We are living in an ever-changing world. While this has always been true, the rate of change has increased with the disruptions of COVID19. We can’t control the virus, but that doesn’t mean we cannot create a desirable future for our businesses and our lives.
Our goal as designers is to create desirable futures, not just a plausible acceleration of what is happening now into a projected future. We like to challenge the organisations we work with this question; would you prefer to predict the future or to create it?
We are able to create the future, because we are all designers. Every human being is a designer. Our evolution as a species has been defined by our ability to invent and reinvent. We’re not only constantly evolving our skills, but we’re also developing new skills that generate intended or unintended consequences. What makes us human is our ability to create change intentionally. This is the same skill that makes us all designers and why any business can design a new digital product.
We are all designing the world that we want to live in, the culture that we want to live in, the relationships that we want to have. Problems occur when we unintentionally design situations we don’t want to be in. When we are not intentionally designing things, it means that we are not choosing what we want. The true power of design is to be able to intentionally create change for better. This also applies to the products and services that we offer, in this time of change, you should ask yourself what new services or products can we offer digitally?
How do we apply this to the concept of designing a new future for our businesses? We must move through what Richard Buchanan calls the four orders of design. Design began as a communication tool to create symbols such as logos. With the industrial revolution, it evolved to industrial design to create products or architecture. Next society evolved with the digital revolution and designers started creating interactions such as service design, experience design and behavioral design. And now we have system designers who focus on culture, such as, organisational design, business design, and learning design.
If we review every order of design, they exist to create solutions for problems. Design is powerful, but how does that help solve the problems of our businesses today? We are living in an ever-changing world and this is not going to change, it always has and will be. What is different is that the rate of change is accelerated, especially now with the effects of COVID on how and where we do business. And that new ‘where’ and ‘how’ is the digital environment. This trend is only going to continue as our economy shifts deeper into this space.
When developing digital products for our new world, we understand that we must look at not only the third order of design at the digital level. We must also move up to the fourth order, at the societal level. This ensures that the new product or service is one that is desired by your clients and customers. And most importantly it solves a real and critical problem for them.
This is why we have developed a 10-week program that leverages the development, testing, experimentation and launch of a new digital product to market. In our process we work side by side with your team to create insights from customers and accelerate ideas for digital products.
We invite you to participate in our free webinar “How to accelerate and launch your digital product in 10 weeks” that will take place on 17th September at 5 pm to discuss the digital transformation of your business. Sign up here and learn from our co-founder and Chief Design Officer, Juliana Proserpio about how we are all designers and how we can use our abilities to move our business forward during this time of disruption.
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How Can We Help?
- For training and Innovation Journeys in your company: check out our in-house course offering.
- For upcoming courses in your region: visit our website.
- For upcoming events in your region: look at our event calendar.
- If you have a special project and would like to use Echos’ consultancy services: send us an email.
- Want to speak to a real person? Call us on 1300 502 006
