146 - Using Design To Improve Business

What this episode covers

How do you use design to improve your business? Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED Music and links from this episode World Take by Drake Stafford All Your Organs Get A Laugh by Mystery Mammal Good Grief by Mystery Mammal Line-by-line notes After my last couple of episodes about politics I’m leaving all that alone for a couple of episodes now And I’m going to return to talking about some less controversial topics Although…some people might see this one as a bit controversial Especially if you’re in business And you don’t really appreciate the value of design and design thinking By the end of this episode, I think you might appreciate design a little bit more Today I’m talking about how design can improve businesses And the power that having a design first mentality can bring This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess MUSIC I’m going to start with a really overworked example of how design is used in business But as much as it’s overworked, and overused to explain how powerful design and business can be It’s a great example Throughout the years, there’s been lots of businesses that have put design at the heart of their company, and made a lot of money from it Think Braun, Dyson, Airbnb, and the king of it all, Apple Apple is the example I want to start with But first, let me explain what I mean by a business that puts design first Essentially, they design amazing products, be them digital or physical, and spend all their effort designing those products Or at least, outwardly to the public they appear to be doing this They value design inside their business above almost everything else And no how valuable a well-designed product is To return to the Apple example Think about the difference between a £300 Windows laptop, and a £1200 MacBook The Windows laptop will feel cheap, usually made of plastic It’ll start breaking away almost as soon as you buy it And it’ll be full of bloatware and software you just don’t need Compare that with the MacBook As soon a you see the packaging, you know it’s a quality product Apple even spend stupid amounts of care and attention on their packaging, to give you the exact impression they want you to feel Quality And then when you open it up, and feel that MacBook, you know you’re handling a quality product It’s made of aluminium, feels premium, and you instantly know you’ve made the right choice Even when you boot up the MacBook for the first time, the software is easy to use It’s clean, functional, and guides you through the entire process This has all come about because Apple care about the entire design experience They care about designing and manufacturing really good products, and it shows in everything they do And that’s because they value design above everything else They value profits too, which is why they’re one of the largest companies in the world in terms of money made each year But even if you don’t like Apple, and you hate their laptops and their phones and their stupid watches, you can’t deny they’re well-designed products Jony Ive clearly has always wanted to leave a legacy around his products And you get the impression that their current range of products will be looked back on in 20 years by product designers and still admired Just like the original iMac is today And other design-led companies are just like this too Look at Dyson James Dyson and everybody else at Dyson is utterly focused on making the best products possible, just like Apple Even if you don’t buy one of their vacuum cleaners, fans or desk lights, you look at them and they’re just damn cool You know they’re products that are at the top of their game And one of the major advantages of all this design led thinking, and trying to produce the best products you can Is that it makes your company unique in your marketplace, even if you’re making the same things as everybody else And also… you make more money. Apple, Dyson, Braun… none of their products