DESIGN AUDIT ANSWERS to BUSINESS

Design as a Strategic Business Tool Sancharee Saha

ABOUT THE BUSINESS

AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF DESIGN AUDIT

DESIGN AUDIT FRAMEWORK

-CORPORATE CULTURE

-DESIGN MANAGEMENT

-PHYSICAL DESIGN

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

Content

 Business Overview

•  Primarily a Business Consultancy to

small businesses (2-50 employees)

•  Also offer Design services

•  Founder: Inzar Haq

•  Partner: Zakera Kali

•  8 subcontractors

70%

30%

Concultancy Design

Answers to

Business

•  Husband & Wife

•  Located at the Innovation Centre, De

Montfort University

Objectives of the Design Audit

Design is a significant, potentially powerful management resource,

susceptible to intelligent direction and control

-Wally Olins

  Effectiveness of use of design

  Consistency in purpose, performance and appearance

  Differentiation through design

  Current situation

  Relevance of design with respect to philosophy

  Understand the philosophy of the company to analyse the appropriateness of the role of design

Future?

1. Acquaintance

2. Methodology

3. Rationale

Adapted and Inspired by Rachel Cooper & Kathryn Best

DESIGN AUDIT FRAMEWORK THE CORPORATE ONION

Physical Design

Design Management

Corporate Culture

• Visual Identity • Corporate design standards • Service • Work environment • Pre-project

• Design resources • Design skills • Design training • Design management: Processes, Procedures, Guidelines

• Design Department: Location, Services, Aims & objectives

• Project management

• Corporate design strategies • Design awareness • Integration of Design with other functions • Design activities undertaken

Physical design

Identity

Name

Logo

Website

Presents the core idea !of the organisation!

First visual contact!

Reveals the brand’s personality!

Ideologies of the people behind it!

Identity

  Inzar and his role serve as the

face of the business more

than the name

  Name/identity of business

gets overshadowed

  Relate to Inzar as a

personality more than the

business as a whole

  Clients didn’t remember the

logo

!!!

A logo !Encapsulates !

the brand.

-Olins, 2008

Identity

NAME!  Suitable as a tagline

  Compared to other consultancies it does not sound as professional

  Not all answers to business at the moment: SEO, UX/UI design

Logotype!  Impersonal   Symbol is a cliché!

  Confused identity   Typeface: unsure & under

confident

Undermines the business

Impersonal, unrelated,

copy-pasted

Do I look fat in this

dress?

Design Management

Leads

Space

Design process

Personalities

Design Management Leads

•  Serves as a testimonial

•  Only method of marketing

•  Proves reliability & assurance

•  Proves company has potential

•  Not a single direct customer

•  Website is not doing its job

•  They are aware of the website’s weaknesses in design & content

•  Shows they understand what they are offering and needs to be put across better

referrals

Imagine the power of strategic marketing!

No financial returns through design

Design is not

bringing in any clients

No Use of the

Web as a resource

Design Management Space

•  Comes across as a start-up with no experience

•  Clients greeted with ‘De Montfort University Innovation centre’

•  Office spaces have not been used to their potential

•  Designers need inspiration and physical & mental space to be creative

environment

Creativity in any business needs stimulation

No room for

creativity

Innovation Centre

can’t help any further

BUT

Lead [Inzar]

Consultancy

Completion Design [Zakera]

Designers

Design Management Design

Process

  Inzar initiates relationship as a consultant

  Marketing/Sales

  Design briefs are taken by Inzar

  Project gets passed on to Zakera Needs a brief again

method

The Cogs represent a mechanical process

Marketing

Sales

Design Manager

DESIGN

Routes to Market

Personalities

the couple

Inzar Home

Office

Husband/Father Business Consultant (MBA)

Strong personality

Business minded/Corporate

Head of finance Founder & In-charge

Zakera

Wife/Mother Design Manager

Softer personality

Creative/Organic

Head of operations

Partner/team leader

Design Management

Corporate To the point Professional Creative

Organic Innovative

C o r p o r a t e Culture

Client Relationship

Portrayed Image

Ideologies & Ethics

Outcome & Role of Design

Service culture

Service commitment

Customer journey

Customer retention

Increased revenue

Client Relationship

  Good rapport with client   More work

  Repeat customer

  Good understanding of the client’s needs

  Executing project in time   Clarity   Transparency

  Industry standards

  Have learnt from difficult clients

satisfaction

Growth will be stagnant if design is not in play

Not given an

important role

No Form, only

Function

Corporate Culture

Portrayed Image

  Already had a good referral

  Professional & knowledgeable

  Informative and introduced the company to available support

  Researched, serious about helping the company

  Inzar was the face of the business   Confident   Reliable

  Honest opinion   Clarity

  Professional

  A2B proved itself to its clients through meetings and approach

impression Corporate Culture

Professional & Confident

Experienced Informed & Researched

Reliable Clear, honest

opinions

Design Impression

Weak Confused

Not confident

Dated

•  No branding •  No logo on

Contracts •  No signage

Current Clients Potential Clients

Ideologies & Ethics

Recognise that businesses have problems and issues A2B provide solutions to their problems

  Empathy with Small Business   Care about their client’s

businesses

  And money

philosophy

Current Position Current Design Aspirations

Business Consultancy, also offer design services

Answers to your business questions

Want to be a Business & Branding consultancy

Professional & trustworthy Start-up with little knowledge/experience

Caring, Innovative, Professional

Strong set of loyal clients No portfolio to see, no proof Image: confident, well equipped & experienced

Inexperienced /unequipped

Inorganic

Mechanical

No portfolio

Just another

consultancy

Corporate Culture

• Communication Design has played almost no part in their business as yet

Branding

• Product outcomes have been inconsistent due to various designers but have worked for clients

• Design of their Services has been of high standards

Product/Services

• Comfortable and has brought together a loyal team of subcontractors who follow similar ideologies

• Honest, clear and thorough with clients

Communication/Behaviour

• Environment hasn’t been thought out • Mediocre impact on clients as it was backed up by their

service • Space needs to feel inspiring for ALL employees and stimulate

creativity in both business & design departments

Environment

Outcomes role of design Corporate Culture

Conclusion

Form Follows Function

  Function is intact but has no design to drive to forward

  Growth is possible if they differentiate themselves using design

  Their confidence in being better than other ‘consultants’ and ‘web designers’ is not reflected in their use of design

  Design needs to have a bigger role and drive its own agenda

  Company should come across as confident to take up independent design projects without having to wait for referrals

“Branding is simply a convenient package for a business idea”

-Marty Nuemeier

Answers To

Business

Recommendations   Rebrand, to be confident about what they do and why they do it   Consistent web presence Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube

  Internalise their work philosophy, apply it to themselves   Name | Business Cards | Space | Location | Website | Signage |

  Create the entire experience for clients through strategic use of design: Publicise testimonials, Starter Kit

  Change name as the company is known as “Inzar’s company and not Answers to Business

  Strong visual and brand identity with a new logo   Change of space will help show authority and experience and

give room for creativity

  For incremental success, design should be on the agenda at every meeting

  Both Inzar & Zakera need to be more informed & adaptive to each others roles   To understand the clients requirements   to be consistent in their approach

Bibliography

  OLINS, W (2008) The Brand Handbook. London: Thames & Hudson

  NUEMEIER, M (2006) The Brand Gap. Berkeley: New Riders

  BROWN, T (2009) Change by Design. New York: Harper Collins

  DESIGN MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (1997) Five Views on Design and Strategy. Boston: DMI

  LOCKWOOD, T (2010) Design Thinking. New York: Allworth Press

  DESIGN MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (1997) Ten Views on Brand Management. Boston: DMI

  COOPER, R and PRESS, M (1995) The Design Agenda. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  ANSWERS TO BUSINESS (2013) About the company [WWW] Answers to Business.

Available from: answers-business.co.uk [Accessed: 5/5/2013]