The majority of people have miss conception about design. Most people think that design is about making things more beautiful. It is a luxury, an art, or a drawing looking at the aesthetic side of the design. However, the design is something more.
Design can be applied differently depending on how to use it. For example, if to look at the Design Ladder developed by Danish Design Centre in 2001 in Figure 1, we will see that design as a form-giving work as a styling agent, giving a desirable look at the final form-given stage. However, design, as a process is a part of product development. This approach works as a problem solving by focusing on problems and the user. And design as a design strategy- rethinks or re-orientates a company’s business concepts and helps fix issues within the company. As you can see design is a versatile tool that like a magic wand, improves everything and guides organizations in the right direction. But what is more, it has been shown that design increases profitability by 50% in companies where design is the key driver according to the 2018 Business Value of Design study done by Mckinsey.
Figure 1
How can we increase profitability by strategic design?
Data points out that companies that conduct research create a better product-market-fit. Besides, putting the user at the core of the product development and focusing on a customer experience helps to provide all kinds of product details to help customers make an informed buying decision.
Lego Case
For instance, Lego launched a new theme LEGO Fiends in 2012, which was backed by years of research and a 40-million-dollar marketing campaign. In that year Friends theme sold twice as much as it was initially forecasted. By applying design as a strategy LEGO was able to go from a bleak of bankruptcy in 2003, having an 800-million-dollar debt to being the number one toy company in the world with a boasting profit of 600 million dollars in 2015.
Airbnb Case
Airbnb is another striking case of using design as a saving rode and becoming the best. In the early 2000s, Airbnb’s sales were dropping down and hitting a plateau in the company’s history. To find out why the company’s founders started looking for the flaws in their company’s strategy. It appeared that the company needed to focus more on a customer experience to be able to provide necessary product details to help customers make an informed buyer’s decision, after doing it the company’s revenue and sales skyrocketed.
Strategic design is a mighty tool that saves big companies and gives prosperity. Companies that embrace design practice which values the user experience utmost, will be most likely to succeed.
