It was a tough time for me, being a designer employed at a company whose reasoning was based on financial indicators, such as turnover, gross margin, return on investment, and so on. Eventually, you, as a designer, also have to define your reasoning according to such parameters. Unavoidably, the question of ‘return on investment’ (ROI) will pop up, like “What do I get back for every Euro I spend on, what’s actually the ROI of design?” Tell me!
How great that we have a designer who can view the issue from another angle and generate new, relevant insights, isn’t it?
True, not only designers can do that – it just needs a design thinking, which is driven by curiosity and empathy, and wants to improve the existing for the better – and frankly, this can be done by all of us, in principle. But what you have to bring along for the ‘better’ to truly be perceived as such by others is a creative and empathetic mind that can envision how this ‘better’ will take shape and have the desired impact on others. This poses that such a beautiful mind is not within everyone’s reach… more…
It was one of these design events, like many others in Germany: after the panelists had given their speeches, it was time for the Q&A! Finally, the audience had the chance to express their opinions, and some immediately took the opportunity. It was just a question of minutes for the question to be asked – the one on the status of design within companies! more…
Desperately but somewhat clueless, he was trying to unlock the entrance door with his ID card – like all of us, he had this plastic card on a practical belt clip – but the door didn’t open. I released him from this hopeless situation by opening the door with my personal card and letting him in. It was quite obvious that he was a colleague from within the company, and as it turned out, he was actually looking for me. “Why are the doors locked for company employees?” he immediately wanted to know. “Isn’t there a control right at the main entrance?” more…
Now, after many years of collaboration, I can say for sure that he’s truly favorably impressed: by design, and by designers. I would even assume that he secretly admires us, the designers.
His initially reserved and rejective stance against any member of the ‘design-species’ was resulting from, what I believe, the awareness that he could never do what designers do, but designers might be able to do, what he’s doing – at least if they wanted to… and luckily enough, they didn’t! more…
In some companies, the design, be it for products, communication, or services, seems to be conceived and executed by a single person: everything just fits together perfectly. But we know that many design activities go into creating this perfect picture. Brands that have understood that a well-orchestrated, holistic experience across all touchpoints solidifies their identity are creating the basis for customer loyalty and are a leading example to all other companies. Like an orchestra playing out of tune, customers will turn away from companies that cannot harmonize the ‘interplay’ of their organizational parts to create a collective performance. Remember the story of the kitchen nightmare? more…
The project team met, and the representatives from the various departments gathered in the so-called war room. This room showcased the progress of the ongoing project through posters stuck on a wall. My contributions to the war-room – the design proposal – were covered with neon-coloured post-its, which made me wonder if this meant any good…
The classical design job: a technical platform was given by the OEM, and not very outstanding compared to market standards (except for the new ultrafast laser optics) and also the features were not really differentiating from the competition (no wonder, being it an ordinary PC mouse..), so the design needed to make the difference!
Together with product management and development, the designers tried hard to come up with a proposal, which would answer to all the requirements concerning usability, as well as clearly fit the brand language the company had established.
A quick visit to the electronic store around the corner, including a benchmark session, revealed an overcrowded shelf with lots of similar, very competent and technological looking stuff. Well, it seemed just right to base the new design on the renewed brand values, and with that to create an authentic and outstanding form language to set this computer mouse apart from the pack! more…
Risk-avoidance is the topic of concern, even more so, since we do all now fear that the same fate as to those poor people in Japan could happen to us as well. The collective angst, which predominantly finds fertile ground here in Germany, is in line with one of our basic needs – security: we do want the world to work according to our desires and vision – safe, in order, fair and fortunate.
That’s why politicians will do everything to ensure us that they can protect this state of heaven – and with that, hope for our vote.
Speech held at the Fraunhofer Innovation Forum:
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
We need innovation to progress.
We need innovation to keep our economic cycle going, which is still based on consuming and renewing.
We need innovation to help us climb the ladder of human needs, on our way to reach the final step… Innovation is there to bring us this advantage: Like a seed, it holds the key to continuity. For our economy and society, it creates value and prosperity, and in our economic system, it‘s a measure to sustain against the competition.