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  

Sushmita Munshi Head of Client Engagement

HeathWallace, Asia  

You disrupt the market place by offering a harmonious experience.

“

Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.

“

M.K. Gandhi

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.    

Preface  

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.  

1. The Elements  

Harmony in Design  

delightful

seamless

sustainable

contextual

intelligent simple

responsive

holistic progressive

connected

human

meaningful

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.  

2. The Layers  

Harmony in Design  

1

3

4 Business Design

Experience Design

Communication Design

2

Service Design

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.  

3. The Ecosystem  

Harmony in Design  

human

business

culture technology

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.  

4. The Lifecycle  

Harmony in Design  

innovate

Introduce products or services with a new point of view

Improve rapidly along the new trajectory

Complete value propositions and increase adoption

Align communication, experience, service / product and business processes to holistic harmony

Sustain balance and profitability and continue to monitor the changes in the market

human insights

6

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.  

Six Learnings of Harmony  

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.

Customers: Just One Piece of the Puzzle  

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.  

Connected: Bridging Digital with Physical  

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.  

Sustain Profitability Through Change  

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.  

Meaningful Real-time Exchange of Value  

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.  

Technology: Enabler not Driver  

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.  

Fearlessness: Celebrate Failures  

Harmony in Design  

Watch the Movie HeathWallace.com/harmony  

Ⓒ HeathWallace 2014