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Assignment 2
Design Management Practice & Theory Design Audit - Analysis
Ye Zhiqing S17003842
Regent’s University London
Tutor: Graeme Campbell
1
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3
Theory Models ............................................................................................................................. 4
DESIGN THEORY MODELS FOR HUAWEI .................................................................................... 4
THE DOUBLE DIAMOND MODEL .................................................................................................. 4
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Discover ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Define ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Develop ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Delivery ............................................................................................................................................ 5
THE NEW CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT MODEL (NCD) ................................................................. 6
TANGERINE: SEVEN ATTRIBUTES FOR RESILIENCE ................................................................ 7
Hypothesis .................................................................................................................................... 8
Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 9
ABOUT HUAWEI .............................................................................................................................. 9
Vision ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Mission .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Value propositions .......................................................................................................................... 9
Scope .............................................................................................................................................. 10
Audience, Customer base and product segmentation ............................................................. 13
Consumer Behaviour .................................................................................................................... 14
Corporate Social Responsibility ................................................................................................... 17
DESIGN MANAGEMENT OF HUAWEI ......................................................................................... 17
Visual identity ................................................................................................................................ 17
Product and Process ..................................................................................................................... 22
Innovation day .............................................................................................................................. 24
Design managers .......................................................................................................................... 24
OUTCOME ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Key Findings ............................................................................................................................... 27
Figures .......................................................................................................................................... 28
2
Reference .................................................................................................................................... 31
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 31
Appendix 1: Assignment 1 - Design Management Practice & Theory – Design Audit
Appendix 2: Tangerine - Design Strategy for Huawei
Appendix 3: Detailed Model Analysis
3
Introduction
HUAWEI is a multinational Information Technology Communication Company. Huawei’s
ICT solutions, products, and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions,
serving over one-third of the world's population. With 180,000 employees, Huawei is
committed to enabling the future information society, and building a Better Connected
World. This is the design audit analysis after the audit on design of every aspect of the
business. (huawei, 2017)
In this report, relevant research was conducted around design elements of Huawei, trying
to use three design models to analyse how far Huawei has gone on the road of design
thinking, both in products development and company management.
4
Theory Models
DESIGN THEORY MODELS FOR HUAWEI
There are lots of design models over the history and specifically in HUAWEI, their design
process can be mostly fit in the contemporary models with the use of creative thinking in all
aspects. In addition, they commissioned some design companies, which has their own
models in design process, and a good case in point is the Design Group Tangerine and their
design model, which will be analysed in the following parts.
THE DOUBLE DIAMOND MODEL
Figure 1 Design council – Double Diamond Model (with supplement)
Introduction
Designers across disciplines share strikingly similar approaches to the creative process,
which the Design Council Group mapped out as ‘the Double Diamond’ (Figure 1). (Design
Council, 2014) Bascally speaking, the model devides design process into four distinct
phases – Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.
Discover
Discover is the first stage of design, which would be and essential part of design and will be
analysed more in the next model, the NDC Model. This stage aims at taking into account
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new information, user needs, competitive contexts or challenges that arise as the project
progresses, and mainly it is about information collecting, researching and data analyzing.
Define
This is the definition stage, through review, analysis and selection of ideas, the best
findings from the first stage are analysed, defined and refined as problems, and ideas for
solutions are pitched and prototyped.
Develop
The solutions or concepts are created, prototyped, tested and iterated in the third quarter.
Trials and errors help to improve and refine their ideas.
Delivery
In this stage the resulting project is finalised, produced and launched.
(Designcouncil.org.uk, n.d.)
Figure 2 The Double Diamond: Strategy + Execution of the Right Solution
(Figure 2) This is also another visual image for the double diamond model, which works
when explaining the model.
6
THE NEW CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT MODEL (NCD)
Figure 3 New Concept Development Model (NCD)
In previous introduction, we know that in the left diamond of the Double Diamond Model, it
is a stage of define, and here we introduce a new term “FFE”, Fuzzy Front End, which
means the early stages of the innovation process. In Double Diamond model it refers to the
Discovery Process.
The model (Figure 3) divides the front end into three distinct areas. In the middle is engine,
driver of FFE, which accounts for the vision, strategy and culture of the company. The
second or inner part defines the five activity elements of the front end. The third element
consists of the external environmental factors. (Koen, n.d.)
7
TANGERINE: SEVEN ATTRIBUTES FOR RESILIENCE
Figure 4 TANGERINE: Seven Attributes for resilience
Seven Attribute for Resilience (Figure 4) is developed by Tangerine, the design group,
which was commissioned by HUAWEI to design their strategy and products. The model
mainly describes seven processes of design. It combines both design process and how the
products can successfully launch the product, service or even a brand by the process “tell
stories” and “Find gaps you can own”.
Relative information in Appendix 2 – Tangerine: Design Strategy for HUAWEI
8
Hypothesis
HUAWEI is already using some effective design in their process of launching new products.
However the thinking of design can be improved, both deeper in thinking and broader in
using.
9
Analysis
ABOUT HUAWEI
Vision
To bridge the digital divide, promote harmony and sustainable development of the
economy, society, and environment.
Mission
To establish an excellent sustainable management system, operate strictly with integrity
and compliance, continuously improve the communication with stakeholders, promote a
harmonious business ecosystem, ensure the sustainable development of the company and
provide benefits to our customers and society.
Value propositions
Figure 5 Value Propositions of HUAWEI
(Figure 5) It demonstrates HUAWEI is oriented by customers, society, world, innovation,
future and sustainability, to design how to connect the world, so much as the world itself.
Design is delicate exquisite innovation with design thinking. From what we can see in
vision, mission and the value proposition, HUAWEI is able to propose design projects and
products, thanks to a customer and future-oriented background and environment with
potential opportunities.
10
Scope
Size
HUAWEI basically is a famous multinational telecommunications equipment company, with
subsidiaries such as HiSilicon, Toga Networks and so forth. It covers lots of related
industry, from telecommunication, IT, smart application, to information communication
technology. In terms of intercompany cooperation, namely the external partners, it almost
helps companies in all fields from Finance to Healthcare, since nowadays all organization
needs telecommunication infrastructure.
Financial
HUAWEI is the world’s ninth-largest information technology company by revenue. (Figure
6)
Figure 6 Overview of revenue of HUAWEI
Market share of smartphone
HUAWEI surpassed Apple as the world’s second largest smartphone brand in June, 2017.
(Figure 7)
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Figure 7 Market share: global smartphone sales of 2017
Countries & employees
The ICT solutions, products, and services of HUAWEI are used in more than 170 countries
and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population. As for employees, HUAWEI
has over 180,000 staff working in different countries. (huawei, 2017)
Products
As shown on the official website (Figure 8), products of HUAWEI include consumer
products, Business product and industrial products which is the broadest. Ranged from
computer to watch, HUAWEI has all kinds of consumer products, which is the closest to our
life, thus will be mainly analyzed in the following.
12
Figure 8 Consumer Products of HUAWEI
Niche market
Niche market is a good example when it links to the TANGERINE Seven Attributes model,
“find gaps you can own”. Huawei found the niche both in smart phone market as well as
the female smart watch market (Figure 9). (More information in appendix 1)
Figure 9 JEWEL Smartwatch, cooperated by HUAWEI and Swarovski
13
Audience, Customer base and product segmentation (Figure 10, 11)
Figure 10 Products designed for different audience
Figure 11 Segmentation (Different models) in smart phone filed
14
Consumer Behaviour
Geographic
Difference between Countries and Regions
Derived from the annual report of HUAWEI in 2017, the graph (Figure 12) shows the major
market of HUAWEI is China, accounting for about 45.3% sales of the whole. Base on this,
the following analysis on consumer behaviour mainly focuses on Chinese market.
Figure 12 Distribution of Revenue in different countries
Difference between Cities
From the perspective of cities’ scale, the customers of HUAWEI (Figure 13) fall mainly in
more developed cities in China, for 41% in so-called “First-tier” cities, and 38% in the
second.
Figure 13 Phone usage of HUAWEI in different cities
Demographic
Age
In Chinese market, 1990’s generation is the majority of the customers, accounting for
15
about 60% of the population. (Figure 14)
AGE <20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-49 >50
% of usage
of HUAWEI 30% 34% 4% 7% 2% 13% 9%
Figure 14 Distributions in different ages among HUAWEI, SAMSUNG and RED MI
Gender
There are more male consumers compared with female, respectively accounting for 58%
and 42%. (Figure 15)
Figure 15 Distributions in different genders among HUAWEI, SAMSUNG and RED MI
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Psychographic
Marital Status
Figure 16 Marital Status of consumers of different phone models
In China, the majority of the users of HUAWEI MATE 9 is married and mostly has children,
the percentage of which highly excelled those of IPhone 7 and Samsung S7. (Figure 16)
Behavior
Figure 17 Use of Application of HUAWEI smartphone user
In terms of the use of application (Figure 17), the users if HUAWEI prefer to use services
for life, accounting for 21% of the whole and following are the system tools and reading
platform (news, information and books), respectively reaching 12.9% and 12.2%. Also,
9.8% and 7.6% people love to use it to socialize Ana’s chat online as well as streaming
videos.
17
Corporate Social Responsibility (Figure 18, for more see appendix 1)
Figure 18 CSR Rating of HUAWEI
DESIGN MANAGEMENT OF HUAWEI
Visual identity
HUAWEI has a “Visual Identity Guideline”, in which the company sets and explains all the
rules, norms and discipline of their visual images ranged from Logo to uniforms. The
following analysis mostly based on that document.
Logo
Figure 19 Historical Logo of HUAWEI
Logo of HUAWEI (Figure 19) mainly changed from the leftmost to the rightmost. The latest
logo was relaunched on 8th, May, 2006 with an letter, in which the company explained the
spirit of the new logo: “Maintaining the original style of youthfulness and an enterprising
spirit, the new logo reflects HUAWEI's principles of customer focus, innovation, steady and
sustainable growth, and harmony, conveying HUAWEI's sincere commitment to our
18
customers. (HUAWEI, 2006)
Letterhead (Figure 20, 21)
Figure 20 Standard requirement of letterhead
Figure 21 Example of letterhead of Huawei
19
Advertising (Figure 22)
Figure 22 Advertising standard example of Huawei
Websites (Figure 23)
Figure 23 Standard example for website of Huawei
20
Uniforms (Figure 24)
Figure 24 Uniform standard of Huawei
Signage (Figure 25)
Figure 25 Standard of Signage
Buildings and office
MARIS is a design group who designed workplace for companies, and the following (Figure
26) are their design for HUAWEI.
21
Figure 26 Buildings and offices of HUAWEI, designed by MARIS
https://www.maris-interiors.co.uk/work/HUAWEI/
Campus
SOM is another design group. To take advantage of Shanghai’s valuable talent pool and
neighboring universities, the company commissioned SOM to design and build an
expansive research and development campus (Figure 27) in the city’s emerging Pudong
District. (SOM, 2011)
22
Figure 27 Shanghai HUAWEI Technologies Corporate Campus
Product and Process
True Value
True Value Design thinking of HUAWEI is the thinking of how exactly they can build
beautiful devices and still keep them at affordable price points. This mind-set is how the
company plans to differentiate themselves from the other Original equipment
manufacturers on the market. (LACOUVEE, 2015)
Design language
Performance (See Appendix 1)
Discover (Front End)
In the design process of PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9, a gap in market is discovered.
“We identified a new type of luxury consumer is emerging. One who needs a smartphone
that matches the special demands of their successful, global lifestyles,” said Richard Yu,
CEO, HUAWEI Consumer Business Group. (Consumer.HUAWEI.com, 2016) It is exactly the
start of new concept development.
What is more, as stated by Herrmann, one of the journalists of ANDROIDPIT, The recipe of
success for HUAWEI lies in intense market observation with its 70,000-strong research
departments all around the world. (Ferrari Herrmann, 2016) When it comes to research
and development of HUAWEI, the essential element of Discover, the company emphasizes
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on and invests a lot in this segment. Apart from Shanghai HUAWEI Technologies Corporate
Campus we mentioned (Figure 27), HUAWEI also has an innovations centre in Germany,
where HUAWEI partners with local universities, a European Research Institute in based in
Leuven in Belgium, a design centre in Paris, a software design centre on the west coast of
the US, and a UK 5G centre in partnership with Surrey University, and HUAWEI allowed it to
"develop a whole ecosystem for smartphone tech". (Bold, 2017) (See appendix 1)
In one of the interview, HUAWEI’s Mobile Design Vice President Joonsuh Kim stressed the
vision, which can be referred to in “About HUAWEI” as well as the true value just talked
about. In the NCD Model, the culture, mission and vision and strategy of the company is
the “engine”, which works for and drives the whole design process. HUAWEI’s vision is to
create genuinely great-performing products that not only satisfy the user from a
performance and design standpoint, but that can be offered at an affordable price point.
This is the “engine” for HUAWEI design. (LACOUVEE, 2015)
Define
The design of Press Touch is a good case in point explaining their innovation with teething
problems and they experienced this period before it came to the sign-off development.
In terms of Press Touch, nowadays technology allows multi-level sensitive touchscreens
and requires adjustments in the software interface. "We need even more features," said
Sam the Chief Product Manager of the HUAWEI P9. “And if that happens, we'll bring Press
Touch to other devices. Unfortunately, Press Touch is developed in isolation. From Google,
there is no support.” (Ferrari Herrmann, 2016) The current support of the Android system
for Press Touch, or the possibility, tends to be low.
In this case, HUAWEI define their problems: they wanted to bring Press Touch system to
the devices without support from Google. The problem was defined and they followed this
clue to figure out possible solution in order to go to next stage, Develop. One of the
solutions is to manipulate much of the proprietary code and this maintenance may affects
system updates. (Ferrari Herrmann, 2016)
Develop
As for the development of Huawei P and Mate series, both the development and design
24
department is works in conjunction with a 15-month research and development venture.
After several prototypes all those "features in which we are not quite sure" are abandoned.
In this section HUAWEI develop their products through brainstorming, visualization,
prototyping, tests and scenarios analysis, and finally come up with the final potential
solutions, namely the possible new features for their new devices.
Deliver
This process is comparatively simpler, which in fact can be indicated by the successful
launch of every product we have already talked about, including all the smart watches,
smart phones, and even the routers.
Tangerine
See relevant case in Appendix 2.
Innovation day
There are other kinds of activities held by HUAWEI or cooperated with HUAWEI which help
the design process, like the innovation day (Figure 28) they held to discuss latest design
and innovation issue with designers and relevant business.
Figure 28 4th EUROPEAN HUAWEI INNOVATION DAY
Design managers
Designers and directors
As we mentioned in the design process before, people involved in the design process
including Mr. Shao Yang, Huawei’s Vice President of Marketing, Joonsuh Kim, HUAWEI’s
Mobile Design Vice President and other designers and directors of Huawei. In addition,
25
Mathieu Lehanneur, Chief Designer of Huawei, is another designer who manages the
design process for Huawei. His creative’s role will lead Huawei’s aesthetics research centre
(ARC) in Paris. (Chin, 2017)
Design groups
In addition to the presence of design managers inside Huawei, design groups outside the
company also engage in the design process of Huawei. These design councils include
Tangerine, who designed tablets and design strategies for Huawei; Porsche Design, who
designed the premium Porsche design version for Huawei MATE 9 and MATE 10; Maris and
SOM, who designed the office layout and buildings for Huawei. There are more and more
external design companies taking the responsibilities for the future of the company,
ranging from products development to business strategy construction.
OUTCOME
To see how far has Huawei gone up till now on the road to play with design, we can have a
look at the ranking on iF DESIGN GROUP (Figure 29). As stated below, Huawei won 58 iF
awards and positioned 16 at creative ranking 2017 and the following two pictures (Figure
30, 31) are award-winners of Huawei in 2016.
Figure 29 IF Creative Status Ranking of HUAWEI
26
Figure 30 HUAWEI WATCH, iF DESIGN AWARD 2016
Figure 31 Huawei Heimdallr Series, iF DESIGN AWARD 2016
27
Key Findings
1. Customer and future-oriented vision, mission and value proposition allow Huawei to
have the opportunities to launch design project.
2. The loyal customers of Huawei have typical features, Huawei can portrait them as young
male living in advanced cities, which is their main market so as to design the products with
target. In the same time, think about how to fill in the gap and attract new customers:
those who are not the most loyal consumers.
3. Huawei is applying some of the design model theories in their product design, using
some design guidelines for both visual identities, as well as commissioning design groups
and designers to manage design in the business. With the outcome, we can say Huawei
has already doing well on using effective design.
4. However, HUAWEI doesn’t have a design thinking model yet, which is important in
nowadays design-oriented world. HUAWEI has already see design as an important element
in the business but it should emphasize more on it.
28
Figures
Figure 1 Design council – Double Diamond Model (with supplement)
Based on https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond
Figure 2 The Double Diamond: Strategy + Execution of the Right Solution
https://www.thoughtworks.com/cn/insights/blog/double-diamond
Figure 3 New Concept Development Model (NCD)
http://frontendinnovation.com/fei/what-is-the-new-concept-development-ncd-model
Figure 4 TANGERINE: Seven Attributes for resilience
Generated from http://tangerine.net/our-approach/
Figure 5 Value Propositions of HUAWEI
http://www.HUAWEI.com/en/about-HUAWEI/value-propositions
Figure 6 Overview of revenue of HUAWEI
http://www.HUAWEI.com/uk/about-HUAWEI
Figure 7 Market share: global smartphone sales of 2017
https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/vendor
Figure 8 Consumer Products of HUAWEI
http://www.HUAWEI.com/uk/
Figure 9 JEWEL Smartwatch, cooperated by HUAWEI and Swarovski
https://www.swarovski-gemstones.com/news/HUAWEI_Collaboration.en.html
Figure 10 Products designed for different audience
Summarized from Zhihu.com
Figure 11 Segmentation (Different models) in smart phone filed
Summarized from Zhihu.com
29
Figure 12 Distribution of Revenue in different countries
http://www.HUAWEI.com/en/about-HUAWEI/annual-report/2016
Figure 13 Phone usage of HUAWEI in different cities
http://www.cbdio.com/BigData/2016-09/05/content_5234454.html
Figure 14 Distributions in different ages among HUAWEI, SAMSUNG and RED MI
http://www.cbdio.com/BigData/2016-09/05/content_5234454.html
Figure 15 Distributions in different ages among HUAWEI, SAMSUNG and RED MI
http://www.cbdio.com/BigData/2016-09/05/content_5234454.html
Figure 16 Marital Status of consumers of different phone models
http://djt.qq.com/article/view/1533
Figure 17 Use of Application of HUAWEI smartphone user
http://www.cbdio.com/BigData/2016-09/05/content_5234454.htm
Figure 18 CSR Rating of HUAWEI
https://www.csrhub.com/CSR_and_sustainability_information/HUAWEI-Technologies
Figure 19 Historical Logo of HUAWEI
https://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/HUAWEI-2
Figure 20 Standard requirement of letterhead
https://issuu.com/janjaneczek/docs/huawei
Figure 21 Example of letterhead of Huawei
https://issuu.com/janjaneczek/docs/huawei
Figure 22 Advertising standard example of Huawei
https://issuu.com/janjaneczek/docs/huawei
30
Figure 23 Standard example for website of Huawei
https://issuu.com/janjaneczek/docs/huawei
Figure 24 Uniform standard of Huawei
https://issuu.com/janjaneczek/docs/huawei
Figure 25 Standard of Signage
https://issuu.com/janjaneczek/docs/huawei
Figure 26 Buildings and offices of HUAWEI, designed by MARIS
https://www.maris-interiors.co.uk/work/huawei/#
Figure 27 Shanghai HUAWEI Technologies Corporate Campus
http://www.som.com/projects/shanghai_HUAWEI_technologies_corporate_campus
Figure 28 4th EUROPEAN HUAWEI INNOVATION DAY
http://www.HUAWEI.com/en/events/hid2016/innovation-is-symmetry-with-science
Figure 29 IF Creative Status Ranking of HUAWEI
https://ifworlddesignguide.com/profile/2715-HUAWEI-technologies
Figure 30 HUAWEI WATCH, iF DESIGN AWARD 2016
https://ifworlddesignguide.com/profile/2715-HUAWEI-technologies
Figure 31 Huawei Heimdallr Series, iF DESIGN AWARD 2016
https://ifworlddesignguide.com/profile/2715-huawei-technologies
31
References
Bold, B. (2017). Huawei's CMO on the power of collaboration and the need to amplify the
brand. [online] Campaignlive.co.uk. Available at:
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/huaweis-cmo-power-collaboration-need-amplify-b
rand/1445645 [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017].
chin, a. (2017). mathieu lehanneur appointed as chief designer of huawei. [online]
designboom | architecture & design magazine. Available at:
https://www.designboom.com/design/mathieu-lehanneur-chief-designer-huawei-03-12-2
015/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017].
Consumer.huawei.com. (2016). HUAWEI and Porsche Design Launch Limited Edition
Smartphone. [online] Available at:
http://consumer.huawei.com/en/press/news/2016/hw-u-028337/ [Accessed 10 Dec.
2017].
Design Council. (2014). The Design Process: What is the Double Diamond?. [online]
Available at:
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond
[Accessed 9 Dec. 2017].
Designcouncil.org.uk. (n.d.). Eleven lessons: managing design in eleven global brands A
study of the design process. [online] Available at:
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/asset/document/ElevenLessons_Desi
gn_Council (2).pdf [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017].
E.huawei.com. (2017). Huawei's Universal Computing Gateway AR650 Wins “Good Design”
Award - Huawei News. [online] Available at:
http://e.huawei.com/us/news/global/2017/Huawei Universal Computing Gateway AR650
Wins Good Design Award [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017].
Ferrari Herrmann, E. (2016). Huawei's Product Manager explains the development process
of top smartphones - AndroidPIT. [online] AndroidPIT. Available at:
https://www.androidpit.com/huawei-product-manager-interview [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017].
32
HUAWEI. (2006). Huawei's Letter to Customers Regarding Change of Logo. [online]
Available at: http://www1.huawei.com/enapp/184/hw-089071.htm [Accessed 8 Dec.
2017].
Koen, P. (n.d.). Front End Innovation - What is the New Concept Development (NCD)
model?. [online] Frontendinnovation.com. Available at:
http://frontendinnovation.com/fei/what-is-the-new-concept-development-ncd-model
[Accessed 9 Dec. 2017].
LACOUVEE, D. (2015). Huawei's focus on design, making great products & 'true value' -
Interview with VP of Mobile Design, Joonsuh Kim. [online] Android Authority. Available at:
https://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-joonsuh-kim-design-true-value-interview-5842
34/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2017].
SOM. (2011). Shanghai Huawei Technologies Corporate Campus. [online] Available at:
http://www.som.com/projects/shanghai_huawei_technologies_corporate_campus
[Accessed 9 Dec. 2017].
tangerine. (n.d.). Design strategy for Huawei | mobile phones & devices. [online] Available
at: http://tangerine.net/our-work/design-strategy-huawei/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].
huawei. (2017). 2016 Annual Report. [online] Available at:
http://www.huawei.com/en/about-HUAWEI/annual-report/2016 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].
0
Appendix
Appendix 1: Assignment 1 - Design Management Practice & Theory – Design
Audit .................................................................................................................... 2
Challenge A ................................................................................................................ 2
Challenge B ................................................................................................................ 6
Challenge C .............................................................................................................. 10
Opportunities in which design projects in Huawei can be proposed ........................ 10
Design thinking opportunities that may lead to possible product design ................. 11
Identify the customer base ................................................................................. 16
Challenge D .............................................................................................................. 17
Identify the audience .......................................................................................... 17
Identify products designed for Audience .............................................................. 17
Challenge E .............................................................................................................. 25
Visual Image Design ........................................................................................... 25
Explore any other visual manifestations - eg digital.............................................. 27
Challenge F ............................................................................................................... 29
Use of similar words/themes to describe creativity ................................................ 29
Use of the Csikszentmilyi ‘Five Step Creative Process’ ........................................... 29
Challenge G .............................................................................................................. 33
Design Management guidelines within Huawei ..................................................... 33
People managing the design process in Huawei .................................................... 33
Pipe strategy of Huawei ...................................................................................... 34
CSR in Huawei .................................................................................................... 34
Challenge C-E Presentation Version ............................................................................ 39
Other relevant materials ............................................................................................ 48
Elements that can be applied into several design theory models: ........................... 48
TRUE VALUE OF HUAWEI DESIGN ................................................................ 48
Huawei’s R&D .............................................................................................. 50
DesignBoom ................................................................................................ 51
Interview towards the designers ................................................................... 51
1
Products evaluations of Huawei .................................................................... 51
Outcome ............................................................................................................ 52
Appendix 2: Tangerine - Design Strategy for Huawei ...................................... 53
Appendix 3 Detailed Model Analysis ................................................................. 56
HISTORY ........................................................................................................... 56
Design Theory Models for HUAWEI ...................................................................... 56
Double diamonds model ...................................................................................... 56
Discover ...................................................................................................... 57
Define ......................................................................................................... 57
Develop ....................................................................................................... 57
Delivery ....................................................................................................... 57
Information and Communications Technology Company: Huawei
2
Challenge A
3
4
5
6
Challenge B
7
8
9
10
Challenge C
Opportunities in which design projects in Huawei can be proposed
Vision and mission
We pride ourselves on our customer-centric approach, and strive to provide innovative
products and unparalleled services that benefit our customers.
➢ Customers and innovation
Huawei aims to become a strategic partner that assists carriers in future transformation
efforts, a leading enterprise ICT infrastructure provider, and a top smart device brand
that consumers prefer and trust.
➢ Future
Vision: To bridge the digital divide, promote harmony and sustainable development of
the economy, society, and environment.
Mission: To establish an excellent sustainable management system, operate strictly with
integrity and compliance, continuously improve the communication with stakeholders,
promote a harmonious business ecosystem, ensure the sustainable development of the
company and provide benefits to our customers and society.
Value Propositions
Information and communications technology is converging at an increasingly rapid pace.
New technologies, especially cloud computing and big data, are becoming key enablers
for ICT innovation and development. They are completely reshaping the CT industry, and
creating enormous business opportunities through IT and CT convergence. )
In response to revolutionarily technological changes, Huawei continues to innovate
around customer needs, focusing on the development of leading technology that meets
those needs. Through open partnerships, we focus on providing future-oriented
information pipes to build a Better Connected World and continuously create value for
customers and society.
11
In short, the value propositions of the company is that, based on rapid development of
Information and communications technology, especially cloud computing and big data,
HUAWEI respond agilely and continue to innovate around customer needs. Through open
partnerships, we focus on providing future-oriented information pipes to build a Better
Connected World and continuously create value for customers and society.
Summary:
Based on customers, society, world, innovation, future, sustainability
➢ Design how to connect the world
➢ Design the world/future
➢ Design is delicate and exquisite innovation with design thinking
Design thinking opportunities that may lead to possible product design
All markets begin in small niches, as mighty forests start with one tiny fertile seed. The
trick is to find and propagate niche markets in a timely manner.
Niche and design are usually related to each other since usually design elements are
needed for the minority, namely the niche market. “All markets begin in small niches, as
mighty forests start with one tiny fertile seed. The trick is to find and propagate niche
markets in a timely manner.” As a design marketing strategy stated in one of the
publication of HUAWEI, we can see its emphasis on niche. The company is focusing more
and more on niche market to expand the brand and the following are two good cases in
point.
Four steps in niche market exploration
1. First, seize every opportunity.
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2. The second method is to create something out of nothing.
3. The third method is to take over the market from competitors.
4. Where the competitor tries to satisfy consumers and they are not satisfied.
Design marketing strategy
Mainly focus on niche products and markets
Design some distinctive marketing policies to promote including selecting and creating
non-conventional channels and tailored marketing policies for target customer base.
Strategically, the first thing to do is occupy niche channels.
Scope Huawei
Size:
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Internal Scope: cover lots of related industry, from telecommunication, IT, smart
application, to information communication technology.
External Partners: All fields
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Financial aspect:
http://www.huawei.com/uk/about-huawei
Market share
Huawei has surpassed Apple as the world’s second largest smartphone brand
https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/vendor
Countries:
Our ICT solutions, products, and services are used in more than 170 countries and
regions, serving over one-third of the world's population.
Employees:
180,000
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Products:
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JEWEL Smartwatch
Made with Swarovski zirconia
Designed for women market
Niche products:
All markets begin in small niches, as mighty forests start with one tiny fertile seed. The
trick is to find and propagate niche markets in a timely manner.
Niche smart phone market
As a Chinese netizen pointed out on ZhiHu, one of the social media in China, “Apple and
Samsung are too expensive, HTC and Sony are better but they do not deserve the prices,
other cheaper brands do not have good quality… thus I chose HUAWEI, let alone I am a
Chinese.” Actually, it is true that HUAWEI has different models of phones that cover all
price levels, which will be shown afterwards in the segment part. “Affordable good quality
phone” is the first niche market for HUAWEI.
Niche smart watch market
HUAWEI released the Jewel premium smartwatch, made with Swarovski ZIRCONIA, on 5
January, 2016, which targeted the female market. Focusing on such a niche market, with
design elements based on the cooperation with other companies is also one of the
HUAWEI’S differentiated strategies.
Identify the customer base
Refer to chart as followed in “products designed for your audience”
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Challenge D
Identify the audience
Smartphone users, Especially Chinese
IT knowledge holder, who keep up with knowledge up to date
Companies, which need technology/information infrastructure
Evaluators of Chinese Business Growth (America banned local market from huawei)
Identify products designed for Audience
Potential
buyers
Smartphone users
Especially Chinese
Smart Applications
(more famous)
Companies which
need technology/information infrastructure
Information and
Communication
Technological products
Audience
IT knowledge holder
who keep up with knowledge up to date cutting-edge products
Evaluators of Chinese Business Growth
(America banned local market from huawei) International Products
The figure shows the revenue of different segments regarding to different products.
From Huawei Annual report 2016.
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Different series targeting to different groups
Specifically for phone products
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Identify Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and Behaviour of consumers
GEOGRAPHIC
Derived from the annual report of Huawei in 2017, the graph shows the major market of
Huawei is China, accounting for about 45.3% sales of the whole.
Reason & growth rate
Based on ongoing 4G network rollout, sustained growth in the smartphone sector, and
our growing capabilities in enterprise and industry solutions, Huawei earned CNY 236,512
million in revenue from the Chinese market, up 41.0% year-on-year.
Due in large part to network infrastructure build-out in markets like India and Thailand,
and growing share in the Japanese tablet market, Huawei maintained its growth
momentum in the Asia Pacific Region and achieved CNY 67,500 million in revenue, up
36.6% year-on-year.
Based in part on a growing share of the smartphone market, we earned CNY156,509
million in revenue from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), up 22.5% year-on-
year.
In the Americas, carriers in Mexico increased their investment in communications
networks, enabling Huawei to earn CNY 44,082 million in revenue from this region, up
13.3% over 2015.
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Phone usage of Huawei in different cities
From the perspective of cities’ scale, the customers of Huawei fall mainly in more
developed cities in China, for 41% in so-called “First-tier” cities, and 38% in the second.
In Chinese market, 1990’s generation is the majority of the customers, accounting for
about 60% of the population.
AGE <20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-49 >50
% of usage
of Huawei 30% 34% 4% 7% 2% 13% 9%
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Consumer power of customers between Samsung, Huawei and RED MI
There are more male consumers compared with female, respectively accounting for 58%
and 42%.
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In China, the majority of the users of Huawei Mate 9 is married and mostly has children,
the percentage of which highly excelled those of IPhone 7 and Samsung S7.
Huawei mate9 users are mainly males from 20-45.
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Psychographic
Behaviour of consumers
In terms of the use of application, the users
if Huawei prefer to use services for life,
accounting for 21% of the whole and
following are the system tools and reading
platform (news, information, book),
respectively reaching 12.9% and 12.2%.
Also, 9.8% and 7.6% people love to use it
to socialize Ana’s chat online as well as
streaming videos.
Unlisted Reference for Challenge C and D:
WEEK 5
http://www.huawei.com/uk/sustainability/management/manage_strategy
https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/12/5801266/huawei-america-ascend-mate2-
webstore-launch
http://www.huawei.com/en/publications/communicate/46/HW_087851
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/05/25/chinas-huawei-growing-up-to-
become-the-worlds-number-one-smartphone-brand/#17f778663adf
WEEK6
https://www.zhihu.com/question/56329033?sort=created
http://www.cctime.com/html/2016-9-2/1214347.htm
http://www.cbdio.com/BigData/2016-09/05/content_5234454.htm
http://www.chyxx.com/industry/201610/457336.html
http://djt.qq.com/article/view/1533
http://www.sohu.com/a/128738247_616330
http://www.cctime.com/html/2016-9-2/1214347.htm
Products’ prices of Huawei in UK store
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Challenge E
Visual Image Design
Name and Logo (Meaning and History)
1.http://logoshistory.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/huawei-logo-
history.html
principles of customer-focus
Innovation / steady /sustainable growth/harmony,
With the introduction of the new visual identity, Huawei will develop more steadily in an.
Customer-focus
The radiating shapes of the icon are focused on the bottom center and indicate Huawei's
commitment to creating long-term value for our customers based on our customer-
oriented strategy.
Innovation
Vivacious and contemporary
Steady-and-sustainable growth
A confident and optimistic symbol
Color: Red and white
Adopting a graduated tone while keeping symmetrical, the new logo looks more natural
and compatible, and acts as a metaphor for Huawei's open-minded attitude and
partnership strategy, indicating that Huawei will maintain its healthy growth and create a
harmonious business environment.
Huawei's Letter to Customers regarding change of Logo
http://www1.huawei.com/enapp/184/hw-089071.htm
Maintaining the original style of youthfulness and an enterprising spirit, the new logo
reflects Huawei's principles of customer focus, innovation, steady and sustainable growth,
and harmony, conveying Huawei's sincere commitment to our customers. We will
continue with our enterprising spirit, helping our customers realize their network
transformation, and launch more competitive services with our continuous innovation. We
will develop more steadily in an international and professional direction, focus
increasingly on our customers, and create a harmonious business environment by
working together with our customers, partners and peers.
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Historical Logo
https://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/huawei-2
The Norm
Refer to the brand guideline from 21 (7 / 175)
There is another article in Chinese explaining the meaning of the name and Logo of
Huawei.
Letterhead
Refer to the brand guideline 62 (48 / 175)
Printed Material
Refer to the brand guideline from 94 (80 / 175)
Packaging
lack
Advertising
Refer to the brand guideline from 113 (99 / 175)
Websites
Refer to the brand guideline from 136 (122 / 175)
Vehicles or uniforms
9.0 10.2
Signage
8.0
Immediate locality of its premises
where are these elements located
Buildings
https://www.maris-interiors.co.uk/work/huawei/
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Shanghai Huawei Technologies Corporate Campus
With more than 35,000 employees and a presence in more than 90 countries, Huawei
Technologies is one of the world’s leading telecommunications firms. To take advantage
of Shanghai’s valuable talent pool and neighboring universities, the company
commissioned SOM to design and build an expansive research and development campus
in the city’s emerging Pudong District.
The project features two parallel wings with offices and labs bridged by a central building
housing a conference room, a cafeteria, and administrative space. The technologically
advanced workplace fosters communication across different departments: Each wing
features a bamboo-filled galleria that spans its length, resulting in an open plan that
creates a sense of community, facilitates easy movement throughout the campus, and
allows for future flexibility,
The project also boasts a number of sustainable features. Lush wetlands provide flood
control and a strong connection to nature. A double-glazed curtain wall with solar louvers
provides natural light and serene views while reducing energy consumption.
http://www.som.com/projects/shanghai_huawei_technologies_corporate_campus
Details of the campus (Other’s audit)
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bPCtZ1vBZVQC&pg=PT663&lpg=PT663&dq=huaw
ei+design+building&source=bl&ots=diAJZEjqhQ&sig=QicbeZ3PhKViFSwyXJgbNSuLYFI&h
l=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC8OuAoLvXAhVII-
wKHcfeB_oQ6AEIbjAL#v=onepage&q=huawei%20design%20building&f=false
http://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/10-design-huawei-uae-headquarters
http://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/10-design-huawei-uae-headquarters
Offices
Retail showrooms
Exhibition
Explore any other visual manifestations - eg digital
Electronic
Website
Refer to the brand guideline
Others the English book which includes the development of Huawei
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xQC5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=huawei
+design+building&source=bl&ots=qW1BQAFQt3&sig=KhrD3-
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LODL5KzGvE_y8HaOMH4b8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC8OuAoLvXAhVII-
wKHcfeB_oQ6AEIdzAN#v=onepage&q=huawei%20design%20building&f=false
https://www.archdaily.com/777442/ennead-architects-design-huawei-research-center-in-
wuhan-china
https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/knowledge-exchange/collaboration-
industry/huawei/
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/huawei-adds-havas-london-global-creative-
roster/1380230
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Challenge F
Use of similar words/themes to describe creativity
Innovation
http://www.huawei.com/
en/events/hid2016/innov
ation-is-symmetry-with-
science
4th EUROPEAN
HUAWEI
INNOVATION DAY
Research and Development
Use of the Csikszentmilyi ‘Five Step Creative Process’
The Five Step Creative Process From ‘Design Management’ – Kathryn Best
The following shows how different process of design of Huawei products, including
Huawei P9, P10, Mate 9, Mate 10, Porsche Design series and Huawei smart watch, fit into
the Five Step Creative process.
1. Preparation
Immersion in a set of problematic issues that are interesting and arouse curiosity.
Potential customers’ demand identified and issue aroused
“We identified a new type of luxury consumer is emerging. One who needs a smartphone
that matches the special demands of their successful, global lifestyles,” said Richard Yu,
CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group.
“Porsche Design is synonymous with excellence in innovation, unique design and
perfection. The PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9 sets a new benchmark in design and
performance and delivers a revolutionary smartphone experience that will enhance even
the fastest-paced business and personal lifestyles.”
PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9 is the next step in Huawei’s strategy of collaborative
innovation and Porsche Design’s extension of the brand’s electronics category. By fusing
PORSCHE DESIGN’S style with Huawei’s engineering perfection and technical innovation,
the revolutionary limited edition PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9 is one of the most
finely crafted premium devices available to consumers.
http://consumer.huawei.com/en/press/news/2016/hw-u-028337/
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(See another product below.)
2. Incubation
Ideas are churned around, below the level of consciousness, and unusual connections are
My insight into Huawei's product strategy and its implementation on the ground has
shown me – at least in small batches – how the Chinese smartphone giant wants to
conquer the smartphone world; and probably can. Its recipe lies in intense market
observation. And with its 70,000-strong research department
3. Insight
Pieces of puzzle begin to fall into place.
Press Touch: Innovation with teething problems
A clear counterexample to the aforementioned number-safe strategy of innovation is
Press Touch. The technology allows multi-level sensitive touchscreens and requires
adjustments in the software interface. "We need even more features," said Sam. And if
that happens, we'll bring Press Touch to other devices. Unfortunately, Press Touch is
developed in isolation. From Google, there is no support.
This is irksome, and eventually Google could unify the feature at the system level for all
manufacturers; as we recently saw with the multi-window feature in Android N. Then app
developers could start to adapt apps for the new technology menus. The current support
of the Android system for Press Touch, or the like, tends to be low. So Huawei might
need to manipulate much of the proprietary code. And this maintenance affects system
updates.
4. Evaluation
Deciding which insight is most valuable and worth pursuing.
In conversation the previous day with Joonsuh Kim, Mobile Design Vice President of
Huawei Consumer Business, I learned that Huawei smartphones are the result of years of
research from the global team. In Japan, Europe, China and the United States Huawei
constantly analyzes what consumers want. The result of this research is flowing directly
into the P and Mate devices. These are tailored for the widest possible audience.
Sam assured me that 2K displays are less important than long battery life. And Huawei's
research showed that quick charging is less important than a metal unibody (of which,
nullifies wireless charging). Conversely, Sam promised, this also means that wireless
charging will be adopted by Huawei once the technology matures and the benefits are
greater for the customer.
It seemed to me that Huawei is taking a cautious approach to changes in its devices.
New technologies are only accepted reluctantly; Huawei often optimizes what the
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competition has already implemented. Huawei's strategy of reacting to trends is not
inconsistent with innovation, insists Sam.
5. Elaboration
Turning the insight into something real.
The development and design department is working on the new P and Mate models in
conjunction with a 15-month research and development venture. But after several
prototypes all those "features in which we are not quite sure" are abandoned, said Sam.
Design of Huawei PORSCHE MATE 9
The underlying philosophy for all Porsche Design products and also for the new PORSCHE
DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9 is to create an equilibrium of aesthetics and function. Those
values stem from the design philosophy of Porsche Design’s founder - Professor
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche – who designed the legendary Porsche 911 in 1963.
PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9 features seamless curved edges, a graphite finish and
stylish black coloring combined with the latest technology. This is perfectly
complemented ‘under the hood’ by a unique, intuitive user interface that exudes
sophistication thanks to Porsche Design’s signature design language. With a shared
commitment to functional design, innovative craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology,
the collaboration delivers highly discerning customers an unrivalled, premium smartphone
experience; with revolutionary speed, extensive battery life and luxurious design cues.
PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate 9 key features include:
Highest performance
Great experience
For the ambitious business traveler
Enough battery to fly around the world
The best shot
The second generation dual lens camera
“Huawei’s brand ethos mirrors our own commitment to premium innovation and
functional design so we are delighted to partner with Huawei to bring high-performance
individuals the smartphone that they demand, and deserve, says Dr. Jan Becker, COO
and spokesperson of the Management Board of Porsche Design Group. “The DNA of our
brand is reflected in the device’s signature Porsche Design, giving consumers a
smartphone that is as beautiful to hold, as it is to use.”
HUAWEI P10 DESIGN
‘as culture and technology continue to intersect in every aspect of our world, we want to
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deliver new products and experiences that ultimately improve and enhance life,’ said
Richard yu, CEO, Huawei consumer business group. ‘our impressive new Huawei p10 and
Huawei p10 plus weave together the exceptional imaging capabilities of Leica and our
stand-out design and hardware innovations to bring users a powerful device experience.’
https://www.designboom.com/technology/huawei-p10-pantone-greenery-smartphone-
mobile-world-congress-02-27-2017/
Huawei’s design language- performance (from gateway AR650)
Design language
The design language for HUAWEI is performance, which was shown from the design
process of Gateway AR650, the winner of Japan's Good Design Award. It is the next
generation image of HUAWEI's access router, using the brand's new device design
language, emphasizing "performance", with simple, pure black box weakened "shape",
but the use of red lines and corporate logo to maintain consistency. (E.HUAWEI.com,
2017)
Huawei's Product Manager explains the development process of top smartphone
(Huawei P9)
https://www.androidpit.com/huawei-product-manager-interview
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Challenge G
To take Joonsuh Kim as an example, he is not just in charge of design but he overlooks
every product of HUAWEI. Kim joined the company in late 2012, prior to holding the
position of Design Director at Samsung Mobile for the majority of the late 2000’s. He
holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute in New York, and
achieved his Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design from Hongik University in Seoul,
Korea.
Mathieu Lehanneur, Chief Designer of Huawei, is another designer who manages the
design process for Huawei. His creative’s role will lead Huawei’s aesthetics research
centre (ARC) in Paris. ARC’s purpose is to creatively, aesthetically and strategically
stimulate the conglomerate’s engineers and designers as a whole to adapt the group’s
vast technological expertise — more than 2000 patent applications per year — towards
the progression and aspirations of its users. (Chin, 2017)
Design Management guidelines within Huawei
This may take the form of guidelines, design manuals and staff information.
People managing the design process in Huawei
Mathieu lehanneur
Huawei gave design an important role during the innovation event. The company's Chief
Designer, Mathieu Lehanneur, described Huawei's investment in product design,
particularly for consumer products such as phones and watches. Along these lines,
Huawei has a partnership with iconic camera maker, Leica, to enhance the camera
capabilities of its smartphones. The new P9 phone has received excellent reviews for its
camera. A senior executive from Leica told me that both the camera hardware and
software are a collaboration between the two companies.
Other design groups
Tangerine
Design strategy of huawei tangerin
http://tangerine.net/our-work/design-strategy-huawei/
http://tangerine.net/our-approach/
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Pipe strategy of Huawei
http://www.zdnet.com/article/huawei-talks-innovation-design-customer-success-and-5g-
wireless/
CSR in Huawei
CSR Rating of Huawei
Environment is the best and the employee is the worst.
CSR (the whole company in the world)
http://www-file.huawei.com/-/media/CORPORATE/PDF/Sustainability/2016-Huawei-
sustainability-report-en-v2.pdf?la=en
CSR Report 2016
Overview of Huawei's Sustainability Initiatives in 2016
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CSR in Switzerland
Education
Huawei student programme Global ICT Programme
In order to promote young talents development and ICT education, Huawei has set up an
undergraduate student programme at the beginning of 2014.
Every year selected students from seven Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences of
different language regions (FHNW North West Switzerland, HSLU Lucerne, HES-SO
Geneva, BFH Bern, FHSG St. Gallen, ZHAW Zurich and SUPSI in the Italian speaking part
of Switzerland) are given a 10-days training opportunity in Huawei headquarters in
Shenzhen and Beijing or Shanghai.
During their training the students attend lectures about HR management within Huawei,
about intellectual property rights and about the development of the upcoming
technologies; they can also participate to a workshop on Huawei “Cloud-pipe-device
strategy” and visit both R&D centers as well as the production plant. Huawei experts take
time to answer all of the students' questions and support them in their project work that
has been assigned by their universities.
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Local projects
Climbing rock
Huawei Switzerland is committed to the local community and to show that “we are here
to stay and contribute”, in 2010 has donated a climbing rock for the Liebefeld Park, in the
community of Köniz.
Summer Kids Camp
Since 2015 Huawei is supporting the community of Dübendorf to set up their yearly
Summer Kids Camp, where kids can do sports and recreational activities during the
summer holidays, under professional care.
Child and youth support
creaTiV!
From September 2011 to end of 2014 Huawei Switzerland sponsored the creaTiV! project
initiated by the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.
It is a platform for young people aged 13 to 18 years old who want to translate their
ideas into animated pictures, so they will learn various design techniques and create their
own animated films, video works and multimedia animations. The project can be seen as
a successful experiment of exemplarily connecting art and new media.
KiBuK festival
In September 2015 Huawei Switzerland sponsored the 6th edition of KiBuK book festival
in Köniz. It’s the only event of this kind in Switzerland and wants to give kids, young
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people and families desire to tell stories, to read and to get to know literature. In order to
get kids to know some Chinese culture, a workshop has been set up to bring Chinese
characters in an entertaining way.
The combination of Chinese characters and techonology
Huawei and Founder Group jointly initiate “Plan to protect Chinese Character”
http://www.designboom.cn/news/show.php/itemid-12773/
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Challenge C-E Presentation Version
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
Other relevant materials
Elements that can be applied into several design theory models:
TRUE VALUE OF HUAWEI DESIGN
Huawei’s focus on design, making great products & ‘true value’ – Interview with VP of
Mobile Design, Joonsuh Kim
Huawei’s Mobile Design Vice President Joonsuh Kim spoke to us about Huawei’s vision,
inspiration and what the company has planned for the future. Kim isn’t just in charge of
design. He overlooks every product that the company sells, whether it’s the Huawei or
their Honor brand.
Kim joined the company in late 2012, prior to holding the position of Design Director at
Samsung Mobile for the majority of the late 2000’s. He holds a Master’s Degree in
Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute in New York, and achieved his Bachelor’s
Degree in Industrial Design from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea.
VISION
Two years before Huawei, many people might have laughed at our vision. It was
aggressive, and forced us to make big changes very quickly in the company.
Huawei’s vision is to create genuinely great-performing products that not only satisfy the
user from a performance and design standpoint, but smartphones that can be offered at
an affordable price point. They call this mindset true value, and it’s another theme you’ll
be hearing quite a bit from the company going forward.
INSPIRATION
We can find out more about HUAWEI’s effort to be International Designed. They want to
appeal to the rest of the world as an OEM from China, rather than a Chinese OEM. To
accomplish this, HUAWEI has also set up offices around the world that aim to draw
inspiration from different regions. They have offices in China, Korea, Western Europe and
in emerging markets to draw inspiration. Even in the U.S, where HUAWEI is relatively
unknown, they are, however, working with certain US carriers to bring more innovative
products to the United States, so it’s clear that HUAWEI is active in their global design
research. The office in Paris is referred to as their “aesthetic design centre”, where they
consult with the design and fashion industries and follow trends in the fashion world.
Based on their feedback, they develop new goals every year to work towards in the
design space. (LACOUVEE, 2015) This also demonstrates the “iterative” part revolves
around the innovative process.
Simply put, Huawei strives to be a smartphone manufacturer that can sell their products
globally without a problem. They don’t want to be marketed as a manufacturer that
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represents China. Not because they’re ashamed for any reason, but because they want to
appeal to the rest of the world as an OEM from China, not a Chinese OEM. To accomplish
this, Huawei has set up offices around the world that aim to draw inspiration from
different regions. They have offices in China, Korea, Western Europe and in emerging
markets to draw inspiration. In terms of marketshare, the company is relatively unknown
in the US. They are, however, working with certain US carriers to bring more innovative
products to the United States, so it’s clear that Huawei is active in their global design
research.
They also have an office in Paris which they refer to as their “aesthetic design center”,
where they consult with the design and fashion industries and follow trends in the
fashion world. Based on their feedback, they develop new goals every year to work
towards in the design space.
Kim explains where the inspiration comes from for the company’s P Series:
When you see a car passing by out of the corner of your eye, you can easily recognize
that it was either a BMW or a Mercedes. In a way, that's what we're attempting to do
with our devices.
He goes on to say that these days, so many companies are incorporating metal materials
into their designs. While it’s important to incorporate new materials into design, they’re
still thinking of ways to innovate with plastic, and how it can be more functional and
beautiful.
For the company’s flagship line, they tend to use neutral colors – something that will be
inviting to the user – but still built in a way that stands out. Relating to users is what the
company is all about. Building an emotional connection with the user will help build the
consumer base faster than anything.
TRUE VALUE
Perhaps the most prominent aspect of the presentation is the ‘true value’ theme.
Huawei’s constantly thinking of how exactly they can build beautiful devices and still keep
them at affordable price points, which is what true value is all about. Building a
smartphone with the best specifications on the market isn’t what they’re striving for.
Building a quality smartphone with an astounding user experience, while still being
offered at an aggressive price point is the main focus.
In our interview with Mr. Shao Yang, Huawei’s Vice President of Marketing, he explains
this in greater detail. When asked about Apple’s rise in the Chinese market and how
Huawei will rival them, Yang explains:
Huawei isn’t solely a low-cost device company. With that said, we put a lot of research
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into making our product the best, rather than the ‘most premium’. If we go head-on with
a company like that in the high-end market, we will lose… What kind of quality do
consumers expect for a certain price point? That’s a question we ask ourselves often.
This mindset is how the company plans to differentiate themselves from the other OEMs
on the market. They obviously don’t have as much money as Apple or Samsung, so they
focus on other aspects that are important to users. One example is that they focus on
closing the gap between themselves and consumers by offering inexpensive devices
directly through their online store. If Huawei can dial in on this idea, they believe that
they can truly go far in the global market.
HUAWEI IN THE FUTURE
Aside from focusing on online sales and true value, Huawei aims to bring a certain design
language to their upcoming flagship devices, while still differentiating between the two
brands that they’ve worked so hard to build up.
Kim tells us that smartphones under the name Huawei are meant to act as the company’s
flagship products. Devices that have top-of-the-line specifications and are generally more
premium fit into this category. On the other hand, the company’s Honor brand is meant
to appeal more to young consumers. Devices that are more affordable, and therefore
accessible but don’t skimp on the goods will carry the Honor brand name.
Huawei will keep these brands separate going forward. In order to stop the two brands
from competing with one another, they’ll continue to differentiate these two by offering
different design languages, different features and different price points.
Perhaps Huawei is on to something with their idea of true value. Shipments for the Honor
brand jumped from 1 million to 20 million worldwide in 2014 alone. What’s more, the
company’s overall smartphone sales grew by a massive 33% just last year. As you can
see, it’s clear that the company has a good set of ideals that are already showing some
positive results. And whether these standards finally break them into the US smartphone
market or not, Kim’s design values and goals will keep making Huawei a big player in the
global market.
Porsche design
Huawei’s R&D
That partnership with Leica is a case in point. Meanwhile an innovations centre in
Germany, where Huawei partners with local universities, a European Research Institute in
based in Leuven in Belgium, a design centre in Paris, a software design centre on the
west coast of the US, and a UK 5G cenre in partnership with Surrey University, have
allowed it to "develop a whole ecosystem for smartphone tech".
Read more at https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/huaweis-cmo-power-collaboration-
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need-amplify-brand/1445645#IEE1zF6zeyk5LFZI.99
DesignBoom
https://www.designboom.com/technology/huawei-p10-pantone-greenery-smartphone-
mobile-world-congress-02-27-2017/
Design boom wrote a lot about Huawei in their design project.
Interview towards the designers
http://meia.me/course/168764
http://life.haibao.com/article/2152206.htm
http://www.sohu.com/a/38566733_106310
http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2016-10-11/doc-ifxwrapv1342493.shtml
Products evaluations of Huawei
http://www.chinaz.com/mobile/2017/1031/822807.shtml
https://www.porsche-design.com/index.php?lang=1
Porsche design
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/02/huawei-mate-10-pro-review-two-
day-battery-life-dual-cameras-android
youtube vedio design process of huawei P 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS_5-H6kB_g
LOTS OF LATEST TREND WITH DESIGN
Design is Becoming a New Team Sport
http://e.huawei.com/en/publications/global/ict_insights/201701051027/ecosystem/20170
1051652
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Huawei's Product Manager explains the development process of top smartphones
https://www.androidpit.com/huawei-product-manager-interview
Ennead design
https://www.archdaily.cn/cn/777607/ennead-jian-zhu-shi-wu-suo-zai-she-ji-liao-wei-yu-
zhong-guo-wu-yi-de-hua-wei-yan-jiu-zhong-xin
Outcome
IF Ranking
https://ifworlddesignguide.com/profile/2715-huawei-technologies
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Appendix 2: Tangerine - Design Strategy for Huawei
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Appendix 3 Detailed Model Analysis
HISTORY
The exploration of the design process began to be taken seriously in the work of the
Bauhaus in the early 20th century. Experts of this field kept on formulating models that
could be adopted by companies when it comes to design. In the earliest time, we had
Bruce Archer’s theory model of design process and Brian Lawson with his linear format,
which more stepped into the genre of science. After that, researchers focused more on
iteration, which was shown both in The Design Core of Stuart Pugh, Internal and External
Creative Process of Design by Cooper, Press and Walker, which takes the external trends
and trend into consideration. With the development of technology and combination of
design and big data, contemporary models today are more complex and have more
layers, such as Nigel Cross’s Engineer Design Methods, Clarkson and Eckert’s Constraints
and Drivers Analysis, Double Diamond Model by Design Council as well as The New
Concept Development Model.
Design Theory Models for HUAWEI
These models shared some commonalities though different design specialism has a
different approach and way of working, thus when you come to a specific company, it is
difficult to tell which model they are using but it must go through most of the creative
process, namely the similarity between these models. Specifically in HUAWEI, their
design process can be mostly fit in the contemporary models with the use of creative
thinking in all aspects. Furthermore, they commissioned some design companies, which
has their own models in design process, and a good case in point is the Design Group
Tangerine and their design model, which will be analyzed in the following parts.
Double diamonds model
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Designers across disciplines share strikingly similar approaches to the creative process,
which the Design Council Group mapped out as ‘the Double Diamond’. (Design Council,
2014) Bascally speaking, the model devides design process into four distinct phases –
Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.
The diamond shape stands for the process that poossible ideas are refined and narrowing
down from “divergent thinking” to “convergent thinking”, and “Double” indicates that this
happens twice – once to confirm the problem definition and once to create the solution.
The left-hand diamond is often omited thus it leads to solution to the wrong problem.
The creative process named iterative, revolves among these four steps in order to get the
best idea.
Practical design methods – like user diaries, journey mapping and character profiles –
move a project through the four phases of the Double Diamond. (Design Council, 2014)
Discover
Discover is the first stage of design, which would be and essential part of design and will
be analysed more in the next model, the NDC Model. This stage aims at taking into
account new information, user needs, competitive contexts or challenges that arise as the
project progresses, and mainly it is about information collecting, researching and data
analyzing. In this section, new things are noticed and insights are gathered.
Define
This is the definition stage, through review, analysis and selection of ideas, the best
findings from the first stage are analysed, defined and refined as problems, and ideas for
solutions are pitched and prototyped. In short, it ends with a clear definition of the
problems and solutions to address this through a design-led product or service, which in
practice is a project go-ahead through corporate level sign-off.
Develop
The solutions or concepts are created, prototyped, tested and iterated in the third
quarter. Trials and errors help to improve and refine their ideas.
Delivery
The last stage is the delivery stage, where the resulting project is finalised, produced and
launched. It includes processes for feeding back lessons from the full design process to
inform future projects, including methods, ways of working and relevant information.
(Designcouncil.org.uk, n.d.)
