Design Toolbox

Design methodology and process for developing technology and innovation

27 February 2008, Clive Grinyer

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Design Toolbox

Design is a verb. Although we think of design as a very visual discipline, the visual aspect is just the most noticeable component of the manipulation of our emotional response. The overall experience can include sound, touch, smell and the overall effect, through time, creates an experience.

So when we create customer experiences, the design process is just as relevant. Only here it takes many of the methods used in designing something and applies them to each of the individual functional, cognitive and emotional events that come together to create an overall experience of service or a technology.

In “designing” things there are several unique tools that are transferable across many different situations and contexts and can add value to the process. The “Toolbox” is a quick explanation of the main methods.

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Tool 1. Design it

The most basic design tool is simple but often forgotten. At it’s most basic, design thinks about what something should be, from the customers point of view, at the beginning of the process, before anything is built or decided.

If this does not happen, there is no plan, no vision, no template to work against. As a result, many customer experiences are accidental, the sum of decisions, technologies or convergence of existing systems.

Tool 1 is: develop a complete understanding of what the customer experience is going to be, across the customer journey (which is wider than the individual service, application or product you are creating).

Examples are: writing the user guide first - how should something work, how do people

want it to work? mapping the customer journey getting real insight and not making assumptions about people Looking beyond the horizon, not just reacting to the current competition

or marker but exploring alternatives, innovations and new ideas.

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Tool 1. Design it

Before and afterThis project was “built” around technology rather than user

requirements. The result was that no one know what it did. Visual design and copywriting made the service successful.

Before After

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Tool 2. Inputting customers

To decide what something is, you need to know who it’s for and what will they do with it. Research is an obvious and much used tool but research in the design process is more focused and consists of:

Observation - – looking at people doing things and observing, in a real context:– difficulties and barriers– work arounds, what do they do to overcome difficulties– identifying un-met needs

Co-design - – Asking people to specify what they would like

Customer insight is rocket fuel for innovation and improved customer experiences. Combined with Concepts and User Testing, you can fast track development and reduce risk

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Tool 3. Gaining requirements

Building product specifications is a key part of the development process and can be complicated by taking into account multi party stakeholders. Business requirements documents reflect the company strategic and marketing objectives of a product or service, but are not customer focused, lack vision or future foresight or are able to specify the emotional aspect of customer experience. Design brings together all thes lines and can model requirements in a way that helps understand the impact of decisions and where you need to prioritise to ensure a good customer experience.

A Compendium approach presents - – All aspects that make a customer experience in a relevant way.– Benchmarks and compares against best in class experiences– Models possible solutions and impacts of decisions for discussion– Allows multi stakeholder feedback and reaction

A compendium approach is a useful design tool to speed up specification, make it tangible, measurable and meaningful.

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Tool 4. Concepts

Creating concepts is what design is about but the important difference is that design synthesises and quickly makes tangible more than 1 concept. This is crucial, there is no optimal solution, there are many variables and these need to be formulated, modelled and tested with experience prototyped.

Concept Creation (Ideation, etc) - – From user insight and observational research, concepts create

solutions and new opportunities that can be explained visualised and discussed

– Designers typically develop 4-5 concepts. The process stretches creativity and forces new ideas out. These can be combined together as appropriate.

Once you have concepts, you can make decisions, based on customer feedback (by testing and experience modelling), strategy, technology feasibility , economical context, competitive advantage, brand differentiation and other criteria

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Tool 5. Modelling

Design makes things tangible. Design turns an idea into something that we can begin to react to and understand what it could be. A simple drawing can replace the most complex business requirements documentation and get an immediate emotional response. That response may be positive or not, it’s not important, the value is in getting a response.

Modelling includes: Drawing Paper prototyping

– Unfinished prototypes have the advantage of speed and economy and of encouraging people that it is OK to change of modify, though the disadvantage of not representing ideas in their final form, so are less believable.

– Mock ups - representations of key parts of the experience for user testing, but requiring no technical reality

– Experience prototypes - realistic but mocked up experiences, covering all aspects of the customer experience

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Tool 6. Defining the customer journey

Companies are orientated vertically and products and services are created vertically. Unfortunately the customer experience is horizontal, cutting across any number of touchpoints, platforms, technologies and corporate divisions.

Design maps that journey and identifies the key elements that are functionality required, their performance level and defines emotional satisfaction.

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Tool 6. Defining the customer journey

AdvertisingSponsorshipPRReferral

Hear

RetailWeb shop3rd PartyOther webTarifs, offers

Join

Out of BoxUser interfaceUsabilityFunctionalityErgonomics

Use

Customer relationshipInformationUpgradeBillWeb

Grow

Customer servicesRetentionInformation

Retain

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Tool 7. User Testing

Involving the end customer in the design process is a key part of the design process.

Using paper prototypes, mock ups, or experience prototypes, you can involve customers in every level of the development process. This gives real time feedback and informs and improves the design of the experience. It can highlight make problems which will cause reduced usage, identify areas of confusion and also give confidence where the experience is right.

User testing must be part of the design process to be of any use - it is of no use at the end when it is too late and too expensive to modify.

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Tool 7. User Testing

Foam models, click through screens, paper prototypes…

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Tool 8. Future modelling

Almost any act of design is concerned with the future. The combination of current user insight, creativity, synthesis of the possible and probable, and the ability to model and an idea appear make real, allows a dialogue with customers about the future.

Car companies do this all the time. In technology development, it is vital to present and understand new developments early to anticipate social acceptance, potential barriers, real and alternative applications, to focus investment and optimise success.

Whirlpool; washing machine of the future, uses plants to filter water and clean clothes. Not real but allows a discussion with customers of the future possible.

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Tool 9. Holding the vision

In presenting a vision of a product or service and the surrounding customer experience, development of that experience has a template to follw, inspire and measure against. Decisions can be made according to the vision, decisions are easier and resolvable. Importantly, the customer viewpoint is put to the fore and the impact of developments or modification can be evaluated.

Microsoft created a film of what their managers would do to the Apple iPod packaging concept, destroying it’s attractive simplicity through countless micro decisions, each one justified but eventually resulting in a complicated incomprehensible customer message!

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Process overview

FocusExplore

Insight Design Test Specify

User ObservationCo-creation

What will it be?ConceptsCreativityModellingFuture Foresight

Paper prototypesExperience protoypingMock upsUser testing

CompendiumsPerformance MetricsExperience metricsDetail Usability testing

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Design Tools versus…

Product Specification word doc

Pilot projects technical

Optimum solutions single

Technical prototypes expensive

Building reactive

Applied brand superficial

Accidental Experience uncontrolled

Experience compendium visual

User testing mock ups contextural

Designed concepts multiple

Experience protypes contextural

Designing strategic

Brand DNA ingrained

Consistent, excellent customer satisfaction