R&D is Dead, Long Live Design!
What is design? It is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but the concept and practice of design can mean many things.
If you were asked to describe something with good design and your first impulse is to talk about the sleek appearance of your new laptop, you most likely subscribe to a common definition of design that focuses purely on visual elements. While these things are important, only thinking about design in terms of aesthetics is taking a narrow view of an expansive idea.
In recent years, design has become synonymous with innovation. Internationally recognised brands such as Apple, Nike, and Google credit their commercial successes to design-led thinking. But what is the difference between design thinking and good design?
Good design can refer to an end product, but it more specifically relates to the process that created it. A product is well designed because the people who made it used a user-centric approach at every stage of the development process. This design led approach is what generates the innovative and highly successful products that firms like Apple are so well known for. It can be applied to just about anything. Design thinking is the inductive and deductive analysis combined with intuition.
When the idea of developing a new consumer-facing product was broached at a strategic meeting, we saw an opportunity to develop Litmus’ design process. Our aim is to draw on the practices of thought leaders and combine it with our expertise to design a consumer product that is creative and commercially viable.
We will share our journey communicating our insights, triumphs, and failures.
- Empathy and inspiration research
- Ideation
- Prototype development and testing
- Implementation