The business world is all about Design Thinking these days. As I contemplate weather or not an MDes/MBA is worth the time, and opportunity cost, I’ve become very cognizant of just exactly why the business world is so seduced by what they previously might have labeled, touchy feeling or to bohemian for the real world.
To start with they can’t help but be amazed by numbers like this. ” The Design Council’s latest research study has come up with a way of measuring return on design investment for the first time. According to the report, Design in Britain 2005-6, ‘design alert’ companies achieve an average return of #225 for every #100 invested in design.
The report also reiterates that companies investing in effective design significantly outperform their rivals on the stock market. Shares in ‘design-led’ businesses have outstripped key stock market indices by as much as 200 per cent over the past decade, says the report.” Design Week |August 2, 2006, | Scott Billings | (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-149146326/study-pinpoints-firms-return.html)
And there’s about ten other studies that show similar results. This is very helpful for talking to those traditional business types.
While the numbers make their heads turn, the devil is in the details of how design led companies win. However it’s really very simple.They do exactly what those old school biz folks have always done, they just do it with a greater fidelity and better understanding. They Visualize and attack!
In the past few months I’ve spent a lot of my commute time listening to material that focuses on Self Development, Positive Attitude and the power of Faith. Regardless of what source you prefer to follow on this topic, they all tell the same story of being able to visualize before you realize an idea, thought, process or product. It’s no wonder that Design Thinking has become the new hot topic in business. Design is the essence of creating a good plan and being able to truly see it in your minds eye, then sharing it effectively.
The act of designing requires the designer to be in touch with it’s audience and create an experience for that fits their needs. And it requires the designer to be human. In a world where experience is everything, traditional businesses cannot afford to separate themselves with the clinical type approach as they’re used to.
In the world of Self Development what you Visualize over and over again, becomes real and eventually you actualize your thoughts. (See the story of the Illinois Institute of Technology as told in “Think and Grow Rich” .)
Design is the act of visualizing.
User Experience Design Life 