DESIGN BECAUSE
The outside speaks about the inside.
The protective outside has always helped project the inside character of a thing, business, or person. It has been the primary medium of communication for us. The outside and the inside are always in tandem.
If one focuses only on the outer appearance, the result is short-lived. When we do not emphasize on the outer layer, we miss out on the opportunity of talking about values and intent in the most impactful way. And when we see from an audience perspective, we lose trust and feel cheated, if the quality of the outside and inside don't match up.
A cohesive outcome occurs when efforts are user-centered and value-driven. It helps to engineer a product or service with empathy. Having an understanding of the purpose, it empowers us to think holistically and better our delivery. Using design early in the development process enables us to define the intent and provide direction. It builds a character, which is relevant. It inserts factors of usability complementing the inside engineering.
DESIGN BECAUSE
The intangibility of tangible matters
Every tangible outcome has an intangible evoked emotion attached to it. And this emotion has an exponential impact in terms of our overall experience, as it helps us make sense of things.
Emotions like fear, love, excitement, anxiety, surprise, however invisible or difficult to measure, end up creating the difference between two products or services. The premium leather, the softness of a button click, the organic snack, the home delivery, or the mid-day meal scheme, finally gets converted into these feelings, which then translates into trust and loyalty.
Understanding these emotions, through careful observation of body language, facial expressions or gestures, would empowers us to craft a product, or service empathetically. Design as a process allows the possibility to add visual and other sensory elements that desirably elevate the emotional quotient
DESIGN BECAUSE
Subconscious triggers the conscious
Every experience has two components - conscious and subconscious, and they result in respective emotions. The conscious experience is what happens while we engage with the product or service like - steering a car, doing an online payment, or filling up an application form. But the sub-conscious experience is like an after-taste which lingers around post the event. It is something that builds a deeper relationship with the entity.
Most of the time, we emphasize the product's or service's active engagement period with the user (the umbra period) and build conscious experiences. But, the lack of awareness towards the penumbra period leaves us with no control over the subconscious experience.
Leveraging on both enables us to create an experience that has a deeper and extended engagement. The holistic overview makes us more empathetic and create a sustainable solution. Finally, it reduces the cost of customer acquisition, help win their trust and loyalty.
Hence, we shouldn't just design but design consciously and thoughtfully. We should tap into the subconscious dimension of the user behavior by keeping our focus on the unsaid, unheard, and unnoticed expressions that generate unbiased insights and set a platform for a user-centered design process.