The value of design process thinking:
Opportunity, Analysis, Solution, Implementation, Experience.
Today’s economy provides incredible opportunity. Clients are in need of smarter ways of attracting customers, of communicating messages, telling their stories, and standing out. Not all opportunities require the same solution, either. A large corporate event may have once been the norm, where today a webcast will suffice. Yet opportunity may extend deeper than a single point of attack. One question to ask is, “Where do we find opportunities?” A better question may be, “How do we create opportunities?”
Analysis allows us to see different perspectives. It may come in brainstorming, through collaboration and communication with the client, through research and practical experience. Analysis requires thought and consideration, and the result is creativity and innovation.
A solution shouldn’t merely satisfy the end goals, it extends and amplifies and resonates. When evaluating a design solution, use these qualities as a measure of success. And don’t complicate it. Are there higher values on which we should focus? How does sustainability fit with our client’s goals? Designers are the leaders in sustainable solutions as well as evocative communication.
The implementation should be clear, concise, and complete. As clients want more for their buck, efficiency can be led by the design team by providing comprehensive information and active project participation. These cakes may bake themselves, but we make sure they have enough sugar.
An experience is the result. It comes in a variety of levels: first, that of the client: does the solution and implementation accurately define the client, their objectives, brand, and culture? Second: the customer: what do they take away from the experience, and is it authentic? Third: our peers: how do others in our profession view our work? (Although the latter may play more to our own sense of vanity, it is also a good thing to be able to step back and look at the results objectively as though through others’ eyes.)
In one sense anyone solving a problem is designing and implementing a solution. The design process is a way to approach a project, any project, rigorously, intellectually, and creatively. Our great resource is a stable full of designers trained to think this way. We are so much more than our pencils.
(Kudos to Dewey for helping to coalesce these five elements, too. For those of you wondering, “Stable full” is not the official name for a group of designers. I’m accepting suggestions.)