Monthly Archives: October 2011

The Future of Design:
A look at the shifting role of designers

October 26, 2011 in Culture by carol

Pivot AIGA design conference 2011 logo

When I meet people and they ask what I do, the obvious answer is, “I’m a designer.” Many people respond, “Oh, an interior designer?” I counter, “No, a graphic designer.” Those familiar with the profession (and yes, there are some that simply do not know it exists) often supply the most exasperating response: “So…you design posters and invitations and make things pretty, right?” And while yes, that is what designers do, when put that way, it sounds irritatingly trivial.

So what is a designer? Simply put, we are visual storytellers and problem solvers. But what does that mean? What role do we play – whether in-house, or agency – in business and within the larger setting of our complex world?

Last week I met up with more than 1,500 of my peers in Phoenix at the bi-annual AIGA design conference to discuss our ever-changing industry. The theme of the conference was ‘pivot’ – a fitting motif referring to the evolving definition and role of designers within the context of major changes to our economy and society.

At the end of the conference, host Kurt Anderson made an astute observation. He recognized that the past three days of stimulating speakers, pragmatic seminars and comprehensive conversations revealed there are two parties of designers – orthodox and reform. Essentially, Party One, the orthodox group, consists of those who feel we live in an flawed world, full of bad design, and that designers need to continue focusing on craft, to develop their technical skills and create better design that results in more beauty in the world. Party Two, the reformers, also believe that we live in imperfection, but that designers need to take on a different role that relies less on craft, and more on our strategic problem-solving skills, to better our world.

Speaker Terry Irwin effectively visualized Party One designers as being in a perpetual hunched-over position, looking down, too focused on the details, unaware of the holistic view. Party Two believes the conventional process of design consultancy is eventually going to die out. Speakers Valerie Casey and Karl Heiselman think designers need to take on a completely new role.

As speaker Chip Kidd said, “if it ain’t good type, it ain’t good design.” We should always remember that no detail is too small, those elements that we obsess over are still important. But we must take on a new strategic role, placing ourselves at the center of business, in a marriage of creativity and rigor, to show the possibilities of business and effect change. It’s our ability to create ideas that will allow us to find new opportunities, and with our design language we can illustrate the possibilities that were never even considered. It’s that meta-disciplinary study and practice that will increase designers value and impact.

This is a critical challenge extended to designers to step up and move from the creative edge to the center. We need to show, as Casey puts it, ”we aren’t just cake decorators; we can bake the cake, too.”

But it’s also a challenge extended to business leaders: stop presenting us as the one-trick pony, the token designer who swoops in and makes things look better. We have the skills to sit at the adult table.

For designers, this is not a shift away from our core principles; it’s a shift toward a new way of thinking about our roles and the increased value we can bring to business and the world. It’s a new perspective on the changing design industry and actionable insights on how to increase our value and improve our practice long term.

There’s a fundamental problem with adhering solely to the beliefs of just Party One or just Party Two and placing oneself into one camp or the other.

The union of these two mindsets is what will ultimately further design. We can’t be exclusively committed to craft and designing pretty things. But we also can’t completely abandon those qualities that make us so unique. Anyone can buy the Adobe Creative Suite and call him or herself a designer, but it’s our skills that will set us apart. It’s not a matter of saying we’ll simply do it better. The key is that we’re going to do it different.

- Carol Scheffler

 

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Netflix: The Company That Learned the Hard Way

October 20, 2011 in Best Practices, Industry by peggy


 

I opened my inbox on Tuesday morning to find this email staring at me. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and laugh a little. I mean, c’mon. From a customer perspective, it’s like a bank deciding you can only get checking accounts with one bank and savings accounts with another— it sounds completely irrational. When Netflix made their various decisions, it seems they forgot to ask the one group of people that was going to be affected: their customers. Netflix has become not only customer-aggravating, but has come across as hasty and a bit of a mockery. And unfortunately for Netflix, this kind of debacle has happened not once, but twice. Some people are even waiting for Reed Hasting’s resignation letter.

The recent Netflix debacle is a great example of why we should listen to our customers before we make crucial business decisions. Let’s dissect the time progression of the changes and see just how the issue escalated.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why Netflix made the decision to create Qwikster; albeit not the name choice. Technologically speaking, streaming is the future of video entertainment and Qwikster was a step in the right direction for Netflix. Qwikster was an easy way to ease DVDs out of the market while allowing the Netflix brand room to continue to grow. But it was how Netflix first went about making these decisions without considering their customers and then launching their new product like it was an interface change on the website.

Remember when Gap suffered a similar falling apart at the seams? The backbone of everybusiness is their customer; and the backbone of every major business decision should be the customer’s feedback. When your customers are loyal, don’t turn your back on them. It’s critical to have visions and directions for your company, but your company is going nowhere without satisfied, loyal customers.

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Six websites I cannot live without

October 18, 2011 in Culture by jesse

Here at Eastwick, we spend an astounding amount of hours online each week.  We are scouring every tech news web site, Facebooking, checking out our TweetPsych profiles and reading up on news in journalism, client service and tech trends.  That being said, everyone has their go-to sites for inspiration, creative ideas, research, productivity and general brain-break time. I thought I would give you a glimpse of what sites I visit every week and how they fit into my personal and professional lives.

 

#1 – Hypem.com

The Hype Machine aggregates the most blogged music tracks and puts them into an ever-changing playlist.  The site maintains a Popular List, which is populated by the songs which are “loved” the most.  Hypem recently added a separate Twitter list for the songs that are “hyped” via Tweets.  I am constantly listening to music at work and this site provides access to songs, artists and bloggers that I never would have found on my own.  After listening for a few weeks you will start to notice the trends – the Popular list is flooded with high energy music on Fridays, for example.

 

#2 – Visual.ly

This site, launched in July 2011, is a virtual warehouse for infographics! First of all, this is cool because we can troll all the data that the infographics display, which is great for generating ideas and spotting trends.  Second,  I use the site to inspire great ideas for clients; we can lift ideas on everything from color schemes to bits of information that could potentially used in a different vertical or trend story.

 

#3 – OKTrends

Sad face. This early data journalism powerhouse site hasn’t been updated in months. Look at their sample size: millions of adults whose intimate information about likes, dislikes, age, gender, location, is all available for mining and trend analysis.  Some of my favorites: the REAL stuff white people like and the mathematics of beauty (though I’m not sure why they had to use ALL female examples).  Did I mention the site was started by two Harvard mathematicians?

 

#4 – Seth Godin’s Blog

This should be a no-brainer for any public relations pro out there (and any other profession for that matter).  Seth Godin writes an incredible blog with insightful posts on marketing, business and general cultural trends.

 

#5 – Creativity Online

A subset of AdAge, this site publishes the most creative advertising campaigns from around the world. A great site for peeking into the best of the best creative work by agencies small and large.

 

#6 – The DailyWh.at

Now, I know a lot of people that love roaming around the internet or YouTube or Reddit for entertaining videos, memes and content.  I don’t really have time to do this.  Enter TheDailywh.at – pulling all of that content together so that I can browse through it, laugh (randomly and inappropriately in the middle of a quiet office) and get back to work.

 

 

I highly encourage you to check out all of these sites, and maybe we can get OKTrends to start posting again! Happy browsing all.

-Jesse

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Zero Moment Of Truth: An Opportunity for Companies to Connect with Customers

October 11, 2011 in Best Practices, Culture, Industry by peggy

 

With the ever-growing presence of technology in our lives, it’s practically a no-brainer that we’ve changed as shoppers. Of course, we’ve changed what we shop for, but more significant is that we’ve changed how we shop. In 2011, the average shopper used 10.7 sources of information before buying, says Jim Lecinski, Google’s Managing Director, US Sales & Service. Think about it; when was the last time you made a significant purchase without researching it first?

Generally, we are not behaving differently. The instinct to get information between when we hear about a product and before we buy is not new. The difference in behavior comes from where and how we get information and our ability to compare all the variables of making that decision. We’ve transitioned from searching on our computers at home to searching on our mobile phones held right in our hands, completely reinventing our path to the register.

Google defines this change in behavior as the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). Back in the days of landlines and dial-up, a company would create a stimulus of some kind to create awareness for their product. This allowed for the opportunity to drive people to the checkout and hopefully enjoy the product. That was the entire process from stimulus to sale. The ZMOT has changed the game. ZMOT is that moment of increasingly growing importance that gets between a company’s stimulus and the sale. For example, when a customer watches your commercial, they may remember nothing from the ad except that there was a green frog. Because ZMOT now exists, you should be ready to show up when the customer then searches for “green frog.”

All of this means ZMOT is certainly important to us as shoppers, but even more so as entrepreneurs, business owners, and competitors. Due to this extra step in the process, companies have even more opportunity to leverage the potential customer who is at the beginning of their journey. The most effective way to seize this opportunity is to understand what your customers say, do, and feel. Remember who your customers are—they’re people!

Customers don’t want to be sold a gimmicky product or have a gimmicky ad shoved down their throats. A company—to—customer interaction needs to come from a place that is truly focused on getting the customer the product and service they need and want. The company then becomes the customer’s ally, not the manipulator. Take Apple for example: when you walk in the door you aren’t asked to sign up for a credit card, but asked what you’re looking for or how Katie can help you today. They’re famous for having a bar complete with Apple geniuses dedicated to customer support; to helping you.

Above all, companies need to realize that ZMOT is an opportunity to engage with their customers before someone else does. Think of ZMOT as a giant call center: with every search and inquiry, customers are looking for answers. Are you answering the call and leaving the customer satisfied enough to come back?

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One more thing….

October 6, 2011 in Clients, Culture, Industry by Ellen Leanse

Steve Jobs, 1984

When I was young and more than a little foolish, I was lucky enough to join a small team in Cupertino that was building a company called Apple. The year was 1981. I learned last night that during that time Apple jobbed out motherboard assembly to home-workers and housewives in Cupertino (Robert Scoble’s mother built Apple II circuit boards at home as part-time work). Yes, there was a time when Apple was that small a company, a renegade startup with two freethinking founders and an audacious vision to change the world.

I called Apple home for nearly 10 years, riding the ups and downs, learning and being allowed – no, encouraged – to take chances, becoming part of something that I only wish I’d appreciated as fully then as I do today.

I remember the first time I met Steve Jobs. I was 23 and brand new to the company. Our paths crossed in a parking lot on Bandley Drive. He walked over and asked if I worked there, who I was. His presence was so powerful I could barely whisper my reply. Over the months, years ahead, his presence grew, but fortunately – emboldened, I’m sure, by the incredible learning and collaboration Apple facilitated – so did my confidence. Like all of us at Apple I was privileged to have many opportunities to grow under his leadership.

In 1983, as Steve led Apple to its most audacious goal yet, I joined the Macintosh launch team as International Product Manager for Macintosh Accessories. That meant I was responsible for guiding the keyboards, modems, printers and other products that would support the Mac in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and beyond.

I learned many things during this incredible experience, but no lesson has stayed with me more than one that arrived on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper shortly after I moved into my new cubicle in Bandley 4. I received a printout that I was asked to hang in plain sight, something written by Steve and shared with all on the extended Mac team. It read:

How is the decision you’re making right now

helping us to ship

the greatest personal computer the world has ever known

on January 24, 1984?

Read it again. “How is the decision you’re making right now helping us to ship the greatest personal computer the world has ever known on January 24, 1984?”

I may have a word or two wrong – in fact, I’d love to be corrected, and I’d love it more if someone still has a copy of that page. Fool that I was, I didn’t save it.

But if I’ve missed the exact wording, I didn’t miss the lesson. With this simple phrase, Steve Jobs introduced me, and everyone on the team, to a practice that changed the way I saw my world and managed my actions.

We didn’t use words like “mindfulness practice” back then, and my only knowledge of Buddhism had come from art history classes. Yet this calling-back to consciousness, this art of checking in and course correcting, taught me something my upbringing and education had not: the importance of the “now,” the preciousness of each moment, the essential connection between process and outcome.

As Steve evolved as a leader and as a man, he honed this very practice, taking presence and mindfulness to a world-changing level. His sense of purpose and personal responsibility shone as he continued to create, shape, inspire, and exact exceptional performance in the people he led. His incomparable Stanford commencement speech illuminates the core of his thinking, and help us all learn from the unique vision that made him, and his life, extraordinary.

I’ve shared the “How is the decision…” mantra with co-workers, clients, friends, and family countless times since 1983. It’s guided choices and actions in strategy sessions, personal planning, and even my kids’ study time at the kitchen table. I’ve shared it wherever I’ve worked – at Google, as an entrepreneur, and certainly here at Eastwick. Time and again it brings people back to the essential priorities. It eliminates the chaff of distraction, overrides shiny objects, and cuts through the noise of easy ways out.

Today, I feel deeply grateful to share it here, offering it in hopes that maybe you’ll pick it up, make it your own. Use it to help shape your own audacious dream, something driven by hunger and foolishness and focus and purpose, because that is what Steve showed us is possible. Use it with the absolute conviction that every life and every moment matters, because we’ve seen that this can be true. Use it to expand your potential to be great – perhaps insanely so – in some way that matters to you.

And use it to remember an incomparable man who has touched so many lives in small or course-changing ways. Thank you, Steve, for teaching us the power of a moment. Thank you, Steve, for all that you’ve taught us.

 

 

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