How can an innovative design strategy impact complex business problems?
Design is not just graphics, it now leads a company and generates revenue.
By Nirzari Maharaja
What does a company’s design do? Its importance is often underestimated, but good design can bring significant business benefits. To be short and precise, Designers are responsible for catching a user’s attention and being the last impression. It helps the users turn their ideas into innovative, competitive and market-organizing products and services with the focus on maximizing usability and the user experience.
To give you an idea, Let’s take the example of BlackBerry. In September 2018, BlackBerry announced they would stop making phones which marks the end of an iconic product within the internet era. There was a time where everyone had a BlackBerry and BlackBerry’s messaging service ‘BBM’ was the ‘Whatsapp’ of today. To compile, BlackBerry’s failure to adapt, lack of consumer insight and poor design led to the demise of BlackBerry.
In contrast, Apple is the original gold standard of design in the first era of mobile technology design. Apple is very unique in its approach to design. They believe that creativity alone is not enough to transform a design into a successful product. At its very core, Apple is a company with an extreme focus on product design. Steve Jobs famously said: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Focusing on design has worked pretty well for Apple.
UX/UI Design plays an important role in Business. It increases the Value, Usability, Adaptability, and Desirability of the product.
Let’s understand how design works!
- Research
Everything needs research so does design. Design’s key to solving problems is through Exploratory Research. The first step starts with understanding user behaviour and problem identification through the interviewing process. Then come the identification and definition of the root problem affecting the users which discover the type of product required to solve the root problem. Competitor analysis is the second step of the research which can help you get valuable insights that can help in multiple ways: generating more profit for the business, or changing significant design elements of your product or service. Lastly, an engagement model is generated that values proposition with the innovative business model.
2. User journey (Practical)
A user’s journey is the onboarding and continuous process that a user can follow to achieve their purpose. Here, design plays an important role by identifying the different ways to enable the user to achieve their goal as quickly and easily as possible. It brings practicality through the simplification of a user’s ideas. People catch visuals faster than content thus Design portraits what the audience needs to understand and be convinced. The refined design speaks better to diverse audiences which increases engagement and Usability.
3. Design communication (Simplify)
Design is communication. Just like a writer or a speaker chooses their words to communicate a message, good designers choose the right visual elements to also communicate a message. The responsibility of a designer is to develop the relationship between the viewer and the visuals. The design facilitates and simplifies communication by incorporating analysis, synthesis, divergence and convergence, this creates a large number of potential solutions and then narrows these down to a “best fit.”
4. User Interface (Minimal)
The UI is aimed at providing easy and fast access to content that the user wants. A well-designed user interface design acquires new customers. A successful UI design contributes to a positive user experience, enhances business by increasing customer engagement and retention, maximise revenue opportunities, lowers development and customer support costs.
Here, we can culminate on how the design process can benefit the business.
Let’s dive deep into solutions that design strategy provides.
-What is a brand without its design!
A great design isn’t only for communication but it builds brand trust and can make your new eCommerce business look established. It conveys your brand, your focus, and your vision to your customers, building an instant connection with them. The design makes a strong first impression that helps your business stand out. It also keeps your outcome easy to use.
-Journey from eyes to brain and beyond.
Design helps us engage, it keeps us connected to the world and helps us navigate our way through physical and digital spaces. Design is used to communicate, depending on who we are — it can be influential by understanding our behaviour and demographics. Psychology knowledge helps to create the design which will make users perform the actions they are expected to such as making a purchase or contacting the team.
-Design is for all stakeholders.
Reports, Dashboard, System Design seem to be a lot to tackle but not when a compatible design makes the tasks easy to perform. It connects stakeholders to gather needs using human-centred design methods, then translates insights into ideas that lead to solutions. Business designers go beyond customer needs. They bring people and disciplines together and look at their core problems in new ways.
-Where your ideas get wings
Design in marketing is more than the logos, images, page layouts, and unique fonts that comprise your brand’s aesthetic; it is the main branch that connects your company to your brand, and ultimately to your customer. It drives conversion, beyond excellent concept and copy, the design is what takes a pitch and evolves it into an emotional response from your customer. Likewise, Design makes your product visible and elevates your brand. Eye-catching, elegant, and persuasive design is what separates successful marketing from everything else bombarding your prospective customer in the digital space.
-Why not promote your brand consistency by an influential design
Trust between the consumer and business has a major impact on how consumers behave. Providing compelling experiences to customers through design influence and play a major role in emotional arousal. This results in building a loyal and long term relation with your customers. The effective use of design gives customers a reason for buying from you and not from your competitors. It’s a valuable source of differentiation — a well-designed product or service will stand out from the competition.
The best user interface, together with the cost savings and use of resources, leads to improved productivity. This productivity is reflected in both the user and the brand. With a user-friendly design and easy navigation, the user decreases search time and increases satisfaction, fulfilling his needs in a fast and efficient way. The brand, in turn, enhances customer fidelity and reduces costs and resources. Through building trust, making strong first impressions, building customer relationships, and even executing successful campaigns, good design helps make your business more profitable.
Conclusion
It’s a good idea to conduct a design audit — look at key areas of your business such as your brand, your product and service development, your work practices and customer communication and then consider what role design plays in them. There may be opportunities to use design to make your business more efficient and to add value to your products and services for your customers. It seems a bit complex, isn’t it? Well, not for Tecblic. Tune in to Tecblic to find out more.
