Design Strategy, Trends

Co-creation and Technology: The Inextricable Link

May 17, 2018

Technology has become cheaper and thus more accessible over the years. Low cost mobile phones, computers and the Internet, coupled with tools such as social media and data analytics have resulted in the following outcomes:

Shift in Power

The growth of platforms like Facebook, Google and Youtube, primarily enabled by low-cost Internet, has enhanced cyclical connectivity and feedback loops which enable transparency. The common individual’s access to information has played a major role in shifting where the power to influence lies.

Today’s potential customer is more likely to believe the reviews of an online community and less likely to be influenced by a company’s advertising efforts. Power now lies with social groups or communities. Customers are able to gain more knowledge about a particular product, as well as of its competitors’ and interact with each other quickly, giving them the power to demand customised products that better suit their needs. Today’s customer is motivated to play a key role in the innovation process. Ideas for innovation are also able to come from sources such as vendors, partners and other key players, and are no longer limited to the traditional internal source – the R & D department.

Global Collaboration and Enhanced Mobility

The World Wide Web has enabled a global civilization connected by an invisible force – the Internet. Information travels rapidly, and distances no longer feel intimidating. The world is literally at your fingertips.

Information Sharing and Analysis

Individuals can collaborate in an intangible environment enabled by high-speed Internet, social media platforms, inexpensive computers and mobile phones. People from different parts of the world, with different areas of expertise, can all sit at the same virtual ‘table’ and co-create.

Social media platforms allow for rapid two-way flow of information between creators of products/services and end users. Further, the information is no longer limited to just text, but also has visual aid. This means understanding problems or needs becomes much easier, potentially allowing for better solutions to be developed.

Because of technology, large amounts of information can be quickly shared and the same data set can be analysed by people with different areas of expertise. Big data and data analytics allow firms to better understand and segment the market, identify new trends and needs, and eventually help in developing mutually beneficial marketing strategies.

In short, technology today enables:

– Access to various problem solvers from different backgrounds and with diverse expertise

– Rapid communication and information sharing.

These features form the pillars of a successful co-creative endeavour.

THE FUTURE OF CO-CREATION & INNOVATION – WHAT NEXT?

With artificial intelligence predicted to take over large chunks of the workforce in the future, algorithms developed from repetitive human patterns will influence innovation.

Augmented collaboration will also enhance the experience and efficiency of co-creation.There are multiple innovators currently working on trying to directly connect our brain’s neurology to technology.The day we can share our thoughts and ideas just by thinking of a specific person may not be that far away.

Advancements in technology are setting up a platform that will allow for co-creation and innovation to take place at an unprecedented pace.

Will you be ready?

Perhaps our article next week – The Golden Principles of Co-creation – can help. Stay tuned.

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Design Strategy

Co-creation: The Effective Approach to Innovative Thinking

By admin on

May 3, 2018

- Design Strategy

At the root of good product, service or system design is the desire to create something of use and value to the intended end user. So if your goal is to create good design, keeping your focus on either solving the end user’s problem or enhancing his existing experience is key to getting you there.

In the past, when developing new products or improving existing ones, innovation, in general, was based on the interpretation of information gathered via market research. It was restrictive in its approach.

A more recent innovation technique that is particularly effective in today’s world is co-creation. About ten years ago, it was observed that: “Companies today are moving from just collecting customer reactions to actively inviting customers to participate in creating and developing new products. The traditional company-centric approach to product innovation is giving way to a world in which companies co-create products with consumers.” *

The concept of co-creation has evolved since then and today it has expanded to allow not only customers, but also other stakeholders and professionals to be a part of the innovation process. The Financial Times Lexicon definition explains the evolved concept well:

HOW CO-CREATION ENABLES CONTEMPORARY INNOVATION

The problems and needs of people today are much more complex and interconnected than they were 20 years ago, requiring more innovative solutions than ever before. Co-creation, being multi-pronged in its approach, has the power to enable us to progress:

1. From Obscurity to Clarity

Complex problems can be difficult to break down. As opposed to many other approaches, co-creation often takes place at the beginning of the innovation process and involves the end user right from the start. This means that even before you begin the ideation phase, you are one step closer to creating value – by obtaining a true understanding of what the end user really requires. It’s like a doctor prescribing treatment for your ailment – the treatment will only be effective if a correct diagnosis has been made.

2. From Detachment to Empathy

Co-creation gives designers, business owners, researchers, vendors and other stakeholders the opportunity to get into the shoes of the end user. If you learn to empathise, you are more likely to approach the task at hand with greater compassion. In other words, you are more likely to create appropriate and valuable solutions.

3. From Alienation to Involvement

Co-creation encourages responsible co-ownership – when the parties involved in the process feel empowered to make a difference and have a stake in the outcome, they are likely to be more invested.

4. From Rigidity to Customisation

By enabling participation of the end user and offering customisation, co-creation allows you to do more than just problem solve; it provides you with a means to enable customer delight, a valuable element in building and maintaining brand loyalty in today’s highly competitive market place.

5. From Uncertainty to Cohesiveness

Complexity is fraught with uncertainty. By bringing varied expertise to the table, co-creation allows a complex problem to be examined from several angles. This cohesive approach allows you to transform fragmented ideas into robust, effective solutions.

Co-creation, like the Internet, empowers you to use the collective force of a group to enhance lives and the world you live in.

It is this intrinsic synergy of co-creation that enables us to deliver innovative solutions, even in the face of today’s highly complex and ever evolving environment.

*Peter C. Honebein and Roy F. Cammarano, “Customers at Work,” Marketing Management 15, no.8 (January-February 2006): 26-31; Peter C. Honebein and Roy F. Cammarano, Creating Do-It-Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies (Mason, OH: Texere Southwestern Educational Publishing, 2005).

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Design Strategy

The Importance of R&D in Design Thinking – Focus Groups

By admin on

April 26, 2018

- Design Strategy

Do Focus Groups Still Hold Value?

In business development today, design thinking has taken the world by storm. Being a critical process for innovation, this kind of thinking sets one apart from competition as it always builds solutions around user needs. Initial processes are heavily embedded in R&D and there are multiple tools to collect data. Some of these tools have been tried, tested and incorporated into the evolutionary process and some have been spat out like dinner that has gone off.

Today we explore focus groups. Traditionally, focus groups were used by marketers in the early stages of concept development to test and determine overall strategy and direction before a product was pushed out to the public. Marketers would invite different segments of the market in to collect qualitative data from participants who had potential interests in a Brand’s offering.

As internal business processes evolved into innovation driven offerings, we began to see focus groups used in the frameworks of Design Thinking also. But how much accurate qualitative information can we really collect from these groups?

If you are going to use focus groups as part of your process there are a few things to remember:

1. Focus groups should be used to help refine a concept. They will not help you find an innovative idea.
2. Focus groups are not always accurate as there is a dramatic influence from other participants of permeated thinking which puts the quality of the research into question.
3. Focus groups should ONLY be used for high level feedback.
4. Focus groups are used early on in the design process to validate initial assumptions. These could include ideas on potential product solutions and market segments.

So How Do We Conduct Focus Groups?

Always Begin With Really Drawing Out The Business Goals
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Who are you trying to help? What are the products you would like to offer? How do you think you might alleviate a human pain point? Once you have a clear list of business goals you will need to really identify why you are doing this research, and extract specific research questions that can help you validate these goals. For example, a business goal might be that you would like to create more of a connect with the millennial market to help reduce depression. This is a really nice goal and idea but who are these millennials? What are the smaller market segments you are talking to that have faced the problem of feeling unconnected and depressed? You might find in a small sample size that healthy fitness crazy millennials don’t really feel disconnected or depressed. And that will drive your research deeper.

Maintain Control Of The Group
Being a focus group moderator can be quite a daunting task for a newbie. Fear not. No-one takes offense to you gently pulling back the conversation to your research goals. I suggest that you also have a level two moderator – someone who is there for support incase discussions get intense or out of control. This can often happen when you are trying to solve a problem of a sensitive nature in different market segments. Perhaps one person wants a prayer room, and the other thinks it’s just a waste of space.

Framed Questions Make A World Of Difference
Without realising it humans being always want to close out a problem without really understanding it. This can be true of focus groups also. Instead of trying to find a definitive answer, look for ways to build question upon question to uncover the multiple layers of a problem. One person in your focus group might say that access to healthy food is easy, when in fact they do not even eat healthy food. It will be your job to probe further. And perhaps you then uncover that it is just too expensive for that market segment to buy health food on a continual basis.

Encourage Healthy Conversation
Do a round of introductions. They world is full of different people. Look and listen for the ones that seem confident enough to share their story initially, and use it as a base point to spark more conversation. This will set the tone. Then move your attention to the more introverted participants and probe. It could just begin with an open-ended question like ‘what’s your take on that?’ or ‘how might this have affected you?’

Bring In Variety
Try to pull in different market segments that are all interested in the topic at hand. For example, you are trying to create a business that helps the elderly find peace in the aging process. You will have to recruit people with disabilities, people who are lonely and whose kids live far away, people who have lost a spouse….you get the idea.

Allow Your Stakeholders To Be Part Of The Process
In focus groups information can be lost. Open up the conversation to your stakeholders by either asking them to observe the session in house, or use collaborative tools for video conferencing. They might pick up on something you don’t!

Focus groups as a form of R&D still have a place in the design process if you know how and when to use them. They can provide you with overarching feedback to refine a core concept to help you make strategic decisions in a cost effective, quick manner. They aren’t , however, a substitute for much deeper qualitative research where you can observe or interview users in their natural habitat for innovative idea generation.

Madhuri Rao
Founder & Chief
Design Strategy

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Brand Strategy

Branding – The Importance Of A Mood Board

By admin on

April 18, 2018

- Brand Strategy

Have you ever wondered why some brands appeal to you right from their logo through to all their viewable content across channels?

It’s because you understand the language. And just like alphabets make words that are the building blocks of English , a moodboard creates anchors to visual language that make a brand.

And as we all know, a brand is NOT just a logo.

The Beginnings Of A Strong Brand

So you have an idea – an outstanding business plan that makes sense to execute in today’s market. And you feel the excitement of sharing this with EVERYBODY. And then you stop short. How are you going to communicate this perfect little brain child of yours?

Always begin with a moodboard.

Allow yourself to explore images, patterns, colors, typography, illustrations and textures that inspire you to develop your business. If you believe your business has a fresh and innovative offering, look for elements that will continue to inspire that feeling. This becomes your base point for development. Zeitgeist uses Pinterest as a tool to gather these ingredients – something that would be hugely beneficial to a rookie too.

Identifying The Communication Process

Depending on how creative the Client is, we choose to either create a tangible mood board for interaction, or a digital mood board to confirm direction. Based on your resources and preferences you can do the same. I personally prefer a board that I can touch, to drive the senses even deeper.

Then, begin to arrange your elements to make sense visually. Perhaps you decided to club categories together, perhaps you prefer to jumble things into what works for you mentally. The idea is to get you to start feeling like your business is being rooted into something visually communicative for your target market. If you feel the board is getting too heavy, it’s okay to remove a few elements, or if you feel right about it, split them into two, to analyse two potential directions. There is no wrong or right. This is just conceptual.

Now you have your anchor. As you develop your brand remember to keep looking back at your moodboard to draw continually from those elements that inspired you to begin with. If you stay rooted to the same colors, typography and imagery, you will begin to see your Brand speaking its own language to your potential market.

From Design Brief To Mood Board

Today Zeitegist shares two digital mood boards with distinct directions, based around the design brief for SmartFarm, that nudged the Client into choosing a clear road map going forward.

Hope this helps! Happy Designing 🙂

The Design Brief

SmartFarm represents a marriage between agriculture and technology.

The brand language should be ‘Young’, ‘Fun’, ‘Relevant’ and ‘Flexible’.

The brand identity needs to appeal to both, B2B and B2C market segments.

INSPIRATION 1
The mood board that follows brings together a collection of images, colours, patterns and art that render an uncompromising, more corporate but approachable feel to the brand language:

INSPIRATION 2
This collection of images, colors, patterns and art brings a more congenial and sophisticated yet friendly feel to the brand:

Madhuri Rao,
Founder & Chief,
Design Strategy

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Business Tips & How To's, Design Strategy

Unravelling It Like A Design Thinker

By admin on

April 13, 2018

- Business Tips & How To's, Design Strategy

Step – 1: Identify The Problem

To have an anchor to the process you need to begin with identifying the problem and defining it well. Often problems exist and are entangled in a larger web of co-dependent issues that need resolving also, for the problem to be resolved. When a problem statement is well defined, the rest falls into place.

Imagine a tangled ball of yarn. Step one is about loosening all the knots and tangles and straightening out the fibre to see it clearly from beginning to end.

Step – 2: Use Both Sides of Your Brain

Design thinking is about using both sides of the brain – logical and creative, simultaneously.

It is also about being able to critically observe one’s own process and consciously switch from a rational and structured way of thinking to an emotive and intuitive approach as and when required.

Step – 3: Keep The Big Picture In Mind

While distinguishing all parts of the problem and attacking them individually is the key, it is also important to zoom out every now and then to look at the general overarching problem and to make sure that the bigger picture is not being lost.

Step – 4: Be Ready To Adapt

In a tight time-resource equation, things don’t often work out as expected. This is when being level headed and adaptable – in order to find the most feasible solution – becomes a design thinker’s most valuable quality. Stay hungry for a solution and you will find it.

In a nutshell, this is what the overall process of solving a problem using design thinking looks like:

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Brand Strategy

The Anatomy of a Brand – Fashion Harbour

By admin on

April 11, 2018

- Brand Strategy

Just like the human body, a well thought out brand has multiple parts that function together to make the whole. So, what are those parts, and how do we apply it to our process?

When a Dubai based client approached us with her idea for the e-commerce fashion brand she wanted to launch, we went to work to dissect her brand into key elements that would serve as a clear differentiator in an overwhelmingly competitive market.
The idea was to humanise the brand with a clear and distinct personality that added value to the local market.

THE SOUL

We started with its SOUL. Why did this brand need to exist? What was its core purpose? Its vision? To get these answers Zeitgeist immersed the client into an in depth 2-day brand development workshop to spring some life into the business. It very quickly became evident that this e-commerce platform was to be the canvas that connected fashion enthusiasts to unique products from all over the world.

THE BRAIN

But what would this mean to the BRAIN of the brand? We needed to figure out a logical way that this brand would reach its market. We understood that Fashion Harbour’s largest market would be women and so right from its name, we needed to inspire, excite and welcome in our target market. To do this we needed to dig deep into all the areas these women interacted with that were connected to fashion and lifestyle. We wanted to build logical strategic alliances that could help deliver our message. And so, we began to build Fashion Harbour’s roadmap to reach its destination.

THE HEART

Now we needed to infuse HEART into Fashion Harbour. How could we manifest a feeling of warmth and togetherness to create a sense of loyalty? Heavily embedded in R&D, we understood that to communicate our brand we would need distinct social media strategies put in place. To begin a relationship that inspired loyalty meant that we needed to figure out what inspired these ladies. We understood that a large part of our market spent hours browsing Instagram looking for brands and products that could add value to their lives. And this is where Fashion Harbour needed to be. We spent countless hours on design strategy. How should each post look? How will it sound? What do each of these women want to hear? The idea was to allow the brand to invoke loyalty from its customers. We created online strategies that mitigated loneliness, created self-worth, offered education and induced community.

How did this all come together to form the DNA of the Brand? Very simply, the brand’s unique value proposition was to be ‘Inspired by Culture, United by Style’. This meant that everything the brand stood for and communicated would represent expressive fashion, global fashion & democratic fashion.
We developed the brand to represent a lifestyle, and not just a collection of products.

DRESSING IT ALL UP

What CLOTHES would the brand wear? What would be in its cupboard? The brand identity needed to be gentle and feminine but strong enough to advocate its presence online. We drew inspiration from the local pier to define the typeface and created a fluid watercolour as the background to emphasize femininity in the logo. Colours and gradients were used to depict varied forms of fashion and culture that all talked of the brand’s DNA – open minded and inspired. And ultimately, our logo was designed as the brand’s favourite hat – a distinguished, impactful image that was tailored to remind the user of a trendy brand that impacts their life.

Madhuri Rao
Founder & Chief,
Design Strategy

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Design Strategy

Zeitgeist & Design Thinking – The Journey So Far

By admin on

April 4, 2018

- Design Strategy

I was sitting in my garden the other day and reflecting on Zeitgeist’s journey as a design house. In effect, we have been agile, design thinking and lean from the very beginning without knowing it or being certified for it back then.

Milestone 1: Designing Spaces that Enhance Human Experiences

The journey began with space design and the desperate desire to inculcate an Indian benchmark to global living standards.
This came from my years growing up abroad and knowing the difference in how I felt in a well designed space versus one that had little or no expression. A space that had intention had the ability to change my mood and mindset. And as we gravitated to applied learning, life pushed us in the direction of designing spaces to bring the best mood out of the human experience. We began to recognise the value in that feeling and held on to it. We had intention. As we moved toward authenticity it became easier to identify the disconnect in an experience – a story half told.

A space that had intention had the ability to change my mood and mindset…As we moved toward authenticity it became easier to identify the disconnect in an experience – a story half told.

Milestone 2: Infusing Personality through Brand Development

It became evidently clear to me that messages were being interrupted and lost when we didn’t put the receiver first and weave language for a complete understanding. The ability to tell that story became the need of the hour. It didn’t make sense to design the environment without understanding how the personality wove through it. We needed to be more than just one of the best interior designers Bangalore had to offer. And so we began to build the other half that was missing. This was not part of the plan. Just a gut instinct and a chance we took. So we tested. Staying light, we brought in the talent for identity design and very soon began to align on projects from multiple perspectives.

Milestone 3: Using Design Thinking to add Value and Impact

When I looked at the plate it still only seemed half full. How could we integrate these services and create an offering that actually meant something in the long run? I wanted more out of the design process. And as I began to search, my search found me. Design Thinking became the framework I gravitated toward. It had the beginnings of a structure that resonated with me. It put people first. Leaning into this kind of thinking aligned with my sense of purpose and growth.

I was excited to put these frameworks into our processes at Zeitgeist.

What would happen if we integrated this kind of thinking into our lean start-up. How much value could we offer? What new ideologies would come out of it? How could we offer strategic design consultancy that added value and impact?

Design thinking….resonated with me…..It put people first.

And so we began to recreate our internal structure around better belief systems, deeper meaning, and higher purpose.
Alignment toward this way of thinking is the naturally progressive way and we fit right in. It amazed me to think how far we had come.

With a gentle smile it struck me that everything happens by design.

Madhuri Rao
Founder & Chief
Design Strategy

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Design Strategy

The Tiniest Designers In The World

By admin on

October 11, 2017

- Design Strategy

Zeitgeist Design and Development is always looking for inspiration from the world around us. From choosing great colour schemes to creating spaces that are both progressive and sustainable, we believe that nature is the greatest teacher of all.

Biomimetics, a field close to the heart of Zeitgeist, enables thought provoking insights into some of the most effective designs on our planet – those that occur in nature.In today’s post we focus on ants and examine how these tiny creatures design remarkably effective systems.

This understanding could find potential application in the fields of:

ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING

If you’ve every paused to marvel at how diminutive ants design and construct colonies that are much larger than themselves and capable of housing innumerable residents, here’s something more to be amazed at.Researchers at Georgia Tech University have studied another phenomenon that occurs when fire ants are dropped into water.The ants are able to quickly adapt to the new environment and create a raft like structure that prevents them from drowning. The extraordinary part of this feat is that they use their own bodies as the building material!The ants link up and form a mass that is viscoelastic or able to resist flow under pressure, as well as return to its original form when stretched or compressed.Understanding how they do this could lead to the creation of adaptable, viscoelastic building material, which could be used to construct self-healing structures like bridges and buildings. Such structures would have the ability to auto detect and mend cracks, without human intervention.

DESIGN VERIFICATION & VALIDATION

A product that cannot deliver what it was designed to defeats its purpose.Design verification and validation are key to ensuring that concept meets practicality and is a vital stage between the design and rollout phases of a new product.Ants are known to be experts at finding the shortest routes to food sources, by employing Swarm Intelligence.Research conducted at Virginia Tech, focusing on how ants achieve this, could dramatically reduce the time spent on finding the most optimum solution, as well bring down the costs involved in the design validation process – significant in the age of complex electronics design, where applying traditional methods of verification and validation is becoming increasingly untenable.

ROBOTICS

Ants are able carry heavy loads, often several times their weight.

Research at the University of Ohio has revealed that the neck joint of the common American field ant is able to withstand pressure of up to 5000 times its body weight! The study of this astonishing capability could find application in the field of robotics, enhancing the potential of what could be done on earth and in space.

DESIGN OF ORGANISATIONS, COMMUNITIES & LOGISTICS SYSTEMS

The structure of any colonies has much to teach us about effective organisation and logistics design.

The division of labour in ant nests, which determines its structure and habits, is according to age and size. The effectiveness comes from each creature contributing what it is best at, while collectively choosing co-operation over competition.
Adaptability is key, with labour patterns and worker distribution altering as the colony grows and develops. Scaling up is thus more of a natural progression and less of an ad hoc activity.
The basic design of ant colonies, which uses vertical passageways for movement and transport, and horizontal compartments for work, storage and housing, sheds light on effective operations and logistics.

These are just a few design ideas that we can employ from the world of ants, which also teaches us to pause and realise that:

Sustainable solutions can be reached through adaptability to the environment rather than the exploitation of it.
Synergy can be achieved even amongst the tiniest of creatures, as long as they are working together for a common cause.
Utilising and enhancing the inherently unique features of a system can bring about ingenious solutions to large-scale problems.

At the core of Biomimicry is a respect for nature and the acknowledgement that we could potentially learn a better way from it… even from a seemingly insignificant little ant.

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