From the article “Usability as a term is pretty much dead and has been replaced (not very well) by UX, meaning user experience.”

This statement reminded me of the numerous discussions I have around this. Here I put down a few reasons on why I think the above is happening.

I think this is a classic debate that has been going on for quite some time now. I have often addressed this point in a lot of my workshops and insist that now it all comes under the umbrella of UX. I have often proposed that we address ourselves as UX professionals more than anything else.

I think the UX professionals are the most T shaped professionals (as outlined by the McKinsey & Co) . Though the arms of the T these days are too wide! Spanning from Design to Business to Technology!

This UX driven approach is also evident when I did a lot of recruitment for companies. While you want the candidate to be strong at one aspect, either Usability or Interaction Design or Graphic Design, you do intend to look if they have other skills. And that recruitment drives have often led to a lot of professionals present themselves as UX professionals.

I . . . → Read More: The T shaped UX professional]]> Recently a friend shared an article on how the term UX killed Usability. The article per se was (in my opinion) a personal opinion, with a lot of pointers signifying the same,  from a person who is passionate about Usability, but the article also raised a very valid point that I often try to drive across in my workshops.

From the article “Usability as a term is pretty much dead and has been replaced (not very well) by UX, meaning user experience.”

This statement reminded me of the numerous discussions I have around this. Here I put down a few reasons on why I think the above is happening.

I think this is a classic debate that has been going on for quite some time now. I have often addressed this point in a lot of my workshops and insist that now it all comes under the umbrella of UX. I have often proposed that we address ourselves as UX professionals more than anything else.

Open Show Bangalore #9

This journalist put up an article with the title that China has 400 design schools and India has only 2. The headline put me off so much that I decided to give her a lesson 101 on the state of design education in India.

You can read the article here: China has 400 design schools, India only 2.

The points that follow were a result of conversations with the ‘journalist’ , a few other designers, and myself.

It is unbelievable that a media house like the Times of India group, which runs the Economic Times (ET)  business newspaper would care to publish an article which is so misinformed. ET is widely popular business newspaper and the impact of such a improperly informed research would be large.

Many people who commented on the article pointed out that India has more than just 2 design schools. Anyone interested in Design in India would tell you that there are many more.  It was left to the reader to guess which are the 2 design schools. There are more than 10 design schools, in India; which I know is still low, but still the article should not be so misleading.

So me and another friend set out to find the person who had written the article. Got to know the twitter handle of the person and hence followed a twitter exchange in which we got to know the further misconceptions that people have about the Design education in India.

I mentioned the . . . → Read More: Be a Design Evangelist]]> Notes from conversations with an un-informed journalist.
A few days ago I was having a twitter exchange with a journalist who had written about the need for India to have more Design schools. Actually the person is not a journalist but  a doctor turned art appreciator / collector who is writing on design.

This journalist put up an article with the title that China has 400 design schools and India has only 2. The headline put me off so much that I decided to give her a lesson 101 on the state of design education in India.

You can read the article here: China has 400 design schools, India only 2.

The points that follow were a result of conversations with the ‘journalist’ , a few other designers, and myself.

It is unbelievable that a media house like the Times of India group, which runs the Economic Times (ET)  business newspaper would care to publish an article which is so misinformed. ET is widely popular business newspaper and the impact of such a improperly informed research would be large.

Many people who commented on the article pointed out that India has more than just 2 design schools. Anyone interested in Design in India would tell you that there are many more.  It was left to the reader to guess which are the 2 design schools. There are more than 10 design schools, in India; which I know is still low, but still the article should not be so misleading.

So me and another friend set out to find the person who had written the article. Got to know the twitter handle of the person and hence followed a twitter exchange in which we got to know the further misconceptions that people have about the Design education in India.

I mentioned the few that are there more than just the 2 designs schools in India.

Me: “To help u better in next article here they are: IDC (IIT bombay), DoD (IIT guwahati), MDes (IIT Kanpur), IDDC (IIT Delhi), DJ Academy (Coimbatore), MIT Pune, Symbiosis Inst of Design, IILM school of Design (Gurgaon), Design Institute of India (Indore), Srishti School of Design (Bangalore), Sushant school of Design (Gurgaon), the various NIFT across India, Pearl Academy of Fashion (New Delhi) to name a few.”

When we pointed out this, the tweet we got was that “her” criteria to decide that there were only two design schools was that the schools had to be standalone (have a separate campus on its own) and that it had to have an encompassing curriculum and only NID and Srishti fill that criteria. (J: Journalist)

J: “Most schools listed specialise in one field of design. NID & Shrishti are two that have an encompassing curriculum.”

I then replied stating that, for your kind information there are atleast 10 design schools in India that are NOT specializing in just one field. This just showed how ill-informed the person was

Me: “And these institutes whose names I just tweeted to you, are the ones that DO NOT specialize in only ONE domain of design as u say.”

Me: “If I were to send the list of such inst where there is only ONE specialization, we could reach the number to atleast 50! Atleast do some basic research before you write an article in a newspaper like ET . You are letting down yourself and the paper.”

I also sent out a tweet to the paper carrying the article.

Me: “1 side U want to Evangelize Design, spread info about Design in India and then on other side, @EconomicTimes feeds non-researched articles”

On the point of the standalone school, I then mentioned that going by that logic, many Design programs cannot call itself Design schools. To name a few are the Stanford Design Program, KAIST design school, IIT Chicago’s Design program, CMU’s Design school etc.

With the Government of India asking major universities in India to open up Design schools, within it and not as a Standalone school, the argument falls flat.

Me: “ U should perhaps check how many of those 400 Schools in CHINA that u so proudly wrote, r STANDALONE design schools!”

Does a Design school have to be independent to flourish?
In the times, when the emphasis is on the Multidisciplinarity, isn’t a Design school within the campus of another Technology  Institute / University better placed? A multi-disciplinarity approach towards Design is essential to tackle the wicked problems that we are facing and will also raise the level of innovation. I was having the discussion with an IIM alumnus friend and we were discussing on how more and more Management professionals are also interested in

I head a French Design school program in India which runs within the premises of another Design and Arts school.

At a startup I earlier worked, the design team worked closely with the technology team and the discussions were always fruitful and more enlightening for both.

So why not inculcate the culture of cross-discipline interactions in Design Schools. One way of doing that is to locate it within the campus of a larger Institute.  That is precisely why I love the Design Schools at the IITs (IDC, DoD, IITK, IITD). But its sad to see them not churning out stuff to the potential.

Anyone wanting to do an article on the Design Education in India should atleast referenec to this site, that lists down the design schools in India. It also saddens me to see the low quality of Journalism in India as well, but let me just stick to design for now.

A note to Designers in India
Please write more. Let’s spread the word on Design in India more. A lot people take us for granted and think they can get away by writing anything. We need to be Design Evangelists too, and the need of the hour is now more than ever before.

To the IDF

This was marketed as the first International Design conference in India, which actually its not, but lets just ignore that for the moment.

This post is not meant to be a press release of the conference and neither a summary of what other people spoke, but just a personal reflection on the event and a constructive criticism for the event .

First the positives

The organizers had done a great job in getting a very good list of people to attend as speakers. That itself must have gathered a good crowd. So full marks to the organizers to  at-least reach out to the folks who otherwise would not have graced a design event in India.

I was impressed with the organization in terms of its venue selection, (you would be foolish not to like a posh 5 star hotel) , the effort put into the  whole planning out and the scale. I have seen and been to bigger ones outside India, so this was good to see here as well. The halls were really big, the stage was awesome and so was the audio – visual facilities to help follow the speakers well.

The conference started  with the pretext that design should come out of its elitist image. . . . → Read More: Notes from the Indian Design Forum 2012]]> A few days ago I got back from Delhi. The design community headed to the first version of the India Design Forum, which was held at the Le Meridian hotel in New Delhi on the 9th and 10th March 2012. Amongst the attendees were a lot of people form Europe, some form the Americas and  some participants from Indonesia also. With the amount of buzz that the word design, design education, design driven startups and anything related to design is creating in India, the event holds a significant position.

To the IDF

This was marketed as the first International Design conference in India, which actually its not, but lets just ignore that for the moment.

This post is not meant to be a press release of the conference and neither a summary of what other people spoke, but just a personal reflection on the event and a constructive criticism for the event .

First the positives

The organizers had done a great job in getting a very good list of people to attend as speakers. That itself must have gathered a good crowd. So full marks to the organizers to  at-least reach out to the folks who otherwise would not have graced a design event in India.

I was impressed with the organization in terms of its venue selection, (you would be foolish not to like a posh 5 star hotel) , the effort put into the  whole planning out and the scale. I have seen and been to bigger ones outside India, so this was good to see here as well. The halls were really big, the stage was awesome and so was the audio – visual facilities to help follow the speakers well.

The conference started  with the pretext that design should come out of its elitist image. This notion was further highlighted in the talk by the renowned designer Karim Rashid in his talk.  However the conference was elitist in its highest sense. It felt very much like an elite crowd had come upon the stage and were making these presentations one after the other and boasting of the work they had done.

The tagline of the conference was “The Power of Design”. I really struggled to find and answer as to the power of design in what? In making people spend more money  or making them want objects of desire.

IDF 2012 - The power of Design

I felt that there was a lot of presentations around Product Design, Fashion Design and Architecture. Failed to see many presentations on other aspects of design in Sustainability, Design Research, Service Design, User Experience Design, Graphic Design, which are so crucial to discuss in the context of India.

So in my opinion the Power of Design should have been focused around bringing about a radical shift in the way the government and government bodies functions, in the way the services are offered, in the way lives are improved across the various segments of the society. The conference had nothing of that, but it would not be right to expect that as the intention of this conference was not that. When the minister for Industries Shri Kamal Nath gave the inaugural speech, there was a context being set that yes that perhaps Design for better governance, or industries or the could be a topic of discussion over the two days. However that was not the case.

In the talk by Paolla Antonelli, the senior curator from the MoMA (USA),  spoke about the design that the world is talking about and she spoke about case studies of examples form last year. A lot of the buzzwords were around Humanitarian Design, Design for Social Impact etc. However none of the remaining speakers spoke about these topics. These are things we have so much potential for in India and there was not one who spoke at length about it. We are  still caught up with the crafts and craft inspired product designs and architecture inspired Interior Design, or mythology and culture inspired Fashion Design.

So the other thinking that was kinda bothering me was that I must have got more reference of Italy , Paris, France, London and New York in the whole conference than anything related to India. There were a few sessions devoted to that, but not many. So the question that comes to my mind, is that; ‘Why can’t forum like India Design Forum have sessions dedicated to India and by that I mean not just showing designs created in India, but sessions FOR India.’

I personally believe that the moment the sessions are dedicated towards India and Design in India, you would have great discussions. You could bring in all the great design names and houses from around the world. But put them up in a great discussion on how they see the Power of Design in moving India forward. For them we should not present a picture that for us The Power of design is to adopt Jugaad, and built low scale products and facilities in the name of innovation, like the Tata Nano; but something larger than that. I would love to have them blast the design scene in India if they feel its not approprite. I would love to talk with them on the point that Design is not a DTP job but an honorable practice. I would love to have them discussion and I would sit through that.

That brings to my other major issue I had with the conference. When you call the event a Forum, you need to plan the time table in a way to give time for more and more discussions. In the way the things were planned there were over 50 speakers, who were speaking over the 2 days time. Now I would have totally loved if there was say just 30 speakers also, but there were sessions where the discussions was engaging. With over 50 speakers, and many of them showing works in the genre, the audience was left with lots to grasp in short time.

Some of the speakers were of such a high profile, the audience hardly had the courage to ask questions. On top of that, you had the organizers asking presenters to finish soon. The discussions , Q&A were all skipped and in the end what you were left with is a presentation that highlighted the work of the designer. Now that is something that can be viewed  online as well. Stories were missing from many of the presentations. I am a firm believer that you show lesser number of quality stuff than show a large amount of work in a rushed manner.

So often these presentations at IDF felt like portfolio review with the audience as the Jury, and the Jury had no real power to discuss the work. So what this resulted in was the audience not really being able to say the difference between the work done by Dilip Chabria versus the work done by the Italian firm that presented.

Maybe my understanding of design is a bit different than the rest. But to me, the conference as such felt more more arty than designerly. Perhaps it was with the people attending the conference and their attire, or the space in a 5 star, or the presence of certain artists, or the art exhibitions. If I attend a design conference, I expect everything to be designed. If there is a situation where an error could occur, I need to design in way that the error is prevented.

I also think a forum like IDF should also have exhibits from the best of Student Design projects across India. This has been a regular feature at various design conferences worldwide, and was missing here. If India is to  become a powerhouse in Design, the world needs to know not from the Indian origin designer settled in Netherlands or America, but in India and students are good channel to know that.

With the number of design educational institutions growing in India (I head one of them) , there are bound to be a lot of people who are more interested in knowing what the Power of Design is to improve the quality of life in India and what is being done at the training in design level itself.

I had really high expectations for the conference. I still have. I know that this is a starting year, and that there will be a better conference next year. It’s just that I am not satisfied completely.

“If the idea is educate “masses”, it should not happen in 5 star hotels. Audience matters.” ; commented a contact from Twitter, who is also into Design education. Triggers an interesting chain of thought. Do we really need to have the event in a 5 star hotel and ooze with elitist image. Can the event me more affordable and approachable for the common man / designer.

In the end I felt, it was a sincere attempt to get the elite of the world of design to a platform which is definitely needed (?) in India. There  was an overdose of Product Design and Architecture, some Fashion Design. Hopefully in the years to come, they can expand the gamut of topics covered under the umbrella of the design in India.

To me the meet up / conference / forum felt like more like a design gathering to get an update on what others are doing. In order to make its mark as a quality conference, the organizers need to be made aware of the recent things that happen in Design conferences and make the conference more “Designerly” , which should not be mistaken for an elitist identity and denoting style.

The conferences are no more a one channel thing. There is a dialogue that needs to happen, so that the audience can leave feeling satisfied of learning something new and enriching. I think the event would be a lot better next time ! This time was an eye opener. Next one will be lots to learn!

So dear organizers of IDF. Our thanks is due to you For the real eye-opening event! Great effort in the organization! We expect more in IDF 2013 now. The IDF event can serve as a good nexus with the design worlds that exists outside. It aims to be an influential platform and that it perhaps can be.

But the questions remains, influential for whom.

Watch it and you would realize why we are a confused lot!

In an interesting info-graphic of a recently published research titled “How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds“, it was observed that, over the course of the last ten years the average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to a staggeringly short 5 seconds. That’s right! Just 5 seconds! People around the world spend close to 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month, and there handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day on Twitter and 250 million tweets per day (Oct 2011). Those are huge numbers!

In such times, there ought to be better strategies for Social Media engagement for individuals as well as business. Almost as prevalent as blind social media evangelism is the level of fatigue and ennui around it.

Driving social Media or being driven by it ?

Information as the building block for Social Media Platforms

In my opinion, one of the key influencers of the Social media phenomenon is around the word Information. In an article first published in 1995, advances in computers and data networks inspire visions of a future “information economy’‘ in which everyone will have access to gigabytes of all kinds of information anywhere and anytime. Ten years from now we may find the economic institutions of the information economy a similarly unremarkable part of our day-to-day life. (The Information Economy: How much will two bits be worth in the digital marketplace? – Hal R. Varian, 1995).

I would like to believe that the Social Media is a direct consequence of this information economy and its main drivers are . . . → Read More: The Social Media Fatigue – Life in the Information Economy]]> We live in interesting times. Did you know that many people now access their Facebook profile the first thing in the morning and It is difficult to communicate with some people, because they are not social media savvy.

In an interesting info-graphic of a recently published research titled “How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds“, it was observed that, over the course of the last ten years the average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to a staggeringly short 5 seconds. That’s right! Just 5 seconds! People around the world spend close to 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month, and there handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day on Twitter and 250 million tweets per day (Oct 2011). Those are huge numbers!

In such times, there ought to be better strategies for Social Media engagement for individuals as well as business. Almost as prevalent as blind social media evangelism is the level of fatigue and ennui around it.

Driving social Media or being driven by it ?

Understanding the Why

Information as the building block for Social Media Platforms

In my opinion, one of the key influencers of the Social media phenomenon is around the word Information. In an article first published in 1995, advances in computers and data networks inspire visions of a future “information economy’‘ in which everyone will have access to gigabytes of all kinds of information anywhere and anytime. Ten years from now we may find the economic institutions of the information economy a similarly unremarkable part of our day-to-day life. (The Information Economy: How much will two bits be worth in the digital marketplace? – Hal R. Varian, 1995).

I would like to believe that the Social Media is a direct consequence of this information economy and its main drivers are the terms Informational Activity and the Information Industry. Information could be of different kinds. They could be functional, instructional / actionable, recreational, motivational, confidential, philosophical, knowledgeable etc. Each of this information created could be either short lived or meant to last for a certain amount of time. It could be a valuable one or a useless one. It could be global or it could be local. It could be a created bit or it could be shared bit.

In the times of the Social Media and Social Networks, this information is getting created at a rate faster than ever before. Emails, Tweets, Social network updates, are best when they are consumed fresh and the rise of technological platforms that ensure a 24X7, seamless experience, we end up consuming more than we can handle. Social Networks and Social Media platforms are the facilitators of this information dissemination and promoter for information exchange.

In the times of Social Media, we are the champions of creating Information. From amateurs to professionals across all age groups are creating this information. Practically anyone with an access to the technology has the power at his fingertips to create the information, which could then be shared and consumed at a much larger platform in this globalized world.

However we should understand that every-information that we consume, takes some of our energy. It is this excessive consumption of energy that brings in the fatigue.

Nobel laureate economist Herbert A. Simon puts it nicely, “What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it. Technology for producing and distributing information is useless without some way to locate, filter, organize and summarize it.”

On one side you have excessive information being created and on the other hand, there is only a certain amount that the brain can process and consume. This is resulting in Social Media Fatigue.

What is it resulting in?

You are being watched. Every thing from whom you follow to what you read to what movie you saw to whom who hanged out with. It has taken over our lives.  This takeover of the life by the Social Media Networks is something that needs some pondering over. The times we live in often reminds me of the note in the George Orwell’s classic 1984, Big Brother is watching you. Social Media and Networks are the new Big Brother.

In a research done by Retrevo, for over 1000 participants, they found that close to 42% of the respondents accessed Facebook the first thing in the morning. The Retrevo Gadgetology study also shows that 48% of those polled say they update Facebook or Twitter during the night or as soon as they wake up. And 19% of people under the age of 25 say they update Facebook or Twitter anytime they happen to wake up during the night; 11% over the age of 25 say they do the same thing. (March 2010)

Social Media and Social Network Sites on its face value seem like just a new set of cool tools for involving people for consumption of information, but the impact of that is beyond that.

For example young people are using social network sites for:

• Keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances;
• Developing new contacts often with friends of friends, or people with shared interests
• Sharing content, engaging in self expression & exploring identity
• Hanging out and consuming content including commercial and user-generated content
• Accessing information and informal learning
• Participating in informal groups, and formal youth engagement opportunities;

We have become adept at Multi tasking and become masters of the usage across platforms. The impact is felt on the mind on our Social status, the personal self, the position in the society, and also on our productivity.  Our conversations are in 140 characters or less and videos that are often under 10 minutes are used as a tool to pass on judgments easily. We have become more opinionated and have developed a knack for raising our voices over anything we feel is not right. We keep waiting for a basic notification of an information bit we created getting acknowledged.

All these are leading to the fundamental change in the way we view and consume information. Because the information has to be processed at such a higher rate, it is but natural that fatigue sets in early.

Addressing the Social Media fatigue problem

With the overload of information all around, it is so easy to be disillusioned, frustrated, feel lost. It becomes necessary to identify a way address it.
“We all know very well that activity within social networking can lead to distractions. With one click, we can find ourselves hopelessly lost in a labyrinth of fascinating experiences that have nothing to do with our initial focus. Serendipity is part of the splendor of social media, but it is something that necessitates discipline to learn, entertain and be entertained, while also staying the course. In the end, we exchange time and privacy for exposure and attention.

The reality is that the cost of social networking is great and without checks and balances, engagement can cost us more capital than we have to spend. The net result is then social and emotional bankruptcy. And, the most difficult part of this unfortunate state is that it is at first difficult to recognize and far more exacting to overcome.

 – Brian Solis, principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm in The Human Cost of Social Connectivity

It is important for both businesses and individuals to understand this. Here are a few tips on how this could be addressed.

1.The veracity of Information in consumption

At times we do feel overboard with the entire information flood around us. Not everything we see and read is trustworthy, reliable, and even true. The key is to get to the truth of the information. This filtering out of information based on what is needed versus what is just useless mass would enable to get to actual information that matters most. It would also enable in building the trust with the consumer and the creator of the information too, which would further allow to have better engagements.

 2. Rethink the Social Media Strategy when it comes to sharing

Like they say, an overdose of everything is bad. For businesses and individuals this mean that they need to see the Social media technologies as a tool that enables them to relate more to the user but not overdoing it. The novelty of social media can wear off soon (as is evident by the numerous ones that did not take off), leaving all those fans and followers wondering about the unexpected dip in activity.

 3. Get SMART in your engagement

Fight social media fatigue by getting a S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed) plan in place. This means that we know the reasons why we are on a Social Network, understand what we want to get out of it, be realistic in our assumptions and devote only a certain amount of time to it. Scheduling the time for the Social Media engagement also works wonders.

4. Understand the Value add and do not get burdened

Every Social Network or Social Media Technology is created to bring in some value add. We need to understand what it is. Whether twitter can be an avenue for our daily news, or Facebook is a better source for getting accolades on photographs that Flickr. The answer lies in understanding what value add what social networks provide. Always remember what you are on the Social Media platform for. Do not start out to do things that are potentially beyond the intended usage of the Social Media platform, which results in feeling burdened about it.

5. Understand user’s online behavior

Understand the key profiles like influencers, motivators, consumers, creators etc. in your network. Tools like Klout measure the online influence of their users and content and provides with a score. This measure of influence is primarily seen as the ability to drive others to action.

6. Do not be a master of all

With the constant rise of social networks, and peer pressure, we often give in to the temptation of being omnipresent across social medias. This is not only bad for privacy issues, but also brings in the tiredness resulting from the obligation of being active everywhere. Choose the SM platforms and tools that really benefit who you are and who you’re connected with. Do not just sign up for the latest thing without some understanding of what you’re signing up for.

In conclusion

It is evident that we cannot do away with Social networks and Social Media Technology, for once a particular technology has penetrated a significant portion of the market, it may be very difficult to dislodge it. While a lot of us will agree that social media has added much to our lives, let’s just not forget that it is NOT life itself. Our online behaviors have changed and so have our notion of relationships and commitments.

Platforms will come and go, and the impact that these Social Media platforms will have is going to be a lot more than what it is. A few Social Media platforms are already doing that, and constantly finding ways to engage the user to have a more lasting impact.

The need of the hour is to understand the human potential in being able to cope up with this. This is important for both the businesses as well as the individual.

 (This is a re-print of the article that appeared in the Issue 3 of the Social Technology Quarterly magazine, published by Kuliza Technologies Limited. )

The solutions that the designers are now catering to solve include cross platform, experience rich solutions to solutions that have a high social impact. The need of the hour is to become good problem solvers and the gamut or problems that is being addressed by designers independently and also in cross expertise teams, is huge these days.

Here’s an interesting presentation that I recently came across that talks about the 100 things to watch out for in 2012. I am confident that designers would play a significant role in many of them too.

I have been a loyal Canvera customer since quite some time now, and was recently at a Tweetup organized by Dhiraj and team. It was something that I could not miss, especially when the a thing on the agenda was to show around the Canvera’s production facility. As a photographer, it is very simple to just see the final output in the form of a photo book. But it has always fascinated me to know the level of complexity that one goes through to get a book that is more like a piece of art in itself. The awesome books that come out are a treasure of memories and a testimony to that is that all my clients who have received the Canvera photobooks have loved it!

Needless to say, all were amazed at the amazing facility in terms of the equipments that are being at par with the best in the world, the quality of paper and the processes in place.

What impressed me most was the attention to detail that is paid at every step. Whether its in the consistency across printers or the lamination of the pages or the cutting of paper or the multi level quality assurance checks or to ensuring privacy of the customers and the photographers.

It may sound easy, but when you get to know that all these have to be done in a maximum turnaround time of 48 hours, you are left amazed! Moreover the challenges that . . . → Read More: Why I love Canvera – notes from a Tweetup.]]> One of the amazing things about being in Bangalore, is that you are always surrounded by some amazing people, who are so passionate about what they do. It is no wonder that it is the Startup city in India and you get to meet amazing entrepreneurs. Dhiraj and Peeyush from Canvera are two such folks!

I have been a loyal Canvera customer since quite some time now, and was recently at a Tweetup organized by Dhiraj and team. It was something that I could not miss, especially when the a thing on the agenda was to show around the Canvera’s production facility. As a photographer, it is very simple to just see the final output in the form of a photo book. But it has always fascinated me to know the level of complexity that one goes through to get a book that is more like a piece of art in itself. The awesome books that come out are a treasure of memories and a testimony to that is that all my clients who have received the Canvera photobooks have loved it!

Needless to say, all were amazed at the amazing facility in terms of the equipments that are being at par with the best in the world, the quality of paper and the processes in place.

What impressed me most was the attention to detail that is paid at every step. Whether its in the consistency across printers or the lamination of the pages or the cutting of paper or the multi level quality assurance checks or to ensuring privacy of the customers and the photographers.

It may sound easy, but when you get to know that all these have to be done in a maximum turnaround time of 48 hours, you are left amazed! Moreover the challenges that they face by doing a business in a country like India, is something you have to appreciate the founders for and taking up the challenge.

Another thing that has impressed me a lot at Canvera (and which hope is never compromised) is the customer service. From the attention given to each query, and being patient with what is needed, it is very much evident that the folks out there take Customer Service very very seriously.

A trip like this had my respect level for the founders and the people involved in the smooth running of Canvera, go many levels high! When your belief in something becomes stronger, there is nothing but a world class product and service that you can expect, and I have been thankful that Canvera is able to provide that so far!

The company tagline is “Take Pictures. Leave the rest to us.” , and I have slowly come to firmly believe that.

That’s the new age customer relationship management and goes by the term Social CRMs. A lot of debate goes on the legitimacy of the phrase Social CRM. On one side of the argument, there are the believers who think that this is just another fancy term, riding the Social Wave, and on the other side of the argument you have people who swear by anything social and believe it to be of an immense value add. I for one do think that SCRM is here to stay, and it can only promise to grow with more and more businesses adopting social media technologies.

I deal with design and through this article I wish to seek out the challenges that designers face and should consider when designing for Social CRMs. It may be noted that these are just an indicative list and not a definitive one.  With changes happening almost everyday (Facebook introduced the Timeline as I write this), the challenges can only increase.

In the earlier days of the traditional CRMs, the engagement with the customer happened around three domains, ie. a. Sales, b. Marketing and . . . → Read More: The designer’s challenge to Social CRMs]]> Everyday I log onto twitter, I read about someone complaining about a problem they are facing with a particular service that they use. In almost realtime, a lot of others who face similar problem simply re-tweet the initial tweet about the complain. What this could result to is a negative publicity of the service, to the extent of a fear of losing a customer. In almost no time, there are the representatives from the company in context, replying to the tweets and assuring of a quick turnaround to the customer’s concerns. If that is not enough there are social channels that people reach out to, these days when they do not get a response.

That’s the new age customer relationship management and goes by the term Social CRMs. A lot of debate goes on the legitimacy of the phrase Social CRM. On one side of the argument, there are the believers who think that this is just another fancy term, riding the Social Wave, and on the other side of the argument you have people who swear by anything social and believe it to be of an immense value add. I for one do think that SCRM is here to stay, and it can only promise to grow with more and more businesses adopting social media technologies.

I deal with design and through this article I wish to seek out the challenges that designers face and should consider when designing for Social CRMs. It may be noted that these are just an indicative list and not a definitive one.  With changes happening almost everyday (Facebook introduced the Timeline as I write this), the challenges can only increase.

In the earlier days of the traditional CRMs, the engagement with the customer happened around three domains, ie.
a. Sales, b. Marketing and c. Service and Support.

With the rise of usage of social media platforms being used for things beyond just the customer engagement, promotions and post purchase support, the notion of the Social CRMs goes higher than the above mentioned three domains. Amongst all of this change, the main change is in the role of the customers.

What has also changed is the increase in the data load of the systems. One is not just tracking and keeping a note of customer feedback and questions and relationships, but more data in an efficient and process-centric way.

The ultimate goal of the traditional CRM was to have a customer get back to buy more stuff from the same outlet or retail. The goal of the SRCM also primarily remains the same, though the parameters and the channels have increased.

As Paul Greenberg writes, ‘Social CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.’

Social CRMs is more like a design strategy exercise that is often supported by various tools and technologies and the strategy is based around customer engagement, interactions and experiences. So apart from the traditional goals of marketing and customer query answering and increase in sales, a SCRM  is also looked upon as a source for peer-to-peer customer support, idea management, market research, product launches, advertising channels, promotions and brand reputation management.

The customers today are better informed and have a lot more channels to vent out. So the value addition that SCRM must bring about and influence at a larger scale is important. This in my opinion is a design problem and the solution should be done through a proper design and not by force. We are not talking about just going overboard with the social media technologies, as there is always the danger of over-selling.

In this context, I seek to outline some of the challenges that the designer faces .

1. The complexity of dealing with offline and online world at the same time.
More and more people are spending more time online. With the advent of cloud computing and usage of the cloud to manage large systems, the user is connected 24X7. Our lifestyles are being monitored all time and as a result we tend to expect more of the service at all times.

2. Understanding the users.
This has been a designer’s classic problem space, but with every passing year, the users seems to get more sophisticated. There are more social technologies that are being adopted every year than the previous ones.  One of the biggest  goals of the designer needs to be keep things simple in this complex world too. In the present context, the users (customers) define the processes and also define the hours in which they seek the customer service and engagement.

3. The notion of identity.
In the earlier days of the CRMs, there was more personal relationships with the person that would often have a face to face meeting. In the days of the Social CRMs, often people  tend to have a different persona that they present online and in the offline world. So the key is to ensure the seamless integration of both the worlds.

4. Share it to engage in it.
A lot of the things happen realtime and as a result of the identity point, one is often in the risk of sharing too much. For a designer this is challenging as the issues of privacy and trust become important to take care of. Often the user fails to understand the legal implications of being involved in a Social CRM and often it could lead to situations of brand reputation being at stake, to public defamation. It is the duty of the designer to engage the users in a way so as to avoid the situations mentioned.

5. Customers are your channel of advocacy
Decisions on buying and becoming loyal to a brand are highly influenced these days by peers and the discussions that happen across the different channels. It is not about “sell & forget” any more. The relationship with the individual goes beyond that. The design should be flexible to enable the cycle of purchase, enjoyment, advocacy, bonding. This could only lead to a valuable customer for life.

6. Multiple channels
Unlike the earlier days where the CRM relied on one channel, these days the Social CRMs often rely on multiple channels. The customers define the dynamism of each of these channels and as a result keeps the brands on their feet. It is not uncommon to hear of a change in brand loyalty often these days due to not being able to cater on one or more of the channels.  In the ideal world, one would expect the same customer experience, no matter what channel one is looking at, be it the social media technologies one or the traditional face to face interactions.

7. Changing platforms and the issue of scalability
With technology penetrating more and more into our lives, reaching out to the right representatives at any point of time, from anywhere is happening and it is not limited to only a particular device. Mobiles, tablets and of course the laptops and hi-tech systems have made life complex. Dealing with issues of web portability and being able to provide the same wow user experience across platforms is the key.

8. Making sense of the chaos
The main challenge for the businesses is to translate the pillars of Social CRM  i.e. the fans, likes, shares, re-share into sales. All these pillars of the SCRM leads to a lot of data being generated. Making sense of all of it is important and only then can the SCRM be of value immense value add for them. For the customers, this also holds importance, since their decisions are opinionated on the past experience of the others. The key here is thus to translate it into a data-driven-high-user-experience design,  such that it can be beneficial for both the designer and the business. Tools such as information visualizations and analytics can be of immense to the designers too here.

9. Understanding the limitations of Technology.
There has been a lot of debates around whether designers should understand technology or not. In my opinion they must. I am not talking about making them do the code work, but at-least have a good understanding of how technology and the frameworks that they are designing for function.

10. Business process integrations
Whatever said and done, the Social CRMs are primarily aimed at driving sales growth and improving customer service. For the designer to understand this, means that they need to get a better understanding of the way the Business works. This can especially be important for those businesses adopting Social Media technologies for the first time.

The goals for the businesses should be to ensure that Social CRMs can be used in a strategic manner and through countless experiments on the customer side as well as the business side.  It is not only important to look into the low hanging fruits and reward the customer as a one off thing, but to look into a SCRM as a means of engaging with the customer for a longer period of time, or perhaps for the entire life. It is only then that can one think of a change that would be more transformational and would result in the way the business adopts the SCRM and as a result gain the trust of the customer.

Businesses need to realize that Social CRM is not merely a channel to push the different discounts and deals to either all or elite group of customers. It’s not only about incentivizing the whole customer engagement models. It’s about providing an experience that goes stays with the customer through the different stages i.e. promotion to engagement to transaction to prophecy to return for engagement.

In conclusion.
One has to remember that what we are talking about it nothing new, but an evolution of the traditional CRMs. In order to be a person who can be good at the whole notion of Social CRMs, you have to have an understanding of philosophy, social dynamics, cultural aspects, the technology platform. In my opinion, a designer is the only person who comes close to having some sort of understanding of the above fields and as a result face the immense challenge. The designer who are trained to think form the human/user/customer perspective are a lot that would be the best suited. Though no one can deny the fact that this is a lot to ask from one person. But hang in there dear designers. You are a valued lot.