Andrew Mackie, business catalyst

Design is in the details

I loved this 15 minute talk by Paul Bennett of design innovation firm IDEO. In it he highlights some fabulous, empathic solutions and explains how they were created.

Paul's main points are that designers need to:

• reconcile what organisations want with what individuals need,
• look at situations from 'the person out' rather than 'the organisation in',
• consider the human element of a solution and foster it,
• look at people's 'thoughtless acts' which contain significant meaning,
• have a beginners mind - look at ideas afresh, and
• communicate clearly and simply with their clients.

Also that:

• good solutions are often staring us in the face,
• tiny solutions can make a huge difference, and
• many significant inventions come from observing small interactions.

What small changes could you make to your offering that will have significant, positive impacts on your customers?

Evil Feedback, Truth & Transparency

Feedback is crucial to the success of systems - by use of sensory cues, designers remove user uncertainty, informing them that their actions are understood by the system and correct for their task.

As with all good things, however, there are people who use feedback for evil. Consider the poker/slot/fruit machine, designed to separate fools and their money. I’ve tried one machine and found it to provide inconsistent feedback, greatly rewarding modest windfalls with dazzling sound and light displays and allowing losses to go all but unnoticed. The feedback I despised the most was the machine giving 'you've won' feedback when someone bet a dollar and 'won' fifty cents (ie. they lost fifty cents). Evil.

Another obvious contender to win evil feedback awards are the cigarette manufacturers who, in adding nicotine, allow their cigarettes to give new users a mild high - feedback that the product is beneficial to you – when the reality is quite different.

Mainstream organisations often use feedback in ways which are cunning, if not necessarily evil. Consider, for instance, the use of MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) in foods. In Malcolm Gladwell's typically insightful article, 'The Ketchup Conundrum', he points out that MSG has a taste which is pure umami, the fifth fundamental taste of the human palate and a marker of protein in foods. Manufacturers who add MSG to their foods may therefore be providing their food products with feedback that implies wholesomeness - protein - where this may not be the case.

Don’t be tempted to join these companies in provide misleading feedback in your products. Take a long term view of business, building your brand by frequently delivering on and exceeding customer expectations. This calls you to a higher standard of truth and transaperency, now valued by increasingly aware consumers.

My favourite truthful & transparent product of late is Another Bloody Water. Just reading the naked truth on the label or website is enough to make you smile, a powerful use of a Liking trigger that raises this product from a commodity to something remarkable.

Do your products, packaging & promotions provide accurate feedback, reflecting the utility that users can expect to receive from you?

How can you use truth & transparency to increase the appeal of your products?

Desirability and design

Wandering around a motor show last year, only two cars really interested me - the Ferrari F430:

and the Mitsubishi Evo X:

This troubled me – that in spite of a plethora of choice and my significant interest in cars, all but two left me cold. I sat looking at the Evo X and pondered until I came up with a formula of sorts for desirability in design:

Desirability = (clarity of design purpose) x
                    (commitment to that purpose) x
                    (an aesthetic factor)

In other words, I'm wondering whether the Evo X, the F430 and other products are desirable because:

• they're designed with a very clear purpose in mind (to not be all things to all people),
• the manufacturer totally commits their products to that purpose, and
• the designers made them beautiful as befits their purpose.

This, then, may be a useful framework for considering the desirability of your products:

• How clear are we on the design purpose of our products?
• How committed are we to delivering on that purpose?
• Is there a way to increase the aesthetic value of our products?

Or in summary form:

• Are our products highly desirable to a niche market (or equally undesirable to everyone)?

Finally, I commend the dieline blog to you as inspiration for extraordinary product and packaging design. It contains countless examples of commodities that have been elevated to objects of desire through clear, committed and beautiful design.

Presentation Zen

You can't change the world if you can't communicate your vision for change. Pay attention to Garr Reynold's advice on the Presentation Zen blog and you'll learn how to create simple, powerful presentations.

The first post of Garr's that I saw was Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic and from there I was hooked. I expect you will be too.