Design Thinking 2007

According to Forrester Research, business leaders can no longer differentiate their service or product through price, features, selection, or brand.  Today's customers have greater access to information through the web, telephones, mobile devices, and emails and can also transact through these same channels. As a result, a new competitive dimension has emerged - Experience Differentiation - and it demands our attention if we want to stay competitive, grow revenue, and increase brand loyalty.

Experience Differentiation

On October 19, 2007, Usability Sciences participated in and co-sponsored the DESIGN THINKING 2007 conference held in Dallas, Texas. Chris Bernard, Microsoft User Experience Evangelist, was the keynote speaker for the event. According to Chris, in order for companies to be competitive in the marketplace their products, software, or websites must...
(1) work great,
(2) look great,
(3) be relevant to the user, and
(4) make an emotional connect with the user.

We agree with this and believe these four points are the keys to achieving experience differentiation. As a result, with every client engagement we assess whether the end-user finds the client's product, software, or website to be useful, usable, and enjoyable.

Design Thinking

So what is Design Thinking? We believe it is the process one must go through to create a great user/customer experience. Mark Dziersk hits the mark with his article on Design Thinking. In his article Mark maps out the Design Thinking process as four steps:

1. Problem Definition: Define the right problem to solve, and re-frame it

• Start with observing what people do rather than relying on what they tell they do
• Dig at "why?" until the real truth is known
• Frame the problem differently so that it invites creative solutions
• Example: Rather than "design a chair", re-frame the challenge as "create a way to suspend a person"

2. Remove your filters and consider multiple solutions for the problem

• Use 2D & 3D tools to illustrate possible solutions (we were introduced to Silverlight and tafiti.com)
• Have 5 people work on solutions for 1 day rather than using 1 person for 5 days
• This should be a fun exercise and involve people with various backgrounds and perspectives

3. Give each idea time to "grow legs"

• Ideas must be presented in a conducive environment... idea-killing cannot be allowed
• Over time, combine ideas and/or enhance each idea
• Repeat step 2 if more ideas are needed

4. Pick the winner and then build it

Design Thinking is not new. It's simply starting to get focus. Why? Because "experience" is the new competitive dimension.

Design Thinking 2008

Design Thinking 2007 was clearly a success so you can count on there being a Design Thinking 2008. Details will be forthcoming and if you are interested in sponsoring, planning, or participating in the next conference, drop us note and we'll keep you in the conversation.