Parekh Future of Extraordinary Design

Where are we going and how will we get there?
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5439-9561-9
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 180 Seiten

The Future of Extraordinary Design is an eye-opening book which seeks to explore the concept of design and the role it plays in our society's future. Written by award-winning designer and consultant Nik Parekh, this book challenges the status quo around design, breaking down the fundamental nature of 'human centered design' and how it can revolutionize the way we solve problems. With a breakdown of standardization and how it has helped the global industry, as well as how designers across industries create ideas, practice innovation, and build products, The Future of Extraordinary Design provides a unique and holistic look at the world of design from a seasoned veteran. This book views design from both an industry lens and through the eyes of a customer, examining what resonates with customers and how designers can build products that communicate with them on a deeper level - a process which Nik knows as 'human centered design'. The Future of Extraordinary Design is a must-read for designers, entrepreneurs, and executives of all backgrounds.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Parekh, Nik

Leseproben

From McDonald’s to Uber, standardization is everywhere and is seen as a pillar that supports success. In this chapter, we explore the pros and cons of standardization, why it emerged, and how it fares in our changing international world. Once upon a time, way back in the dark ages – before the internet – it wasn’t always easy to find a new restaurant you could trust. Usually, the only way you could find out whether a restaurant was good was by reading a newspaper review, by hearing through word of mouth, or by being a customer. Needless to say, a lot of people, Americans in particular, were reluctant to eat at new restaurants, unsure of what to expect. McDonald’s famously took advantage of this to become the biggest restaurant chain in the world. It wasn’t the first US burger chain. White Castle beat them to it by twenty years, but the original owners did understand that customers were tired of not getting what they expected. So they standardized everything, from the weights and measures to the cooking process, the service, and the origin of the ingredients. Even in the early days, every McDonald’s burger tasted the same. Now, McDonald’s rose to success for a host of reasons, but to the many competitors to come, standardization seemed a big one. So along with developing production lines and convincing customers to bus their own tables, firms adopted standardization across the US, and in some sense, our culture did too: standardized tests, standardized housing, standardized configurations. Standardization became a philosophy and a byword for quality and fairness and made everything measurable – against the standard. This was a useful concept in science, schools, and processes, but the idea really took off in product design. It became the water wheel in the mill of commerce. Once it started turning, it kept on running. It’s why every mall in every state has many of the same stores. American customers like to shop brands they recognize and this makes the brands grow to become even more recognizable. And so the success of standardization grows and grows. American customers like to shop brands they recognize and this makes the brands grow to become even more recognizable. Selling burgers or the American dream? McDonald’s took the brand to Europe in 1971, opening three locations in the Netherlands, West Berlin (as it was then), and Paris. These also did very well, which seemed to confirm the myth of the power of standardization. But some would argue it wasn’t the similarity of the food that helped it catch on, but the subtext of experience. After all, the food wasn’t well reviewed, and compared to the “French fries” in the Netherlands and France and the würst in Germany, it wasn’t considered tasty at all. But customers really enjoyed the exoticness of the American experience – and this is key here. What Europeans loved about McDonald’s was that it was different and unexpected, not that it was the same and standardized. This is something we as designers need to be aware of and keep in the front of our minds at all times. Correlation doesn’t always equal causation. US-style standardization used to be a big selling point to Americans and perhaps it still is, but the Europeans were buying the exact opposite – something different – something American! Images of Midwestern suburbia with newly built houses and cars in the driveway were very exciting to Europeans. It was the American dream and Europeans wanted a bite of it, too. This success hoodwinked many US firms in a couple of different ways. First, it convinced them that standardization really was a desirable attribute. Second, it made them think the rest of the world loved the US – and always would. And while this vision of the US as a rich and glamorous land did last for many, many years, America’s place in the world has changed since the end of the Cold War era. Today, simply being an American brand is no longer enough, and most importantly, it’s no longer different or exotic. From Dunkin’ to Gap, you can buy US products and services worldwide to the point where most of their customers don’t even realize they’re American. So without the draw of the exotic, these brands need to make their mark in international markets on their merits alone. But guess what’s holding them back? That’s right – standardization. Even today, some US brands and products are entering the international market and meeting resistance. This is not because they’re American, but because they’re failing to offer non-American customers what they want and need. Take, for instance, India. Indian consumers famously prefer local products and services to international names, for several reasons – but one of the most basic reasons is visual appearance. The world doesn’t see in black and white We all know the Uber logo. That’s precisely the point. Logos are the modern version of the medieval wax stamp. They confer authenticity. However, the authenticity of a brand is only important if the brand is also attractive. This is an issue for Uber in India. The chunky, tech-heavy darkness and black coloration of both the name and the icon simply don’t work in India. The image is too harsh, unfriendly, and even slightly menacing. This may be a small point, but customers of Uber have to interact with this logo and the extended design every time they hail a car. And the app is obviously brand-centric, too. In India, colors and pattern are very important, and the most popular colors are also the brightest and most vivid: blue, yellow, red, purple, pink, and green. Even pastels are kind of passé. And then there are two colors that are conspicuously absent: black and white. Black in India has connotations of lack of desirability, evil, negativity, and inertia. It represents anger and darkness and is associated with absence of energy, barrenness, and death. And while white can also represent truth and purity, it can sometimes have a negative meaning too, symbolizing the pallor of death. I think you see the problem. Imagine a huge international brand trying to break into the US with this as their branding – lack of desirability, evil, and death! Branding is the new standardization, but standardization is not branding. HOW DID
MCDONALD’S MAKE
IT BIG SELLING FRIES
TO THE FRENCH?
ACTUALLY, IT DIDN’T.
KNOWN WORLDWIDE
FOR A STANDARDIZED
PRODUCT,
MCDONALD’S BROKE
THE MOLD TO BREAK
INTO FRANCE. / THE PROBLEM WITH STANDARDIZATION We love our brands. Branding is the new standardization, but standardization is not branding. Good branding signals to customers the desirability and reliability of a product or service, much as standardization used to do, but brands also seem to have a personality all their own. We’re so brand-focused, we’ve started to think of brands as more human than the customers we want to reach. They’ve become sacred and untouchable. We rank brand language and brand narrative above real people. But without people and cultures, we don’t have any brand at all. There are other, deeper, social reasons the model got off to a slow start. Car ownership in Asia’s third-largest economy is not the norm. So unlike in the US, where hard-up interns can turn their hand to some evening work, in India, if you’re struggling – you don’t have a car. And well-to-do Indians who do own cars don’t drive taxis. Owning a car is a very aspirational thing. If you can afford to take an Uber but can’t afford to buy a car, you might feel a little uncomfortable getting into a privately owned car. The power balance shifts. And then there’s the issue with distances. In places like New York, the average trip in an Uber is five miles, which means the driver stays in the loop and on the grid to pick up another ride. But in New Delhi, the spider web layout of the city means drivers are reluctant to take a trip of more than five miles because it leaves them too far out. This has led to huge problems in New Delhi with Uber drivers asking rides where they’re going and then canceling on them. In this case, Uber is failing to be relative, dynamic, and contextual, and design should be relative, dynamic, and contextual. It’s an American product with American branding superimposed over an Indian landscape and society with zero thought for the target market. In addition, this lock, stock, and barrel approach to introducing a new brand to a foreign culture has ethically dubious knock-on effects. I imagine these effects will be remembered and big American brands will face a backlash. I’m talking, of course, about cultural assimilation, when a brand introduces new ideas, services, and even words to a market where they don’t yet exist, shaping the culture and people’s lives. Non-English languages become peppered with words such as ride, taxi-credit, and fare-share in ways completely unrelated to the Uber app. As a result, a brand’s emergence can change the culture of its target country in ways that are hard to imagine. Who knows? Maybe there’s something better than the Uber model for New Delhi that wouldn’t leave customers without a ride. However, if Uber expands and presses itself into a market, local designers and firms will never have the opportunity to fill that gap in an...