Harmony in Design

APRIL 11th
Harmony in Design
“
Brands today
need to be
fearless in the
pursuit of
harmony.
Boz Zou
Head of User Experience
HeathWallace, Asia “
You disrupt the
market place by
offering a
harmonious
experience.
Sushmita Munshi
Head of Client Engagement
HeathWallace, Asia “
Happiness is when
what you think,
what you say and
what you do are in
harmony.
M.K. Gandhi
Preface For six thousand years, the Chinese have been applying
Feng Shui, the art and science of harmony in designing
just about everything in their lives. In the past few years,
disruption has been much talked about in the business
world. However it’s a harmonious experience that
customers really enjoy and would eventually advocate.
Creative disruption is the path, while the destination is
Harmony in Design. Harmony
in Design 1. The Elements
In essence, harmony is delight, through a holistic balance
between humans and the surroundings. In order to
achieve that delightful and holistic balance, the
interactions between human and human, human and the
environment, need to be simple, empathetic, meaningful,
contextual, responsive, holistic, connected, seamless,
sustainable, progressive, intelligent and ultimately,
delightful. delightful
meaningful
contextual
human
responsive
simple
sustainable
intelligent
connected
progressive
seamless
holistic
Harmony
in Design 2. The Layers
Harmony needs to exist across Communication, Experience,
Services / Products and Business Operations, across
segments and touch points within an organization. All four
layers need to work seamlessly and coherently in order to
sustain a harmonious and delightful relationship with
customers and employees. In the past, a lot of focus has been
on the communication and experience layers, however it is
aligning the internal business processes and service layer
that can truly help elevate and differentiate the brand. 1
Communication Design
Experience Design
2
3
Service Design
4
Business Design
Harmony
in Design 3. The Ecosystem
Harmony deals with the holistic relationship between
people and their surroundings, which naturally puts
human at the center of strategy and design. Interacting
with human, there are three key elements that impact this
relationship: business, technology and culture. It’s vital to
acknowledge that business (and brands) need to
continuously evolve with technologies and cultural
changes in order to meet the growing demand of people. business
human
technology
culture
Harmony
in Design 4. The Lifecycle Disruption has been a hot topic in the field of innovation in
recent years. However disruption is only a means to break
the old status quo; it’s a harmonious experience that
customers really enjoy, consume, become influencers of,
thus allowing brand to sustain competitive advantages.
Harmony is not static. In order to sustain harmony, brands
need to embrace continuous mini-disruptions and
adjustments in order to innovate and evolve. Introduce products or
services with a new
point of view
innovate
Sustain balance and
profitability and
continue to monitor
the changes in the
market
Improve rapidly
along the new
trajectory
human
insights
Align
communication,
experience, service /
product and
business processes
to holistic harmony
Complete value
propositions and
increase adoption
6
Six Learnings
of Harmony To be"er explain why the notion of harmony in design is
critical for a brand to be successful, we have selected 6 key
learnings that’s most relevant to the industries today. Customers: Just One
Piece of the Puzzle Customer centricity has been crucial for driving innovation
and change, however understanding the customers is only
the first step of achieving harmony. It is the ability to look
beyond the obvious that breaks the mold. The fuel for
innovation comes from fearlessly blending human insights
with inspirations beyond business requirements and best
practices.
Connected: Bridging
Digital with Physical Beyond smart watches, Google Glass and pedometers,
people explicitly and implicitly live their lives between
the digital and physical worlds. This merging of the two
worlds is collapsing the divide between channels and
alters customer expectations. All touch points need to
work together cohesively to provide that seamless and
intelligent connected experience. Sustain Profitability
Through Change Greatest strengths o#en can become the most debilitating
weaknesses. Sustained profitability is about understanding
the changing parameters of success and nimbly reconfiguring
people, process and proposition to adapt to change. Business
today are starting to understand that the adoption of design
thinking as a path to innovation is making sustainable
commercial and human impacts. Meaningful Real-time
Exchange of Value Never before, did brands have the amount of access
and permission to rich customer information. In return,
customers expect to be recognized and remembered. Linear,
one-sided communications can no longer trigger delight but
instead cause disconnect and friction. Being the listening
post and providing rapid feedback loops will allow
businesses to continuously build on their understanding
of the customers and maintain meaningful, relevant
conversations and interactions with them. Technology:
Enabler not Driver Technology is a great enabler of positive change, only if
the problem and opportunities are well defined. Too o#en,
technological trends have been the driving force for
change. Before ge"ing into the What and the How,
businesses need to first understand the Why in order to
fully harness the potential of technology, serve real
customer needs and create competitive advantage. Fearlessness:
Celebrate Failures Cultivating a culture of embracing small and early failures
is the bedrock of innovation. It enables organizations to
look beyond best practices, or worst stuck on legacy, a
common source of mediocrity. Harmony is not about
perfection; it is about courageous and relentless progress. Harmony
in Design Watch the Movie
HeathWallace.com/harmony Ⓒ HeathWallace 2014