Everything we see around us has been influenced by design. Design gives creativity and without it things would not be interesting. Design provides innovation for business organisations and discretely makes them interesting and more appealing to customers.
For instance, Chris Bedford, President of Karo group explains how they redesigned the website for Bernard Callebaut, a chocolaterie based in Calgary. Their original website lacked fast navigation and friendly usability, it also lacked in brand presence and was slightly incommunicative (Bedford, 2006).
The aim of the new design was to maintain the brand identity of the chocolaterie, enhance brand experience, improve the site navigation structure and usability, and retail strategy. The design team was keen to know whether the new design could increase the number of orders placed online in order to drive up the online volume sales.
No advertising was done and the website smoothly took place of the old one. When the new figures from the project were released, it appeared that the number of orders online actually increased by 63%. Moreover, the total value of online sales increased by 156%, and the average value of each online sale increased by 62% (Bedford, 2006).
The investment on design for this business organisation was entirely worth it as the return on investment was significant. Therefore, we can affirm that design has had an immense impact on the business of Bernard Callebaut.
To stay above international competition without bringing prices down businesses can enhance design techniques to improve their businesses and gain profits. These days, design is being used in a way that it is improving performance and increasing innovation.
"According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, top innovators generate over 75 per cent of revenue from products not in existence five years ago". Design brings benefits such as increased quality of goods and services, improved production flexibility and reduced materials costs. It also increases exports; over 90 per cent businesses found that their international customers valued design and 86 per cent indicated that design helps them to compete internationally and attracts investment (Lambin, 2010).
Businesses can use design methods and techniques to improve existing products and services. They can also innovate to meet the demand of the consumers for products that do not exist yet.
Designing prototypes to develop new ideas can do this to develop new projects. Also creating products that are in demand to meet consumer needs. Packaging, graphics and communication can also improve the brand and its image.
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