists and tech types.
While the first generation Mac had some drawbacks, it eventually took
off — along with its wildly popular sibling products. In September of
this year, Apple’s
market capitalization was $624 Billion – worth more than all the listed
companies in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain combined.
The greatest ideas are not necessarily created by sitting around and
brainstorming new inventions the world needs, but are derived from unmet
needs in your own life that are likely shared by others…
An interface was considered an addition to great technology, usability was less important.
Function was the main drive and success indicator.
(advanced)Features were seen to be more important over usability.
Users were suffering, and this was the rise of a new age of technology.
Fierce competition gave birth to a more vivid differentiation approach while technology became cheaper than ever.
Consumers were flooded with cognitive overload and had an extremely short attention span.
"great products create a great end-to-end experience: they shouldn’t be just usable, but seductive, pleasurable and inspiring."
YouTube, Airbnb, Flipboard, Square, Pinterest, Etsy, Path, AboutMe, Slideshare – all these well designed, successful products were co-founded by designers.
Just think how Samsung and Apple fiercely fight over design patents. They want to conquer customers’ emotions with unique designs. Remind yourself of Microsoft, who surprised the design world with a coherent, beautiful system across devices – Windows 8. Google, the former engineers' kingdom, redesigned all its significant products and employs UX designers all over the world. And of course Apple, the most valuable company in the world, built its success on well-crafted designs. These are all signs of a change of paradigm.
User experience design (abbreviation UX, UXD)
A discipline focused on designing the end-to-end experience of a certain product. To design an experience means to plan and act upon a certain set of actions, which should result in a planned change in the behaviour of a target group (when interacting with a product).
A UX designer’s work should always be derived from people’s problems and aim at finding a pleasurable, seductive, inspiring solution. The results of that work should always be measurable through metrics describing user behaviour. UX designers use knowledge and methods that originate from psychology, anthropology, sociology, computer science, graphic design, industrial design and cognitive science.
When you’re designing an experience, you are in fact planning a change in the behaviour of your target group. You’ve found out their problem and you’re trying to destroy the burden using design methods.
User experience lies at the crossroads of art and science and requires both extremely acute analytical thinking and creativity.
Designing a door handle
> Think about the need to open doors
> Is the door handle usable?
> Does it encourage people to open doors?
> Does it provide a unique experience?
> Does it make the user want to open doors twice as enthusiastically as before?
Solving UX problems
Spot it, define it, feel the pain it causes and eliminate it. That’s the highway to great user experience.
Unique Value Proposition
(a single, clear sentence describing the way you’re different from your competitors and why you’re worth buying) and the canvas depicts your idea, key partners and resources, and your model of revenue.
Always remember that in any commercial project UX design cannot be separated from the business model of a product.
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”
I read this somewhere online, believed to be said by a consumer marketing guru. I just couldn't agree more to this statement.
Now if we reflect on every product we have ever purchased, say for the iPhone, what was it that we really wanted? A phone to call others and be contacted? Or was it something else?
Update: The man who said this analogy is Professor Theodore Levitt.
Check this out. A great concept on interaction, subtly promoting safety to pedestrianizes to not jay-walk. I just wonder why the device is positioned at such a low height, is it meant for children? This is just my kind of thing that gets me all excited.
On August 28 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, musician will.i.am will do something no artist has ever done before: blast a song from Mars' surface through the Curiosity rover. Why? Because he can (and runs a charity).
Will.i.am didn't toss tons of cash at NASA for the privilege. The
event is a collaboration between his non-profit, the i.am.angel
Foundation, and Discovery Education, and the event will see members of
the Curiosity rover's landing team educating students about the science
and technology behind the mission's success.
According to NASA, "Reach for the Stars" is "a new composition about
the singer's passion for science, technology and space exploration." The
event, which will be streamed live on NASA TV will begin at 1 P.M. PDT.
It's a great marketing stunt for will.i.am, his i.am.angel
Foundation, NASA and Discovery, but don't expect Curiosity to become a
boom box over a science platform. In fact, the little rover just successfully took its first baby steps across Mars's surface.
World War 1 (ended 1919) caused an economical shift, political shift, and cultural shift all over Europe. Left Europe in financial ruin. Founded by architect Walter Gropius.
Bauhaus Philosophy
> Absence of Ornamentation
> Harmony of form and function
> Harmony of craftsmanship and mass production (smart design lowers costs, people were poor then)
IKEA a perfect example of a living legacy applying the philosophy of the Bauhaus.
User Experience + Sustainability + Innovation
Everything is design, every detail needs a design consideration.
As my project is drawing near to its end, I feel satisfied with the learning outcomes I've received throughout the project. Besides working on this independently, I have managed to streamline the project into something that is manageable within the time-frame, and I hope I will be able to communicate clearly what I wish to present when the time comes.
Social Impact
Considering what I have done and put together, my next steps adding further to considering returning and frequent visitors, is a long term overview about how tourism would impact Korea. While noting that the Hallyu Wave has brought a positive economical impact on Korea, from my experience seeing how Macau has transformed itself over the past 10 years into a Asian Las Vegas, this could be a leading insight to investigate on which may lead to seeing the big picture on tourism, beyond transportation.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Although not actively applied throughout the project, Maslow's figure of needs has been a guiding pylon as I conducted my field research with tourists.
This is a summary write up of my individual project for my Master thesis submission at SADI.
A service design project for tourists in Seoul, investigating the traveling experience, particularly by using the Seoul Metro, and then design improvements through uncovering their needs.
The project employs ethnographic research into the experience of tourists from the perspective of the user. The process is broken down into 4 phases—Define, Discovery, Develop, and Deliver.
Key findings from the research identifies opportunities which then are translated into
designs and eventually narrated through a usage scenario and presented collectively on a service blueprint.
Innovation without emotion is uninteresting. Products without aesthetics are not compelling, brands without meaning is undesirable, and business without ethics is unsustainable (Marty Neumeier, pg17)
Going more in depth to sustainability and social change/responsibility.
This is a TED presentation by William Mcdonough, the founder of Cradle2Cradle, widely known for his large-scale environmentally sustainable projects including the Ford factory site that created the largest green roof, using the tools of trees to save 35 million dollars.
Notes C2C is a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to
create systems that are not just efficient but essentially waste free.
Even simply put, Cradle to Cradle is about being waste-free, being 'Green'.
Design is the signal of first intentions. So what is the 1st question? What is the intention?
Guardian: How can we secure local society, create world peace and save the environment?
Commerce: How do we generate prosperity?
Design: How do we love all children of all species of all time?
"Our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world,
with clean air, water, soil, and power—economically equitably,
ecologically and elegantly enjoyed"—Cradle2Cradle
Competition = comes from the word Com-petare, which means Strive
together. It means that Olympic atheletes train together, they get fit
together and then they compete. The Williams sister trains together—one
of them wins.
By toxifiying themselves as the lowest cost producer (China) and send their products to the lowest cost distribution (Walmart, US), and US distributors sends them all their money—there would an environmental disaster.
Chapter 1 Notes on the Evolution of Design Thinking: A Work in Progress
Craig M. Vogel
nexus = connection or series of connection
New way of design thinking, to change their long and short-term strategies for developing new products and services.
To respond to the contantly social, economic, and technical forces (SET factors). The interaction of these 3 forces results in the emergence of new, "preferred" states for customers and consumers.
Design thinking must expand beyond the role in product and service development.
A great designer once said, “A good designer must be able to design
anything from a spoon to a city.” This means that the principles of good
design are universal, and that these same principles must be applied to
everything from logos to websites, to packaging, to planets.
The name of the great designer is Massimo Vignelli. He loves Helvetica. He design the American Airlines logo (the
only airlines logo to have not change their identity for the past 50
years).
One of his favorite works, which is my favorite, is the New York City subway guide.
Types of Tourists–4 main categories
Tourists are classfied, according to their needs and their reasons for travelling. This brief categorization aids to identifiy the specific tourist needs for stakeholders involved in the tourism industry.
Business and professionals
Tourist who travel due to work related activities. It could be related to studying to seek a higher qualification or for medical reasons which are unavailable in their own countries Reason for traveling: Attending a conference or tradeshow, company incentive trip or cosmetic surgery
Leisure and holiday
This can be broken into 4 sub categories—Adventure, cultural, eco, and leisure.
Reason for traveling: Shopping, visiting UNESCO world heritage sites, skiing or attending a festival i.e. World Cup 2006 (Korea/Japan)
Visiting friends and relatives
A new an emerging tourist as globalization and advancement of technology enables people to migrate and travel conveniently.
Reason for traveling: Attending a friend’s wedding or attending a funeral
Youth tourists
Gap year students who travel in between their education or just before they embark with their career. This could be group travellers or individuals such as backpackers who are low-budget travellers.
Reason for traveling: Exploration, gaining life experiences
"Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes." Beaver, Allan (2002). A Dictionary of Travel and Tourism Terminology. Wallingford: CAB International. p. 313
Tourist have in fact plenty of pain-points (struggles and needs), however because of the fact that tourism is considered a short-term activity in relation to their daily life, often these pain-points are forsaken as tourists would unlikely be encountering the same pain-points again.
On the other hand, because the user's experience is seen and evaluated from the overall experience, the good parts tend to shadow the bad parts, thus little noise is made to tackle these problems. Hence it is difficult to pay attention to tourists and soothe their needs, unless much attention is paid towards pursuing an overall experience.
So with a service design approach, its bottom up method of looking at the landscape enables me to cast an overview on the subject I am focusing on. Through field observations and applying various tools to present and evaluate my data, I can uncover valuable insights that can lead to design solutions that will serve to solve the pain-points noted during the research.
Another main feature of adopting Service Design thinking is that the approach is not about avoiding mistakes, but rather to explore as many possible mistakes as possible.
Quoting Thomas Lockwood, he states that Service design begins with discovering what processes need improvement and how to best serve people's needs. To me that is by far the best definition I have came across that summarizes the meaning of this new learned design field.
Earlier on in his book, he also talks about co-creation as a key element to innovation. And to share, this is the formula:
Engineer + Designer + a business analyst on the side + a whole lot of Willingness to work together to experiment, develop and test = innovation success
With that said, besides the differences in each field, personally I feel that there must be a certain similarity for it to all work. I would believe the success would be easier reach if the team would have a similar interest i.e. EURO 2012. Aside from that, every stakeholder involve MUST have a passion for the field/client they are working on, otherwise the result will surely be compromised. Like in a footballing sense, it's the combination of having the passion for the game, skills/talents, and gelling with the teammates to make a success team that can deliver results.
Key Principles of design thinking in creating customer experiences:
> Experience is constantly in motion
> Experience is a result of the customer’s perception
> Touchpoints have influence, but budgets do not always reflect this
> From a brand view, it is neccessary to achieve internal alignment before
customer experience can be properly designed
—
Lockwood, Thomas (2009), Design Thinking, Allworth Press, pg15-16 (foreword)
Recently I've just finished the film documentary of Helvetica, probably the only typeface of it's stature to hit the screens. The film evolves around the history, cultural impact, and meanings of typography, and just about everything related to the font.
The film duly begins with interviewing Massimo Vignelli, the man who has design the everlasting logo for American Airlines. Like many other designers, he believes that type should be reduced to 1 font to allow other aspects to communicate to the user. A fellow revered designer of his generation, Wim Crouwel emphasizes this by saying,
"The meaning is in the content of the text, and not in the typeface"
He adds on by talking about the emergence of technology and had this to say, in which I absolutely agree but is often found guilty of,
"You can't do better design with a computer but you can speed up your work enormously"
Poetic as can be, Massimo Vignelli makes a very apt definition to what designers do,
"Doctors cure diseases; as designers, we are curing visual diseases"
There were other designers whom I have been admiring since being a designer such as, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Nick Carson, Matthew Carter, and Neville Brody (these people are really important to know as designers), but perhaps I'd go more into the detail of their works in future.
a question, "Does temperature affect fermentation?"
a conditional statement, "Temperature may affect fermentation."
an If, then statement, "If fermentation rate is related to temperature, then increasing the temperature will increase gas production.
The third type is more structured and I'll refer to it as a "formalized" hypothesis.
A caution is necessary at this point. Beware! Not all "if-then" statements are
hypotheses. For example, "If you warm yeast, then more gas will be produced."
This is a simple prediction, not a hypothesis! The problem with this statement is
that there is no proposition to test. What is related to what? Is temperature a
variable? Is yeast a variable? I s gas production a variable?
Research models limit variables to two. The structure of a formalized hypothesis
is useful because it makes the student focus on two variables that may be related.
Demographic profile
Young career driven mother of one boy. Lives an urban and trendy lifestyle. I've listed the 4 pleasure and group the analysis of purchasing a Spoon-fed based on the following rationalization.
—
Physiological
1. Toughness of plastic allows the product to be used for a long time.
2. By not looking like a conventional utensil, she feels proud that she is getting something different for her son.
— Psychological
1. With her child keeping the utensil in his pencil case, she will not need
to remind herself or her son to remember to wash the utensil as her son
uses the pencil case at home.
2. With an option to customize the utensil, she feels that she has a unique
item, aligning with her passion of being an early adopter.
3. Antibacterial properties (cap and plastic material) gives her an ease of mine that her child is eating more hygenically and will not fall sick.
4. Creating more value to a utensil will ensure that the utensil will not paid more attention to and not be misplaced.
— Sociological
1. Following the latest trend, she is send as an early adoptor, being
different from other mothers who opt to purchase what is already on the
market
2. As a trend setter, she gets to introduce the product with friends to buy
for their own children to use, thus feeling a sense of satisfaction of
sharing something new
— Ideological
Mothers want to be responsible for the world that her child will live in 50 years later, thus by using Spoon-fed, she (and the child) will feel that they have contributed to preserving the environment by using Spoon-fed which promotes sustainability.
I've always been intrigued by new brands that emerge into the market,
especially those that try to compete against a really saturated market. For
example, what if there's a new giant fast good chain or a soda brand
that is going to compete against Mcdonalds and Coca-cola? How is it possible from a business perspective? One example which caught my attention is the Sony Alpha DSLR.
By entering the market late (and also not being a camera specialist), I found that it was really a bold and courageous effort to compete against the market leaders of Nikon and Canon. I can't think of any other brand than Sony who would have the resources to rock the boat.
DSLR Camera (Digital Single Lens Reflex) Timeline Nikon launched 1999 Canon launched 2000 Sony launched 2006
Personally I am a Canon user (although I'm using an Olympus at the moment), but I am impressed with what Sony has done so far after half a decade and I believe the numbers speak for themselves. What I appreciate most is what they have done with the choice of their colour.
By just referring to the colour positioning, to me it implies that Sony has taken the best features out of Nikon and Canon and created the perfect camera. Beyond the actual functionality of the camera, I reckon that colour plays an enormous role as colour speaks its own language.
Thumbs up for Sony, all the best Kazuo Hirai for his new stewardship.
In our modern society today, again I am about to mention that the landscape for businesses have become so much competitive. People are creating new ways everyday to differentiate their products from the others. Above the functions and benefits of a product, the experiential aspect has only began to emerge since the turn of the new century and we have seen some great examples.
One example of a business that lives and breathes by its ethical marketing principles is TOMS,
the American based One for One shoe company. Its ethos is simple; with
every pair of shoes purchased, they give a new pair of shoes to a child
in need.
Lately I have been struggling to connect the dots as to how ethical marketing could be connected to the consumers by explaining how ethical marketing could involve the consumer to make an impact. My initial thoughts were as blank as to only claiming that my brand is ethical and is friendly to the environment, but how could I go beyond that?
We all know that there are children around the world that are suffer, especially children. In the case of TOMS, by communicating the health benefits that children and adults alike will gain from having the soles of their feet covered by using UNICEF's data—Every year, nearly 10 million children under the age of 5 die from largely preventable causes. This statement in turn goes a long way to imply that users can literally save a life of someone by preventing a deadly infection due to the cause of having nothing to protect their feet.
To summarize, it is important to understand user's values (most importantly the one that touches the heart), then using numbers (through research) would only mean something to them!
A lighter view on understanding the world of marketing in layman terms.
—
You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, “I am very rich. Marry me!” That’s Direct Marketing.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. One of your friends goes up to her, points at you and says, “He’s very rich. Marry him.” That’s Advertising.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her
telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m very rich.
Marry me.” That’s Telemarketing.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You get up and straighten your
tie; you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her;
pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, “By
the way, I’m very rich. Will you marry me?” That’s Public Relations.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. She walks up to you and says, “You are very rich.” That’s Brand Recognition.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, “I’m
very rich. Marry me.” She gives you a nice hard slap to the face. That’s Customer Feedback.
usually the entry market (mainly in car markets)
Strategically the most important segment
Especially for building long term customer loyalty Habit is formed when one is young
Strategy:
Dream building/challenge/participation — Giving incencentive
Experience — Fast culture
Speed — Fast fashion
Silver market
Average age of the world is increasing, life expectancy is longer
TONK (two only no kids)
OPAL (old people with active life)
Designers can approach this through Universal Design (designing for everyone)
i.e. OXO Good Grip (designer made it for his wife who was suffering from arthritis)
Isetan departmental store has a Funeral service departmental for the Silver market
Kids market
World population growth is decreasing rapidly
Parents end up having either 1 or no kid
With 1 kid, they spoil the kid with everything!
Microtrends
Gold Miss market — Financial independent women who pass the marriageable age and choose to be single
Single families is over 4 million
Supermarkets sell items in smaller quantities
Marketing Strategies in Korea (considering the cultural factors)
Gurantee Marketing (tackling Korean's attitude of risk aversion)
Opinion Leadership Marketing(tackling Korean's attitude of Collectivism)
> a.k.a Word of Mouth communication or Buzz marketing
> i.e P&G has a 'tremor' group who are a prosumer group that leads the market for their products. Products are often tested on the 'tremor' group before officially rolling out
> Viral Marketing
> "Word-of-Mouse" communication
Kiehl relies solely on word-of-mouth to market their products. Product packaging often lack design, implying that the money saved on advertising and design is channeled to be used on charitable causes.
Having seen a few Volvo's on the street lately, besides knowing that they are the inventors of the seat belt. I have always been curious about the asymmetrical logo and did a search to find out about the meaning and concept behind the logo.
With it's symbolic meaning of the property of iron, it does echo the qualities of being tough. Surely reflecting their image as the safest vehicle.
Production of the Volvo automobile began in 1927 in Sweden. The brand name was based on the Latin verb "volvere" or "roll," to indicate all the transportation-related products made by the company. Chemical Symbol The logotype adopted by the new company was based on the chemical symbol for iron, which is a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally toward the right. This is also the symbol for the planet Mars, the Roman god of war and the male gender.
Symbol of Strength
By adopting the iron symbol, which has long been associated with the iron and steel industry, the car's makers intended to connote the durability, strength and quality of their vehicles.
Typeface
The name "Volvo" on the logo is written in a distinctive font, which the Volvo Owners Club website identifies as Egyptian.
Diagonal Band
Originally, a diagonal band served to clamp the car badge onto the radiator. This band has since become an integral part of the design and is found on the front grille of all Volvo vehicles.
Business Logo
The iron symbol with the company name can be found on Volvo steering wheels and wheel hubs, as well as in all the company's advertising. For many consumers, the Volvo symbol has come to represent a brand known for its exciting, high-quality automobiles.
Caine’s Arcade is a short film about a 9 year old boy’s cardboard arcade, located in his dad’s used auto parts store in East LA.
—
This is to me, the most social+emotional video I have seen. The power of social media today goes beyond simply as a tool of communication—It makes dreams come true.
Lately I noticed a strange pattern spotting several students in school strutting about wearing socks and flip flops. Later on I confirmed with a Korean friend that ladies wear very fashionable footwear (i.e. heels) on the journey to work, and they change into something more (or I would say very comfortable) upon reaching their workplace.
The weird factor is that in other cultures elsewhere, say in Singapore, it's completely the other way round. People (mostly ladies) would be in their comfy sneakers or even slippers on during their way to work and then change into the 'proper' shoes/heels.
The former scenario would prove beneficial to oneself but tarnish the image of the organization that the person is in. Whereas the latter disregards self-identity by not looking good and then 'style-up' to match the environment. So which is worst?
This is a general observation, obviously not applicable to a scenario say for one who works in the Condé Nast building in New York City (she'd be highly image conscious to begin working there in the first place). This whole insight just scratches the surface of social identity these days, there are many interesting examples that reflect this and the one I've just mentioned is one of them.
Fashion is popular style of clothing. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person. It is a style of clothing or a way of behaving that is popular at a popular time. It is ever-changing, fast moving.
Fashion changes, if it does not change it is not fashion
—Ann Hollander (Sex and Suits)
IDEO workshop series with Mike Nuttall. Day 3 of 3
Consumer electronics hardware is disappearing.
The business model of Apple = Imagine the revenue ration per designer
Opportunity in automobile designs
1 word to describe good design is Effortless
2 types of patents
1. Utility patents, to protect intrisic detail, highly valuable
2. Design patents, waste of time, only protects against someone making an exact copy
To be successful, designers need to be 'T-shaped', as a product designer, he/she needs to be an expert in product development. Horizontal and vertical planes need to be both paid attention to. You have to speak the language of other stakeholders; other stakeholders usually have a bigger voice than designers.
Keyword to good design is Resolution, to cover all aspects and have a strong rationale behind every detail.
IDEO workshop series with Mike Nuttall. Day 1 of 3
Designing consumer products, the hard stuff are the really simple things.
Art is for yourself, your own goals
Design is for other people, usually for companies
Brand positioning and brand value is centric to design.
A tagline that describes the whole philosophy.
Design soul is beyond a visual language, aiding when shifting to another product arena. That is the soul.
Alessi = Art & Poety
Bang & Olufsen = Simple design with a touch of magic
Swatch = Fashion that ticks
Apple = Think Different
Braun = Less but Better
Appropriate design; there is no absolute answer to solving a design, there is always a multitude of answers to a question.
Strong design ethos to distinguish between a brand and a non-brand. It is important to know what the brand stands for.
Design language. Design thinking. User centered design. Design soul.
Steve Jobs never did focus groups, he never cared for what the consumer wanted, he knew they did not know what they want. You don't want to look like a fool to show the consumer that you don't know what they want. Steve Jobs simply uses what he knows. (Genius Design?)
The essence is stripping thing downs to the essential, have nothing superficial.
In this entertaining 20 minutes presentation at the Lift Conference 2011, CEO of Hublot, Jean-Claude Biver talks about innovation, creativity, and his philosophy that can be
summarized by three commandments:
1. Be the first 2. Be unique 3. Be different
Unlike other presenters, he speaks without any visual aid which really draws all the attention towards his natural comical nature, making the presentation to be most entertaining.
He ends his presentation with a story that summarizes his 3 commandments by 'painting a footballer's hair red', which I assume at that time was uncommon, which I doubt. Anyway ultimately that had played some influence which earned the footballer* the opportunity to play his football in Italy.
Fun fact: Jean Claude Biver was the man responsible for Omega's huge success over the past 10 years, with one of his notable marketing techniques was his product placement strategies, notably on James Bond films. On a separate note, he so makes his own cheese.
*I did a search and found that footballer to be Atsushi Yanagisawa, a very successful player in Japan who played in Sampdoria...but failed to net a single goal abroad.
To improve pedestrian efficiency, the people at Improv Everywhere is suggesting tourists to commute on their designated walkways so they could do what they do, like randomly change direction and walk into things while looking up instead of ahead.
I reckon this is healthy and relevant for any urban society, especially for a city like Seoul with 22 million people. I guess this also acts to preserve the locality and identity of a place. It actually got me thinking about how this would have already been implemented in North Korean as visiting tourists are embarked on a full guided tour.
From a local perspective, as seen from the video, this would also probably invoke a certain value of pride to be proud of your own identity.
What looks ridiculous on first impression might actually hold true weight if thought through!
It's the midpoint of my first semester at SADI and I've been thrilled to be learning about different fields of design. Having learned new jargon coined by masters of the field such as Liz Sanders (MakeTools), Bill Moggridge (IDEO), Don Norman (User-centered design expert), and Engine and Cooper (both Service Design agencies), delivered through my highly esteemed professors all have provided great insights to to establish what the future holds being a designer in the 21st century.
The gist of it all really goes down to be distilled and I conclude that design is has gone way beyond from being functional to having to evoking a similar emotional response from every user that engages the intention of a design. We have to recognize that every user is different (understanding contexts and cultural aspects etc.) in which each individual holds different expectations to the design. The ultimate aim is to first understand what is it to be human and then gain clearer insights as to how to interact with them. Thankfully both users and designers are human, so there's a great leveling plane to begin with.
Such tools, frameworks, and methodologies are after all created by humans for humans, user to user. This is probably the best justifications for my cause to further my knowledge and education—to know myself better and to understand the user. The keyword is emotion and the two words I find the most powerful is love and passion, they are simply the greatest. For me I draw the energy from the people around me who personifies these 2 words from 2 parties:
Love: Quite literally, my love ones. They are my partner, family and friends Passion: The heroes of their trade and what they stand for. Because what they stand for—can change the world.
Quaker = Oats
Quakers are honest, frugal people
Quakers exude tradition
Print ads used to embed a symbol of death which are now banned. i.e a distorted image may be interpreted as death. Especially for tobacco and liquor products.
Know target audience. Sell children shampoo to parents who are going to buy it for them.
Tomato brand > Fresh World Farms > Literal and effective
Brand Elements > Rationale, Cultural, Experiential, Visual, Functional, Emotional
Jockey briefs has many sub categories to sell 1 product to speak to a broader audience. Classic (regular), Tech (performance), Reps (rhythmic), Zone (colours)
Nº5 CHANEL PARIS / Iconic structural packaging
Toilet duck packaging is unique and provides great functionality, but not feasible for production from the engineers perspective. The duck name is associated with the rubber duckie toy and evokes positive childhood memories, making household chores less painful.
Digging into further insights for my project, I thought to approach the subject (subway transportation) from the perspective of a public service, leading me to this video on Design Council UK.
Design helps create new citizen-focused products and
systems, helps in redesigning more efficient, lower-cost services and
improves people’s well-being.
Use design to
> Reduce cost
> Improve quality
> Give value for money
> Better experiences
Why design?
> Improve well-being of citizens
> Drive sustainable growth
Research helps identify key opportunities for improvement.
Design is beyond changing visual appearances but to change outcomes. i.e. improve quality of service, increase reliability (through consistency). Design also increases staff morale.
Redesigning services changes the platform on which services are delivered.
Design is a process of creation, evaluation, selection, and arrangement — James L. Harrison
Design is not a noun but a planning, doing research, thinking and making a decision of a direction. Design is defining problems and a problem solving process — Steven Tolleson in Design Methodology
Consider activities. Think about the verb rather than the noun. i.e. when designing a chair, think about reading, eating, resting, instead of legs, arm-rest etc.
UX Framework
Physical > Size, shape, colours, materials
Cognitive > Language, symbols, controls
Social > Information interactions, trusting members
Cultural > Values shared, beliefs shared, supportive organization, accepted habits
Emotional > Interested, happy, calm, friendly
User Experience Design is a interdisciplinary collaboration (including the user)
<Process Positioning Map, Institute of Design, IIT>
UXD Process (manufacturing) is a con-current engineering process involving product design, software development, mechanical and electronic engineering. BECAUSE our product life cycle is getting shorter and shorter.
<Design Innovation Process, Institute of Design, IIT>
Dieter Rams is probably the 20th century god of design having providing us with the '10 commandments' to us designers. He is truly one of my most admired living designers of our time along with Milton Glaser and Wally Olins.
10 Principles of Good Design
1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design makes a product useful
3. Good design is aesthetic
4. Good design makes a product understandable
5. Good design is unobtrusive
6. Good design is honest
7. Good design is long-lasting
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail
9. Good design is environmental friendly
In the video interview below, Dieter Rams talks about his opinions on the use of colour which I cannot agree more. He also said:
"Design should not dominate people, it should help people. That's what's important."
Our current generation are Digital natives
Our parents are Analog natives > they are digital immigrants
Tap into their native environment
***Process map
Adapt > Conduct > Communicate
—
Liz Sanders (maketools.com)
Product >>> Experience
Conceptualization and Visualization space
Visioning Workshop (bulls-eye chart)
Co-creation and new landscape design (IIT Institute of Design)
Approach
Expert Driven 80s
User Centrered 90s
Co-creation 00s
Empathetic design
Critical Design > You create something and then observe what happens.
Codesigning teams are expanding to include all stakeholders, particularly in the front end of during the design process.
Design is taking increasingly collective forms. The new domains of collective creativity will require new tools an methods for designing and researching
Hypothesis of design
Deep Knowledge Outcomes (through research)
Latent > Present but not visible
Tacit > Understood without being openly expressed; implied
—
Consider service design for disability market (deaf, mute, blind) or elderly market
—
Assignment 5
Develop 3~5 personas for your project with the following steps:
1. Identify mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive user segments for your project
2. Group them with their distinguishable characteristics (their ultimate goals, values, behavioral patterns, desire, or lifestyle)
3. Name them with distinguishable names.
4. Describe persona with their goals, attitude, behavior, context, desire, photo, goal, and problems
Reading reference for next assignment
Indi Young, Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy
This is again a reminder for the purpose of building strong brands. Brands sustains businesses. In Lovemarks (Roberts, K 2005), it is identified that human beings (consumers) are powered by emotion and not by reason. The most powerful emotion, Love is believed to be the foundation for creating new kinds of emotional passionate relationships that brands need. To gain love, brands needs to earn Respect—Performance, commitment, honesty, service etc. are the most basic values that businesses must endure.
"The idealism of Love is the new realism of business. By building Respect and inspiring Love, business can move the world."
— Kevin Roberts
Reference Lovemarks, The Future Beyond Brands, Roberts, K 2005
“It’s (branding) not about consistency, it’s about creating stories that make
sense.” Stories are the way we connect with people and create
relationships. If we think of brands as people or personalities, they
need to be magical storytellers. As humans, we thrive on all of the
emotional connections we have. We get passionate about them. It’s the
stories we tell and hear that trigger those connections."
Marina Willer of Wolff Olins London @ 2011 Brand New Conference in San Fransisco
The outline for the ADX408 final assignment is captured in the points below:
> Create a new product, service, and/or brand communication concept for healthy living based on experience based design framework and process
> Define healthy from consumers point of view
> Consider using 4 pleasurable products model
> Consider enhancing brand experience
> Must include 'Branding Elements' (experiential, functional, rational, cultural, emotional, visual)
> Outcome must be based on conclusive research
Matching Concept 4Ps
Product
Plane
Place
Promotion
—
Prof Lee mentioned the term Market Myopia and suggests that designers have to look at the market has to be as large as possible to gain larger profits. The example of Harley Davidson and Honda was used, suggesting that Honda found success with affordable motorcycles targeting at a broader market.
From a brand perspective, I would argue that Harley Davidson's focus towards it's target market has enabled them to become an 'inspiring brand'. I would imagine that it will be difficult to have the same traits of masochism and individualism if they had branched out to the mass market. Maybe they did with an entirely different brand? Ultimately business is about making money.
—
Societal/Ethical Marketing is about providing product benefits with a long term perspective in mind. i.e. Social enterprise TOMS shoes. How can McDonalds consider long term 'consumer convenience'?
—
New Product Development (differentiation)
> Idea Generation
> Idea Screening (screen criteria) Technical feasibility, Commcerial feasibility, Consumer welfare
> Idea Evaluation/Concept Testing (research)
> Development
> Marketing Strategy
> Commercialization
Fun fact: 3M = Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing
Elements of Good Design
> Creative/Original
> Aesthetic
> Functional
> Feasible
> Economical
> Fashionable
> User friendly/Ergonomic - Human Factors
> Consumer Well-being/Welfare
—
Assignment 1 1. Explain the idea (design) 2. Target Market (why?) 3. Promotion Strategy (how it's being sold)
Designer/Marketing perspective
Something new and innovative
Product design awards: IDEA, iF, reddot, Good Design Award
3-4 slides / 5-10 minutes presentation — due 29/03
User Experience Design (UXD) is how a product is perceived, learned and used.
Richard Anderson's keyword survey on the definition of UXD
Usability, Consumer experience, User centered design, Customer experience, User interface, Interaction design, Experience design, User satisfaction, Customer satisfaction, Ease of use, Experience, Customer journey, User Interface design, Human factor, Interface design
What is important is the entire experience, from when i first hear about the product to purchasing it, to opening the box, to getting it running, to getting service, to maintaining, to upgrading it. Everything matters: industrial design, graphics design, instructional design, all the usability, the behavioral design.
—Don Norman, 2000 HCI
UXD from 3 perspectives
Desirable by the User / Feaibile by the Engineer / Viable by the Manager
Ease of Understanding / Ease of Use / Pleasure of use
To provide the pleasure of use in the product or services. There are many researches of Emotional Usability
UXD is the Holistic Solution that provides Total Experience to users while they are accessing a product or services in various touch points.
UID: The overall process of designing the interaction between a user and a device IND: Designing of tasks and behaviors IA: Organization of information that is logical and understandable Usability: Measuring of ease of use a system or applications HCI: The study of interaction between people (users) and computers
Human Factors Engineering (Ergonomics): The study of optimizing the interface between people and objects or systems they interact with SD: Intergrated design of solutions or services between users and h/w, s/w, online and offline within a context
Market trends
From Technical, Functional + Emotional
Products should be loved (Steve Jobs)
Lovemarks by Saatchi & Saatchi / Kevin Roberts
In order to create the customer's royalty, companies provide the best user experience to them. Brand strategy is not enough to do that.
— a new product > Trademark > Brand > Lovemark
— To create the lovemark for the maximized UX Design
1. Make a product myserious— great stories, past, present future, myth, icons, inspiration
2. Using sensibility
3. Create intimacy between products and customers. Creates commitment, empathy and passion
Target audience should not be drawn towards classification of age groups, gender etc. but towards activities (or tribes).
—
Brands can be identified by their sounds. Here's a good example below:
Self-Documentation is a powerful method for observingprocesses over a long period of time, or for understanding the nuances of community life when the researcher can’t be there. Records of experiences, such as journal entries, allow the team to see how participants see their life, community, and relationships.
Most of us have probably come across the Piano Staircase in Sweden by the Fun Theory (initiative of Volkswagen). But have you seen the High 5 Escalator?
The part that grabs me the most is the smiles put on commuters faces after seeing or giving a high 5 to Rob. This simple interaction presents a great opportunity to develop a tourist experience into a very memorable one.
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