Involving clients in the design process

In one of my earlier articles, I talked about the need for Co-creating the User Experience, and in the article I mentioned that an essential part of the way to do that is to involved different stakeholders. (Read the article here) . I have been a strong proponent of it, and have realized it’s potential with every project I do.

Recently came across a very interesting presentation Frog Design on the need to involved the clients in the Design process. It is a wonderful presentation, with a great insight onto how to interact with clients, what stage to involve them in , and what we designers should expect from there.

Here is the presentation.

Making Clients Part of the Design Process View more presentations from frog

 

Design and Thinking

Came across this really nice video that talks about the value of Design, and what people perceive of Design. While the term Desin Thinking is nebulous, there are a lot of attempts to answer it in the correct words. But the fact is that there is no correct answer to that. Design thinking according to me is a way of life, a thought process that is focused on problem solving, but with a strong focus on the Human and their life world.

 

Some scholars fear the misuse of the term and feel that when Design thinking takes over, the working takes a back seat. It could be true only in the case that Design thinking is a thing to do. In my opinion its not. You do not put it in as an activity, like I did Design thinking for X number of hours on this particular problem. Its something that you adopt in your working culture. It is something that is there at all times, as an underlying theme towards your problem solving approach.

There have been many who have also spoken and written about the death of Design thinking too. Bruce Nussbaum, one of Design Thinking’s biggest advocates, is moving on to something new. Here, he begins defining “Creative Quotient.” While I do not agree to most of what the post says, and neither to the call for a new framework, I do agree to this point: Design Thinking has given the design profession and society at large all the benefits it has to offer and is beginning to ossify and actually do harm. This above statement aligns itself with the fear that many Design thinking proponents talk about, that is that design thinking is all just thinking and no action.

And then there is . . . → Read More: Design and Thinking

Social Media Madness

With the launch of Google+ , Google did what’s it best at doing. Creating a buzz and hype around a service. It has since long tried to make its presence felt in the Social space, and earlier disasters have been in the form of Buzz and Wave. While the feedback and the discussions around Google+ have been largely positive, I was surprised to see that the invites were being auctioned on eBay!

Social Media Madness

Do we really need another Social Network?

Has Facebook not screwed up our lives enough?

Now that’s what I call Social Media Madness!

Using QR codes in online shopping

I had earlier written about the use of QR codes to make Print ads more interactive. The possibilities of seamlessly being able to transfer information through the use of this is endless.

Here is a nice example, of how QR codes are helping people in their grocery shopping. Home plus is using these to reduce the stress of the hardworking working class Koreans.

Less stress. More smiles. Simple idea. Well executed.