Design thinking, innovation and user experience
Design management and strategic design related articles that cover the holistic approach of design as an innovation and business tool.
On the 4th of June 2015, Hermann Zapf died at the age of 96 after a legendary career as a typographer, calligrapher, and book designer. Hermann Zapf’s typeface design can be seen in his projects including Optima (1958), Aldus (1954), Palatino (1950), Sistina (1950), Venture (1969), and Zapfino (1998). During his versatile life, Zapf invented a wide range of typeface …
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Social media has become a part of our daily life. Although the debate about how social media may affect the quality of life, users of different social media have increased over time. Facebook users for example increased from 75 million to 600 million in the between 2008 and 2011. LinkedIn users increased from 20 million to 100 million in the …
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The user experience is the core of the design process. Designers should put themselves in the shoe of the end consumer in order to achieve empathic design. In order to achieve success in the highly competitive market, the innovation should walk side by side with the deep understanding of the consumer interaction with both the physical and digital aspects of …
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In every design and innovation process, understanding the end consumer through marketing research or user experience research plays an essential role in the success of the final product or service. This understanding is commonly identified in different design process models. For example, the Stanford University model starts with the spiral model of design process. The first stage is empathy, which …
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Sustainable development is defined as a joint long-term strategy that aims to develop the current needs with human and environmental impacts in mind. The development process aims to supply the present needs without compromising the next generation’s ability to meet their expected resources and needs. Some companies such as IKEA and Lego understand the importance of sustainable design and development …
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In a previous article, we explored how top designers such as Tom Bassett, Frank Gehry, David Rockwell and Yves Béhar defined the creative brief. While there are many theories and debates about what should be included in the creative brief, there is one definition for the creative brief or the marketing brief –it is a communication document that includes required …
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The following commentary focuses on the possibilities of design and logo analysis with key factors to assess how a logo functions through certain variables to establish brand identity. How these variables such as color, font and other factors can be found to have socially ascribed meaning and how design (through logo creation) can represent/reflect an organization’s philosophy or strategy is …
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One of the challenges that face designers when they start a freelance job, build their own studio or take the responsibility of a design manager inside an existing organization is estimating the design project budget. Unlike the majority of projects discussed in a project management course, the design is a creative process that involve stages that may be unpredictable or …
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While teaching a web user experience class at a university, I have received the chance to explore with the students the website development process and to highlight the role of design and creativity during the different development stages. The website development process suggests the involvement of design in both the early developmental stages and later in the feedback and evaluation …
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Design is implemented throughout numerous levels within an organization, starting from its strategic planning to the production process and final delivery of the product or service to the consumer. Strategic design and good design management for the organization are essential to achieve both innovation and enterprise business targets, which subsequently lead to a greater ability to compete in the market …
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What is the creative brief? What does it include? The creative brief, also known as an innovation brief, in its simplest form is the communication document that details all the required information for the design team and the parties involved in the design process during an item’s production. There are many debates about the content that should be included in …
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In 1964 during the first assembly of Icograda, British Prince Philip provided a thorough description of design: “Every day, designers of all kinds are becoming responsible for a greater proportion of man’s environment. Almost everything that we see and use that was not made by The Almighty has come from some designer’s drawing board.” His Highness’ words not only indicate …
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