How many times have you been pleasantly surprised by design?
Think hard about those little moments that made you think “they really thought of me when designing this”. Like the hook under the bar to hang your coat on so you don’t have to drop it on the floor. Or that hole in your jacket that you can feed your headphones through so you don’t have to unzip to get to your ipod out each time you want to change the song.
How many times can you remember this feeling?
Few and far between it seems. Too often design is seen as aesthetic and even a necessary evil by some.
Customer research and user design is nothing new – The British Empire was strengthen by a chap who realised if he could just get from A to B quicker and move multiple necessities on-bulk he could expand the Empire with an unparalleled advantage. Voila! Utilising the birth of the Locomotive and effectively creating modern-day logistics! Yet in today’s fast moving pace of business, the very essence of why and whom we are designing for is forgotten.
On a recent project with one of our clients we have yet again embraced customer research and observations to allow a greater insight to behaviours and desires. Following a ten-week process, our analysis showed dramatic negative effects by the current design on the customer.
These observations have allowed us to create new designs that dramatically change the use of space with simple, yet effective adjacencies. The outcome should be that we create a space that improves not only the general look-and-feel but also efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction.
Our trust in observations and the ability to listen to users, suppliers and client alike will hopefully prove successful once again.
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