Our “New” Design Economy
Tom Peters recently posted about design (one of his top hot buttons) and the difficulty he had with his new HDTV. Cool box, way complicated functions (three controllers with 117 buttons). Which got me to thinking about a past article in Fast Company about our so-called “new” Design Economy.
In a global economy, elegant design is becoming a critical competitive advantage. Trouble is, most business folks don’t think like designers.
Well, designers also don’t think like business people. Of course, this isn’t necessarily bad, given the culture of mediocrity that prevails in so many companies. The bigger issue is neither business people nor designers think like just plain ol’ people when it comes to their products. Engineers do something because they can (117 buttons); package/product designers do it because it looks/sounds/feels “cool” (so what if it breaks after one use?) Accountants are all about margins and ROI (unfortunately, customers aren’t numbers and don’t behave logically.) Sales people just want something to help them meet quota now. CEOs fall victim to (Wall) street-speak. And so on.
The missing parts in most design: Answers to 1. How are real people going to use it? 2. Will they want to use it? 3. How does it make their lives better? and, most importantly, 4. Will it “speak” to them? Soul connections (as new-agey as that sounds) go a very long way in making up for basic mechanical or functional design flaws. If you can’t/won’t make the emotional connection, margins (and ultimately, stock prices) will be a mote point.
Further, we’ve always got a “new” economy; every resource shortage or technological advance is touted as “new” with its own buzzy words and “flavor of the month” predictions. (One of the biggest failings of market predictions is we base them on current conditions and technologies. Remember flying cars? Personal rocket ships?) Whale oil to fossil fuel. Horses to internal combustion engine. Industrial. Information. Knowledge. Etc. etc. etc. But, is the economy at its core really “new?” Sure, there are dramatic changes in technologies and capabilities, but the fundamentals stay the same. People buy from people. People buy things based more on emotion than logic. Everyone wants to stand out and look “cool” (and, we like even better if we stand out as part of a group. Sheep in Ray-Bans, that’s us!) One common element of success in any of our economies is - ahem - intelligent design. So, I’d submit we’ve always had a “design” economy - we just don’t always recognize it.
Read More: Great TrueTalk blog post -Carefully Designing Soul
The Empathy Economy (Biz week article: “Design thinking” can create rewarding experiences for consumers — the key to earnings growth and an edge that outsourcing can’t beat.)
Remote Control Anarchy We can all relate to this analysis (rant?)
Tags: business development, design
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February 22nd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
“I’d submit we’ve always had a “design” economy – we just don’t always recognize it.”
I agree.
Or maybe we could phrase it, “we’ve always had a human economy” - human beings have always been drawn to “different and useful”. Our infatuation with optimization and better sameness is not bad. But technical product quality is merely table stakes in today’s marketplace.
February 22nd, 2006 at 4:44 pm
“human economy.” Dang! I wish I’d said that.