brand driven innovation

13 – working with design strategy tools

Purpose
This exercise challenges you to play around with the different design strategy tools detailed in this chapter 5 of the book, in order to discover how they work in practice and what their value might be in strategic design projects.

see page 161 of BDI.

Required
Two people, a roll of plain wallpaper, black, green and red felt pens, post-it notes and some time.

step 1
Pick an experience with a product or service you’ve had lately that you would like to work on as a design strategist. Choose one that includes a considerable span of the consumer journey, for example, booking and going on a holiday.

step 2
Take turns in telling your partner about the experience in as much detail as possible, and don’t leave out your personal emotions during different stages of the experience.

step 3
Take about three metres of wallpaper and hang it on the wall, horizontally, one for each experience. Define the different steps in time that created the
experience. Write each step on a post-it, and map them on the wallpaper. You’ve just created a consumer journey map!

step 4
Go over each step and analyse to what extent it was branded. Was the step unique to the brand, and did it reflect what the brand stands for? Was design used to reflect the brand and bring it to life?

step 5
Take the black felt pen and write under each post-it what the design objective of each step may have been. For example, when you booked the vacation, at some point you consulted a Lonely Planet travel guide for your destination. Its design objective was to give you up-to-date inside information. Later on, you may have looked for images of your destination on Flickr. Its design objective was to inspire you and help you find what you were looking for.

step 6
Then, under each step, write which design functions were used intensively (in green), and which weren’t but should have been (in red), based on the table on page 141 in the book. For example, the check-in at the airport was designed well in terms of aesthetics, but the queueing and waiting and dealing with paper forms was quite old-fashioned: it could have used a bit more design as innovation.

step 7
Next, under each step, write which design disciplines were used intensively (in green), and which weren’t but should have been (in red). For example, a lot of attention had been paid to the architecture of the holiday resort, but the service provided by the personnel was poor.

step 8
Under each step, write which design layers were used intensively (in green), and which weren’t but should have been (in red); e.g. the rental car office’s interior looked outdated but interaction with the staff was very efficient. Go over both wallpapers and marvel at the complexity of the design: do you see how building a solid design strategy would have created a more rewarding experience? How would you help the organisation behind your experience develop a design strategy?

Upload a photo of your wallpaper and your comments underneath. I can’t wait to see what you’ve made of this exercise!

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Group 14

In the picture next here, our total wallpaper is shown, which also includes the different touchpoints that will be described in chapter 6. We picked one experience, and that was visiting the cinema. With diminishing customer amounts, this is a interesting and strategic experience to pick.

In the journey map we discussed the selecting of a cinema and movie, the buying of a ticket, the entering of the cinema, the buying of food, watching the movie and leaving the cinema. Almost every design discipline was present, but on the contrary not all design layers were present. Many things lacked for example meaning. These were some points which in our opinion desire some attention:
- The price of food and drinks is very high, and especially when there is a supermarket near, people tend to buy food and drinks over there. A price can be high, but the delivered value, service and meaning is not in balance with the price. There are a few cinema’s for example that allow customers to order food or drinks when they are watching the movie, and it is being delivered to their seats.
- While the use of adverts and trailers might be a good way to earn extra money or to introduce people to new movies, it is not always clear what is it’s meaning, and it often does not add value to the brand experience of the cinema or the perception of the quality of the service.
- There is one brand cinema which is larger, Pathe, but still there is a low level of brand experience, and although the brand itself is communicated mainly through communication design and environmental design, many people don’t see they are going to ‘Pathe for example. Instead, they say they are going to the cinema.
- For many people going to the cinema is going out with friends, but the experience in the large cinema halls conflicts with that, because you have limited social freedom as a group.
- In France for example, going to the cinema is really more an happening, it is more a show and experience. They have star and sun like lights in the ceiling, starting and ending music, the movie screen folds out when the movie start. The cinema experience in holland is more a commodity, 3d and IMAX add some experience, but still it is not a ‘big show’ experience.
By improving the service and experience, a trip to the cinema can be enhanced a lot. As a conclusion, we can say that creating a customer journey reveals where your brand is having less or to little impact on the user or customer, and where some bottlenecks in your brand might be (the cinema example made clear that by making a customer journey map you identify elements where you can easily make the (brand-)experience for the customer better!

Oct 20, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
leCON7

In this section we describe two customer journeys for two different brands: Wehkamp (online shop) and Kodak disposable camera.

1. THE WEHKAMP ONLINE STORE
The Wehkamp experience started with a need, a present had to be bought and physical stores were closed. The potential client logged on to web and browsed through various sites that could satisfy the required need. She compared three stores and also found out Wehkamp was the third largest hit on google, then she decided to check the “offers and conditions” and found out it satisfied her required conditions of ease of purchase and time constraints. She ordered the product two days later, got a confirmation which also served as a source of confidence and got her delivery on time. For this experience, the unique thing about the brand was the ability to deliver on time and the option to skip ‘making an account’ before a purchase is made. The design objective of Wehkamp under the “check offers and conditions” on the site was to convince potential clients to buy at Wehkamp. Also, customers were given the luxury of selecting their delivery time. this action generated customer satisfaction.

OUR ADVISE
The Wehkamp brand promises are: current (actueel), surprising (verrassend), willful (eigenzinnig), and involved (betrokken). In a few steps in the customer journey these brand promises can be found, but not in all of the steps and not at all in all 4 of them in any single step. A lot of design attention is paid to the part that the customer is really on their website and selecting and buying a product, but We are not sure that it really stands out for other stores; just their delivery time is much shorter than other stores. Not a lot of attention is paid to the other parts of the customer journey. We think that is because the company does not yet realize that these parts are important steps for a customer as well. Maybe the company does realize it but has not yet adapted to this strategy.
Our advice is to make sure that the company stands out with their strengths compared to other stores, and makes sure they are more visible on the internet. The overall experience with the Wehkamp brand is that is was very easy and quick, but not very personal. The user felt more like a number than a respected client, because of that she will not be tied to this particular store and will probably not be purchased here again. Especially after the purchase no more attention was paid at the customer. We would advice to give the costumers some more designed attention after purchase.
On the other hand, what we did realize is that the advertisement on my personal Google and Facebook, is of this particular company. This could have been a designed part of the customer journey, to impose a repurchase.

2. KODAK DISPOSABLE CAMERA
The customer journey for the Kodak disposable camera experience started with the need of the customer for such a product. In this case the customer wants to go to a concert and be able to take pictures in an easy and cheap way with a reasonable quality, and in this way not taking the risk to use an expensive camera that can be stolen or broken. The design objective of Kodak was to produce a reasonable quality camera which could still deliver the same feeling and satisfaction of the Kodak brand for a low price.

Kodak “single use cameras” range from 5 to 50 dollars (very cheap) and the user can take 27 shots with a flash. As Kodak is a well known brand, the customer thought about buying a disposable camera of this brand first because he thought the quality would be relatively good. Following his previous experiences he started looking where to find such a camera on internet and the specific store to go. Kodak has an online shop where 5 different disposable cameras can be found providing “A fun and easy way to capture memories” and also a searching option to look for specific stores in a city. In this case the design function is to communicate the right story to the right people, fulfilling the brand promise about offering and easy way to take pictures.

The customer used the camera at the concert and was able to capture specific moments to remember; Kodak must design not only a practical product which is easy to use, but also coherent with the specific experience of the user, in this case a concert but the product needs to be fit for any situation where a person need a disposable camera. Once the concert ended the next step was to develop and print the pictures, which can be done in any photo store, the design function of Kodak is to make plans and ideas in a concrete and tangible way for the user of the camera. Once the customer has the pictures printed, he can enjoy the pictures, this creates a connection with the brand when the customer is satisfied with the quality.

Even getting rid of the camera has a strong connection with the brand, currently Kodak has a “camera recycling program” that works with photofinishing outlets to return used cameras to Kodak sorting centers, where they are then routed for recycling. Nearly every piece of the camera is either recycled or reused in the ongoing production of more Single Use Cameras, bringing down costs for consumers and keeping huge amounts of waste out of landfills. Advertisements of this programme are in the webpage of Kodak, this strategy enhances the empathy for the brand and also stands as a unique selling point.

OUR ADVICE
The customer journey can be improved by Kodak providing more information about in which specific moment can a person use a disposable camera (this information was not available at the web page) than creating the connection between the customer and the need.

Oct 27, 2011 @ 12:17 pm
6MINUS1

Turning your vision into design is the power behind brand driven innovation, HP shows itself with the slogan “the computer is personal again” as a company that provides the individual user with every he wants and needs. The end user has expectations all over, but we fulfil every single one. To turn this vision into design every design discipline must be worked out. To successfully work this out a strong visionary shared-brand platform must be created and this vision must be shared within every design discipline. The innovation strategy must be clear and workable for every employee within HP. Every part that is designed must add to the value of the product. But value, as stated in their slogan, changes from user to user. What is needed to be successful in this strategy?

You can see that the example of buying a printer touches all design disciplines. Where does the design strategy of a company stop? Looking back at our example you can see that it includes the entire life cycle of a product. Addressing every design discipline creates the experience of buying a brand. A successful cooperation of every strategy guides the customer from the first orientation phase till the phase in which the product is part of his daily life. This exercise showed us the large convergence of a brand-driven design strategy. It even includes design for the moment another design discipline fails. Every design discipline is an addition for another discipline but also a back-up plan. They are covering each other. For example the importance of communication design when the product design fails to fulfil the user’s expectations.
Holistic brand design is the keyword in this life cycle of a product. Every aspect needs to be addressed to create the best brand value for a user. But the point you lose the grip on the brand experience is also a tricky point is this exercise.
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/p. 161 working with design strategy tools.jpg[/img]

People will buy ‘your’ products in independent retail environments. Stores that have nothing to do with your brand experience, and just want to sell as much products as possible, without any brand preferences. How do you transfer your brand-driven design strategy to this environment as well?
I think HP did a great job with their subscribe-and-return-money-policy. They create a customer-brand-communication moment and connect the brand to the customer with a discount. Their communication and service design fill the gap of the independent retailer because they supply everything to bring the customer in direct contact with the brand again.

This shows the importance of a holistic design approach that needs to be part of a brand-driven design strategy. It is much broader that just product innovation.

Oct 28, 2011 @ 2:02 pm
Paradox 20

For this exercise we decided to do the consumer journey on the experience of buying the BRAND-DRIVEN INNOVATION book, written by Erik Roscam Abbing and required for our course here at TU Delft for the class BRAND AND PRODUCT STRATEGY.

We started discussing our different experiences on how we bought the book, appointing the different steps we faced during our individual process, and we came up with the consumer journey attached to our comments. We defined thirteen fixed steps, three conditional steps and two consequential steps. All this involved four different brands and two different possible directions to take in the process of buying the book.

After finishing the book’s consumer journey we found out the following:

• Some product journeys are multi-branded, depending on the buying experience. In this particular case we determined that they are four different brands involved in the process: the BRAND-DRIVEN INNOVTION book (Erik Roscam Abbing), the Waltman store, bookdepository.com and Post NL. All of them being part of the costumer experience.
• Because of this, the integration or bridging between the brands can ruin the brand experience of the BDI book. This means that one brand depends on others to fulfill their promise and the costumer expectations. In this case, the BDI book brand depends on three other brands that make part of the process. An example of this is the Post NL: If Post NL decides to deliver the book late or have a delay, the costumer would relate this bad experience with the BDI book and bookdepository.com, even if it is not their fault.
• The only way to control the buyers experience is by controlling the whole costumer journey experience. Meaning that if the only brand involved in the sale of the book where BRAND-DRIVEN INNOVATION book itself, it would be easier to provide a good Strategy for the experience. But the problem is that this is really hard to do, and it might not be possible for the BRAND-DRIVEN INNOVTION brand. But we believe, that the more control the brand have over the product journey, the better experience can be deliver.
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/Top 1.JPG[/img]
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/Top 2.JPG[/img]
By doing this assignment we notice the importance of joining different departments of the company, noticing how multiple approaches should be consider in the different steps on the consumer journey. We also consider really important to be built connections with other companies to create a good experience to your costumers making your brand promise deliver.

Oct 29, 2011 @ 2:26 pm
Group 13 - Paper Planes

The experience that we choose for this exercise is buying dinner at McDonalds. We mapped out the consumer journey of someone who undergoes this experience. For this, we divided this consumer journey in different steps. First the consumer makes the decision whether he/she wants to go to McDonalds or not. From this point, we realized that McDonalds user are rarely planning the decision to go there in advance. For instance, when you sit at home with your friends and you decide to have dinner outdoors, you would not quickly decide to go to a place like McDonalds to eat. The main characteristics which makes the company suitable for lunch or dinner are: fast delivery food and accessible location in city centres, shopping malls, etc. Thus, this situation makes that most of the users decide spontaneously while another activity is carried out. We think that people for example are shopping in a city and when they spot a fast-food restaurant they decide to go inside there. So it’s less a planned activity but more a spontaneous one.

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/2011-11-01 13.22.39.jpg[/img]

The step after making this decision is to locate the nearest McDonalds restaurant. The McDonalds restaurants are usually placed at top-locations and easy recognisable by the used architecture, colouring and the well-known towers with ‘M’ on top of it. Obviously the next steps are entering the actual restaurant and pick a line for a cashier to order, pay and receive the food. After eating the food they will have to clean up their own stuff before they will leave the restaurant.

Analysing the customer journey, we also saw that there was a lack of user understanding when all the users had to line in the same queue although they had two different goals. The first one is when users already know what they want and they can pay with pin/credit card. The second one belongs to people which are deciding which food they will order while queuing.

One of our suggestions would be to have separate lines depending on some characteristics. For instance, credit card line, group line, etc. However, later on we discovered that in some countries (e.g. Spain) the company already has some check-out machines where people can order faster and an alternative faster line is used for this purpose. Thus, it is clear that the strategy department of McDonalds also have mapped out the customer journey. Otherwise, they would not have implemented this fast check-out in some of their shops.

One other thing we noted and discussed is the fact that customers have to clean up their own trays with trash. We thought that maybe McDonalds can get rid of the trays as well because they have to wash them (extra effort and costs for them). It could be an option if the tray itself was also disposable or if the food in general was delivered with different packaging that would make the tray redundant.

Nov 01, 2011 @ 2:35 pm
Team Coffee-break

Brands are almost like living entities. They have real relationships with their customers. As a customer comes in contact with the various touch-points that relationship is strengthened or weakened based on the experience at the touch-point. In the current fiercely competitive market scenario, it is more important than ever before to maintain relationship with the customer. And this underlines the importance of solid design strategy. But, incidentally the two brands that we chose throw some interesting anomalies (which are explained below)!!

We chose to analyse two brands – IKEA and Turkish Airlines. IKEA is a world famous brand, and Turkish Airlines is fast becoming one. Does this imply that they have the best brand experience at all the touch-points? Certainly not.

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/Ikea smal.jpg[/img]
Consider Ikea. Many people don’t like (or even hate) the long queue, the crowded in-store environment and the ‘Do it Yourself’ service. Yet they love IKEA and return to it again and again, which is intriguing! We could have easily suggested a more holistic design strategy. But we decided to do some research in order to unravel the paradox. We stumbled upon a new concept called – ‘Branded Experience’. A branded experience is not necessarily a great experience at all touch-points. On the contrary, a branded experience requires you to allocate your limited resources to create significant pleasure peaks (those that perform way above the average, such as product and price) and limit “pain” to an acceptable level.
It’s not hard to understand the philosophy behind IKEA. To get quality products at a price level you can afford, you have to “do it yourself” more. IKEA’s primary target is the general masses, and its strategy is to select some, but definitely not all, of the critical needs of this target group and focus its resources on performing superbly well on fulfilling the select critical needs. (Source: ‘IKEA: A Branded Experience Is More Important Than Customer-Centricity’, By: Sampson Lee)

The case of Turkish airlines is also quite similar. The experiences are not up to the mark at all the touch-points. For example, in one of our team-mates case, who travelled by Turkish Airlines, she found that there was no waiting lounge facility at Departure Airport (Tehran) even for those flying by business class ! But then again, Turkish Airlines has got some fundamental things quite well – the places they fly to and the prices that they ask for.
As regards the application of design strategy, it is more of a choice of the key stakeholders of a company. Most big brands like Turkish Airlines and IKEA, understand their brand values and market position quite well. And, we believe, they decide to do certain things in certain ways in keeping with business considerations.

Team Coffee-break (Group 12)
‘get set for fresh perspectives…’

Nov 02, 2011 @ 12:59 am
Guido Knook

We chose to develop 3 customer journeys in teams of two. IKEA, Buying clothes online at Asos and traveling with Eurostar to London. The conclusion from the IKEA and the Asos cases was that these journeys were thought out quite extensively For example we identified a clear division between the AIDA (Attract, Interest, Desire, Action) part and the sales part after this in the ASOS case. The Eurostar case was a different story and quite some interesting insights were gained from mapping this journey.

From the Eurostar consumer journey map, it was clear that most steps were branded, but not from the Eurostar perspective. We made the map with the Eurostar brand in mind, but found that only when you are about to board the train you come in contact with the Eurostar brand. Before this the many different brands you do come in contact with are e.g. the tickets-comparing website (cheaptickets etc.) NS-Highspeed for booking, the NS for retrieving the ticket from a large trainstation. Your own bank/visa for the payment etc. Alltogether this creates quite a confusing experience.

From the confusion in the Eurostar case against the flow in the two other cases it is apparent how important branding can be for the experience of the consumer. In both the IKEA and ASOS case the whole journey is thought out by these brands. This is because the interaction troughout the journey is mainly with these brands, only where another brand can fill in a promise which is impossible for both the companies to internalize (paying/online banking) is it that the consumer comes in contact with another brand.

From this previous paragraph it will also be apparent what we think should be improved by the Eurostar brand. By creating a jouney for the consumer where most touchpoints are with your brand it is possible to communicate your brand promise troughout the journey. Therefore Eurostar should use functions of design to improve their consumer journey. By better bridging of silos and creating a more coherent experience, thus by keeping the touchpoints to yourself, Eurostar would be better able to communicate their brand promise.

Specifically we have divided the consumer journey into 5 phases; the buying phase, the preparing phase, the traveling phase 1, the boarding phase, and the traveling phase 2. Concrete improvements in these phases include:

Buying phase
Make sure the confirmation mail is specific Eurostar design, with clear information how and when the journey starts. This email should also include the ticket which makes the preparing phase obsolete. This ticket should be able to be used as a ticket from any station in the Netherlands to Brussel and thus to London. Furthermore the information on this journey from your home town should be provided as well.

Preparing phase
As mentioned in the buying phase, this should become obsolete when the improvements in the buying phase are made.

Travel phase 1
The first travel phase in the phase were you travel with the NS and Belgian railway system towards the station from which the Eurostar leaves. It is therefor very hard to improve something about this phase as the service is provided by other brands, you can only advise people on a shedule for this phase to make this as smooth as possible.

Boarding phase
This phase is also hard to improve because of international regulations. The main annoyances here are with the security check, which can hardly be improved by Eurostar. The further experience from waiting to getting a seat in the train was good.

Traveling phase 2
This is the phase were the consumer actually travels with the Eurostar train. It is therefore also the phase were you should excel in service.

Overall we would advise Eurostar to have their consumers connect with the brand earlier.

Nov 02, 2011 @ 7:04 pm
Group 23

Here we discuss both the assignments of page 161 as page 177 (tocuhpoints). This has created a bigger understanding in the therms named in the book (e.g. functions, disciplines, layers, etc.) and how they work together in creating a complete customer experience. Here we discuss the conclusions, one how the company could have done better.
You can find the journey-maps in the attachment.

Buying a train ticket from Delft to Hagen hbf (Germany) online – Company: NS
• The function to make innovation usable and relevant for end users and to create aesthetics that communicate the right story to the right people can be improved.
• They could have included the layers aesthetics and construction.
• To create coherent experiences that satisfy all the senses, was implemented well.

Buying a ticket for a concert online – Company:
• To create coherent experiences that satisfy all the senses, was implemented well.
• Only in the aesthetics in e-ticket and ordering box, the brand could have been used better.

Renting a car and using it – Company: Sternrent
The most apparent issue occurred in step 5 when we were going to pick up the car. Here there was a lot of administration work and miscommunication between the rental store and booking office. Doing the online booking was very simple and quick, but when the car was to be collected the whole procedure took one hour. It seems like the company only focused on the customer experience in the initial booking. And then when they had you as a customer, nothing was simple and quick anymore…
Conclusions:
- Sternrent needs to design the whole service-route, following the customer through their experience
- Focus more on the entire experience, not just the initial one.
- Improve their internal communications, within the company a lot of miscommunication occurred which mostly caused the delay.
- Improve their external communications, the booking site said nothing about the 600 Euro deposit for the insurance you had to pay when picking up the car.

Renting a house – Company: Luxor Wonen
I don’t feel very much brand image in this experience. All steps I went through are like very regular steps that most of house agencies will do. In this case I suggest that if they can implement more aesthetics in their websites and forms to enhance the feeling of brand of company.
It’s also good to provide more advertisements for better communication to brand image.
The step of signing contract lacks a bit of selling your brand image. This step seems too quick and simple; maybe it’s a good idea to give a small gift etc.

Overall conclusion
The functions discussed above (tangible plans, aesthetics that communicate the right story, coherent experience) are very specific when talking about the experience of a product with a considerable span of the consumer journey, but the other functions are not that clear to the user in this process, but may also have been applied.
We did notice however, that if you include all the different layers and disciplines, the user experience is more complete.

Nov 02, 2011 @ 8:52 pm
Synergize & Co

In Practice
Working With Design Strategy Tools

When doing this “In practice” we chose experiences that involved many companies along the consumer journey. As a consequence, the complexity was high but it was a great challenge and it was very close to what happens in real life where companies work together to create a user experience.

In the case of the first consumer journey, the experience was to set up an exhibition at the New York International Gift Fair from Colombia. This consumer journey is composed by several business to business experiences where sometimes the company acted as the client (user) and sometimes it acted as the supplier of the experience. When acting as a consumer the company had to contact many service companies which failed to provide a good experience. In the first place, they all acted independently even if being located in the same building, they were not connected to improve the costumer experience. It was the customer who had to create the link between them which makes no sense when they have worked together for quite a long time.
We would help all the organizations behind this experience by advising them to come together and offer packages where all the services are included. This would improve both, the user experience and the logistics involved in the whole set up of the Trade Show. We would advise them to improve the internal and external services by focusing on interaction and by improving their communications. We would strongly advise them to give the customer an integrated service and to add more layers to their service in order to get a better place in the mind of the consumer. In the case of the Trade Show, improving the experience of the exhibitors (customers) would definitely enhance the image of the Show against the visitors and increase the participation of both.

The second consumer journey shows the entire road towards a new (wooden) floor. It starts with the actual decision and a (futile) search for sponsoring, followed by a search for the cheapest or best option. The actual action of buying the floor does not however finish this customer journey. transportation, the rental of necessary tools and finally the actual installation are also part of the journey.

In both cases, we see that many steps in the customer journey are focussing on certain layers, while neglecting others. This happens in a surprisingly similar way in different disciplines. also, we see that companies working and connecting with the customer in different design disciplines do, even with their supposedly wider scope on design and customer satisfaction, not manage to show a lot of interest in all layers.
when looking at the images we see that some exceptions can (luckily) be made, usually in a positive sense.

Synergize & Co

Nov 02, 2011 @ 11:02 pm
Team Nine

Working with design strategy tools

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/Customer Journey.jpg[/img]
By creating a customer journey map you can see that a solid design strategy will create a more rewarding consumer experience. Structuring the consumer journey may reveal opportunities for improvements in the service. It could also lead to a more rationalized journey where unnecessary steps can be removed. By looking at each step within the consumer journey and identify its design objective, design functions, design disciplines and design layers, positive and negative aspects of the service come forward. Stating every emotion the user had per step / phase within the journey clearly shows where to improve the service. Moreover, the consumer journey gives an overview of where the touchpoints (web page, service desk, call center, etc.) are. This can give insights in how to shape these in an optimized way.

Constructing a consumer journey is in our experience a good method to help build a solid design strategy, which will enhance the consumer experience.

The consumer journey we chose was acquiring a personal OV-chip card including a 40% discount at the NS. The consumer in this journey was non Dutch-speaking. General conclusions about our findings were as follows:
- The process takes too long (approx. one month).
- Not user-friendly towards non Dutch-speaking consumers.
- No information about the product is available online in English.
- Not environmentally friendly due to use of printed letters and booklets. Letters of confirmations are sent by conventional mail and there is not an option to receive them in your email.
- The service is old-fashioned – there is no option to fill in and send forms online.
- There is no possibility to charge the OV-chip card with money online, or with cash in the machines.

The conclusions stated above clearly shows that there are opportunities for improvements in the service of acquiring the personal OV-chip card. We can therefore conclude that it is very helpful for the organization to construct a consumer journey map, in the same or similar way as this exercise, in order to improve the consumer experience of this particular service. In addition, this will lead to tangible and enhanced experiences that match the brand’s vision.

Nov 02, 2011 @ 11:39 pm
G3

Insights from mapping a customer journey: Searching for a House

The customer journey of searching for a new residence was selected to analyse due to the fragmented brands and a lack of quality brand touch points. The customer journey starts at the initial search and ends when the customer has moved into their new residence. Below are the main findings of the analysis.

The main finding is that during the customer journey the user interacts with a cross range of brands. These range from Internet based residence search engines, estate agents and local authorities. Through discussions it was concluded that this is the reason why the customer journey is an unpleasant experience. This is based on personal experience and possibly due to the inconsistency of brand values.

A secondary conclusion relates to the first. In that the true meaning of the customer journey is not understood by any brand along the journey. Each brand fends for themselves, customer satisfaction is poor. This is reflected in the design layers. Each brand has aesthetic, interaction, performance and construction layers. However, the true meaning seems to be missing and therefore the other layers appear artificial.

The above factors indicate that there is an opportunity for a business to launch a brand that controls the entire customer journey. Such a brand will have a unique position and unique selling point to attract customers. The primary way to improve this customer journey is by analysing other customer journeys of other industries and input positive touch points and design layers.

Insights from mapping a customer journey: Preparation for a trip

The consumer journey of preparing for a go abroad trip starts from initial planning and ends when the customer leaves home. It is divided into 5 main parts: orientation, decision, informative preparation, practical preparation and check. Each part is consisted of several steps which different brands get involved except the check part that no brand is involved.

The brand lonely planet played an important role from the very beginning till the practical preparation. The website can not only provides all kinds of information but can also book the hotels and tickets for main transportation, and even plan and share your own detailed route. That means this brand has already realized the importance of providing a constant experience for the consumer journey. But for practical preparation, this brand did nothing for purchasing necessities although they provide such product information on their website. Longley planet could give more complete experience for consumer if they can prepare everything on the net instead of going out for shopping. This could be solved by cooperating with other brands such as Amazon or Ebay. As more functions (service) will be integrated in one website, it is also necessarily to pay attention to the interaction design for easy use and smooth experience because the booking system on lonely planet website is not good to use and consumer still need to book on other website.

In the practical preparation and check part, fewer brands get involved and no one has a unique position. There is opportunity for a brand to cover the steps in these two parts for completing the whole consumer journey. One thing which is worth to mention is that some brand such as pet accompany companies also play an important role in this part although they will only provides service after the consumer journey (when consumer leave home). So that it would be more useful to expand the consumer journey a bit to create a more complete consumer journey and find more opportunities. For example, explore the consumer journey of going on holiday instead of just a preparation for holiday.

Nov 03, 2011 @ 1:12 pm
Group 15

One of the experiences we chose to study was to travel with easyJet. This consumer journey marks the events from planning a trip to getting off the airplane.

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/BPS consumer journey.jpg[/img]

We’ve focused on how easyJet and its brand have been implemented in the consumer’s experience. It was clear to us that the brand was not (visibly) present during every step of the journey, which should be desired when creating a rewarding experience.

EasyJet is famous for their low-fare trips, but there are many of these kind of low-fare airlines today, hence easyJet should work to discover what more they could provide the customers, except for with their cheap prices.

Our suggestion for easyJet would be to go through the consumer journey in practice, i.e. go through what the consumer goes through. Only then can the organisation gain empathy for the customers and identify where in the consumer experience they can improve and make the brand more accessible. The results should of course be visualised, as we have visualised the consumer journey, and the gaps should be made clear through the visualisations. Finally, the visualisations and results should be presented to stakeholders and co-workers, so that everyone in the organisation will understand the gaps, what improvements could be made and what more they can provide for the customer to create an “easyJet-experience”.

The brand could e.g. be (better) implemented in the step of ‘Compare prices for different airlines on the internet’ by providing a price-comparing function on easyJet’s own website. In that way, potential customers won’t need to go to other price-comparing websites. Another suggestion of improvement is to provide a lounge for easyJet-customers at the airport so that the step of ‘Wander around at airport’ would be less tedious.
Even a step like ‘Think it over’ (referring to carefully consider the deal before purchase) could be branded; easyJet could provide a function on their website where customers could book their flights without paying for a week, so that they could have some time for considering their (eventual) purchase.

Nov 03, 2011 @ 4:16 pm
[PENTAGON]

For this assignment 2 experiences were chosen of 2 different companies: 

1) Sticking ‘Discount Stickers’ to HEMA Products at the HEMA shop;

 2) Ordering a batch of products via de STAPLES website and sending it to home
 
During this assignment we found several differences between the customer journeys of both experiences.  Highlights are:  

Comparing HEMA to Staples, HEMA seems to have a customer journey in which the customer feels more in control. The brand makes you feel like it is all about you. At the other hand, the way Staples communicates towards his customers seems more like Staples is in control –completely.

HEMA has good design functions; they seem to choose their functions wisely and adapt them to their communication between HEMA and their customers. As well, it looks like they apply this view onto their layers; many of their layers are positive.  Staples at the other hand, has little positive layers, but more severe negative ones. Their sphere points seems to be more aimed at their own company, rather than a brand driven approach and applying the 3 factors towards a more positive customer journey. 

The visualizations in our assignment:
  O – Rounded remarks: Functions 
[] – Squared remarks: Disciplines 
Non-highlighted remarks in color: Layers

Nov 04, 2011 @ 7:56 pm
- shiqi -

For this assignment we used the experience of ‘going to Artis Royal Zoo’. Its brand promise is mentioned as “a place where nature meets culture and where knowledge merges with pleasure.” We discussed the consumer journeys and divided the experience into three parts according to the timeline:

1: before going to the zoo (checking the information on the web)
2: prepare to enjoy the experience (parking, buying the ticket and map, asking for general information, etc).
3: during the experience (seeing animals, shows, museums, eating in the restaurant, use of other facilities, etc).

Artis tries to enhance customers’ experience using all disciplines (product, communication, environment, interaction and service design). Most of the time, these disciplines are used pretty well. They let peacocks walking on the road instead of placing them in the cage (interaction). There are various animal museums and animal’s houses where visitors not only see animals, but also acquire knowledge and experience culture at the same time, which makes Artis “more than a zoo” (product). The restaurant is a combination of product, service, and environment design, which results in a good eating experience. The main functions of all these things in Artis were mainly: getting people involved, surprising people, improve experience and comfort.

However, some parts of the zoo aren’t enhancing customers’ experience at all. We think this could be improved through better use of some design disciplines and layers. We selected the three most striking ones:
1. Parking car: the parking space (communication, environment and service design) is not large enough, letting people wait in queues. The flow to the park isn’t optimal. Therefore the environment and service design disciplines should be optimized. We suggest this should be improved by enhancing performance and construction layers. Through enlarging the parking space in a smart way and/or optimize the infrastructure.
2. Checking direction on map: the map and road signs of the park (product, environment and communication design) do not clearly illustrate directions for visitors. Better communication design is needed through enhancing the interaction layer of the map and road signs in the park.
3. Buying souvenirs: the products displaying in the stores are not strongly connected to the brand and image of the zoo (product, interaction design). In order to keep visitors’ memories to last longer after they leave, the zoo should strengthen the meaning layer of its souvenirs. This way, the value of the zoo’s products increases which enables visitors’ wonderful experiences to last longer.

In short, we can see how Artis Royal Zoo could create a wonderful user experience through using all design disciplines optimally. We’d recommend the zoo to optimize its infrastructure in and around the park in order to enhance the users’ experience. Furthermore, some design layers could, for the same reason, be optimized as well.

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/13 – 5.6 touchpoints.JPG[/img]

Nov 05, 2011 @ 5:35 pm
Group 18

In a group session, we analysed the customer ecxperience of bol.com; the Dutch amazon basically. We documented our findings in a graph.
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/Diagram Bol.com consumer experience.jpg[/img]

Nov 07, 2011 @ 7:18 pm
Group 18

I forgot to submit the images of our group session..
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/2011-10-18 13.02.49.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/2011-10-18 13.03.01.jpg[/img]

Nov 07, 2011 @ 7:20 pm
The TwentyONEs

Working with design strategy tools

The event we will be describing is the Dutch Design Week (DDW). This was organized in Eindhoven and was a joint initiative of universities, the city and several companies. The journey started via mouth-to-mouth advertising. After visiting the web site, which was very pleasing to the eye, the decision to visit the DDW was made, even though the website was hard to understand, concerning information. To get to Eindhoven the train was the most practical way. However, the way of using the OV-Chipkaart to have access to the discounts wasn’t clear enough, therefore, a vending machine was used. This turned out to be very useful and fast. When boarding the train, it was confusing in what coach to sit. Accidently, at first, the sitting place was chosen at random, and turned out to be at first class. This gave a sensation of uncertainty. At Eindhoven station, there was a store in which information was provided, but this wasn’t easy to find. The maps, on the other hand were very useful, with good orientation through the display of landmarks on the map. Because the map was simple, it was easy to use, but sometimes it was annoying because of lack of detail in the routing, which was necessary. An example, the Museum entrance was hidden behind some trees, and it would have been easier to show the main entrances on the map. When walking to the city it was nice to see Mini-Coopers with examples of the exposition pieces. This way of advertising reinforced the experience. The expositions themselves were very inspiring, well displayed, organized, not crowded and had a very consistent layout. The selection of the returning hour was made based on the uncertainty about the departing time of the last train.

This whole experience was merged with the traveling experience, but since the DDW is a national event, this traveling experience should have been considered and even included in the design strategy.

Some recommendations to improve the DDW for the consumers are to improve the website by adding several layers, to divide the visitors of the website into their specific groups, such as visitors, participants, company/business, etc. Maybe the organization could have work together with the train stations to provide a “visitor’s kit” including a map, (train) tickets, a design thermos, guided tours, etc. This way the visitor is enticed to participate. Once visitors arrive at the train station of Eindhoven there could be a guidance staff to guide the visitors through the city or to answer questions. Bigger boards on the side-walks would also help visitors to find the locations of the expositions. Provide beforehand a list of the prices of the events and their opening hours would help visitors to plain their visits. This surpasses the scope of the DDW but the trains could have a look at their interior design to provide more comfortable chairs

Nov 08, 2011 @ 4:04 pm
Group 11

In our consumer journey map we analyzed and discussed the process of choosing a study. All steps from informing yourself about the studies and universities to finding a house and joining a society were included. During this journey, the consumer goes through a lot of experiences. We mapped all these steps and experiences out on a wallpaper (see the figure). Because this consumer journey consists of many phases, we selected two clusters which we considered most interesting. The first is informing yourself about the university; the second is the introduction week, better known in Delft as the OWee.

INFORMING YOURSELF
Gathering information of studies and universities is an important design objective in order to make a good choice on what and where to study, but it can be difficult. The consumer starts to search on the internet, perhaps he/she checks the rating of a university and talks with family and friends. The next step is talk to and shadow a student and usually visit an open day of the university, (in Dutch ‘open dag’). The design objective of the open days for the Delft University of Technology (DUT) is to inform (possible) future students of what the university has to offer. In a way the design goal is to convince the students study at the DUT. By searching for information, the consumer has formed certain expectations of the university and the study, similar to the brand expectations. In the next step – visiting a university and meet the students – the consumer discovers in real life whether these expectations can be met. With the gained information and the overall experience, the consumer will have to make a choice for the study and university. To convince an upcoming student to study somewhere, it is important that all design disciplines are covered. Though all design disciplines have to be covered, it can happen that one of the disciplines fails to live up to the expectation of the consumer. If happens, another disciple can work as a back-up. For instance: communication design (visiting the website of the university), one of the other disciplines can make sure to satisfy the consumer, for instance: environment design (visiting the university itself). We think that at the open days the design disciplines are more or less all covered by the DUT. In the next blog we will pay more attention to the touchpoints belonging to this.

We think that the university uses the different design disciplines very well, but the link between these several informing methods is not enough connected. In the commercials they often speak about the open days and on the website you can see what are the methods to get informed. But you have to take action yourself, and this leaves room for improvements. It would be good to have a program mapped out for you, which guides you through the steps and informs what your next action could be. This could include a checklist for high school students to see if they are informed well and if they have based their choice on enough information. Next to that could be a short description of the experience you would get from the informing method and a review from people who already did it to see how they experienced it.

OWEE
The design objective of the OWee is to give the new students a flying start. The goal is to let students get to know the university, meet new fellow students, and discover the city and its history. Furthermore, they are exposed to the student fraternities, the sport clubs, the party places and the student houses. Next to this, it can contribute to get students motivated for their study by giving them a great week.

Since there are too many things to do and see, the first year students will only visit a small percentage or will only get glimpse of what the certain sports club or club has to offer. During this week, the students can choose to go with his/her group or stay at home. We think it would be better for students to be in groups with others who have the same interests so they can visit the parts of the city and fraternities that they are interested in. In this way they have a better understanding of what the student life is going to offer for them.

Nov 08, 2011 @ 4:35 pm
The TwentyONEs

‎13 – Working with design strategy tools

The event we will be describing is the Dutch Design Week (DDW). This was organized in Eindhoven and was a joint initiative of universities, the city and several companies. The journey started via mouth-to-mouth advertising. After visiting the web site, which was very pleasing to the eye, the decision to visit the DDW was made, even though the website was hard to understand, concerning information. To get to Eindhoven the train was the most practical way. However, the way of using the OV-Chipkaart to have access to the discounts wasn’t clear enough, therefore, a vending machine was used. This turned out to be very useful and fast. When boarding the train, it was confusing in what coach to sit. Accidently, at first, the sitting place was chosen at random, and turned out to be at first class. This gave a sensation of uncertainty. At Eindhoven station, there was a store in which information was provided, but this wasn’t easy to find. The maps, on the other hand were very useful, with good orientation through the display of landmarks on the map. Because the map was simple, it was easy to use, but sometimes it was annoying because of lack of detail in the routing, which was necessary. An example, the Museum entrance was hidden behind some trees, and it would have been easier to show the main entrances on the map. When walking to the city it was nice to see Mini-Coopers with examples of the exposition pieces. This way of advertising reinforced the experience. The expositions themselves were very inspiring, well displayed, organized, not crowded and had a very consistent layout. The selection of the returning hour was made based on the uncertainty about the departing time of the last train.
This whole experience was merged with the traveling experience, but since the DDW is a national event, this traveling experience should have been considered and even included in the design strategy.
Some recommendations to improve the DDW for the consumers are to improve the website by adding several layers, to divide the visitors of the website into their specific groups, such as visitors, participants, company/business, etc. Maybe the organization could have work together with the train stations to provide a “visitor’s kit” including a map, (train) tickets, a design thermos, guided tours, etc. This way the visitor is enticed to participate. Once visitors arrive at the train station of Eindhoven there could be a guidance staff to guide the visitors through the city or to answer questions. Bigger boards on the side-walks would also help visitors to find the locations of the expositions. Provide beforehand a list of the prices of the events and their opening hours would help visitors to plain their visits. This surpasses the scope of the DDW but the trains could have a look at their interior design to provide more comfortable chairs.
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/2011-11-02 14.16.29.jpg[/img]
The TwentyONEs

Nov 09, 2011 @ 11:29 am
G-02

working with design strategy tools
Do you see how building a solid design strategy would have created a more rewarding experience? How would you help the organization behind your experience develop a design strategy?

This exercise was developed using the purchase of a Dell Computer as an example to discover which strategy tools are involved and used along the process. The purchase process was divided in three stages in order to better understand and explain in detail what happens between the brand and the client:

Before purchase: the process of browsing for a new computer, the first approach to dell and the first quotations.
During purchase: the approval of quotations, the payment procedures, the shipment tracking and receiving the product
After purchase: the first use, the product performance, the technical failures, the guarantee coverage and technical service.

It is clear that during the whole process there is a big effort to brand all the experience of the client, although we found out that it is especially branded in the second stage due to the effort the company does to assure the purchase of its products. There it is given special attention to the client’s needs and wishes, as well as the adjustments to the invoices and the different payment options are established so the client feels that he is buying exactly what he wants and that he matters for Dell.

Design Functions, Disciplines and Layers

In general, there is a big effort on Service Design from Dell, therefore successful purchase processes are carried on. Clients perceive that as a brand value; however there is still a lot of work to do on Interaction Design. It is also important to mention that there are some steps and stages in which there is a lot of development on communication design, especially in the process between before and during purchase.

The most visible disciplines are construction and meaning. They are highly developed in order to assure purchases so they are very connected to the communication design the brand does to interact with their clients. Still, Dell has to do a lot in terms of Interaction Design, as well as they have to improve in terms of performance to provide a better product experience.

Conclusions

We have come up to the conclusion that there are still some improvements the company should do in the stages of during purchase and after purchase:
In the after purchase stage, we recommend to improve communication with customers: Make the customers feel that you care and you’re willing to give them more. When failures happen, there should be better communication channels and interaction should be enhanced by feedback from and towards customers. Also, it could be very helpful if documents are better designed to actually communicate the brand values that are visible through other media.

In the after purchase, it is important to make more and specific efforts in improving the performance and construction around the brand: “don’t leave the customer alone”. Enhance service design by also raising the standards for technical service design and development. Meaning can also be enhanced by establishing different touch points to make them feel remembered by Dell

Nov 09, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
powes of then

We decided to go through a student’s process trying to find a place to live in Delft, starting her studies in TUDleft. This particular student did not find accommodation through the organization supported by the university (Duwo) which made the journey “richer” and more brand related.

JOURNEY OVERVIEW

The journey started from TUDelft’s site where the student looked up for information about housing and general “everyday life” matters. Then, trying to get acquainted with the town’s environment and find more information and housing (agents, houses, housing sites) she visited Google. Duwo came in the journey, where information was requested through email.

Delftulip (an online community for international students) was also a stop of the journey, again trying to elicit information on housing. Then she contacted specific housing agents in the Delft area, in order to get an idea on houses, prices additional charges etc.

In the meantime a whole other journey intervened (booking tickets and arriving in Delft) (orange label), which we decided not to include because then the complexity of the analysis would rise drastically. Then the customer journey continues in the town of Delft, where she visited some of the agents she had spoken to via email.

She finally got a house and then the journey stops with the start of another customer journey (furnishing her new home).

BRANDS

The brands that took place in the journey were (the red and green colors as seen on the labels on the wall indicate if the experience with the brand at the certain step was positive or negative, some bands have both colors depending her experience on different steps):

- TUDelft (red) : the experience was bad mainly due to the overlapping and confusion between the Duwo and the TUDelft brands and the different expectations their image and communication create. (“TUDelft is expected to deliver something trustworthy. There is a confusing connection between TUDelft and DUWO “)
Touchpoints: Site/ customer service/ flyer/delftulip
There is some inconsistency on the image each touch point communicates, but generally most of the design disciplines are well thought of. Duwo is communicated as a touch point and that doesn’t help the overall effort of designing these touchpoints

- Google (green): The experience with the Google brand was pleasant and really informing (which is also the promise of the brand). Google managed to deliver in many different information design layers and information forms(maps, houses, agents etc)
Touchpoints: Website
Consistent design on all layers and levels. Maybe they could be more interactive by providing the users with the ability to rate sites. Brands shouldn’t forget that their first touchpoint through the internet is Google.

- DUWO (red): The Duwo brand didn’t deliver. Their service design is poor and they don’t feel reliable. There is lack of information and the feeling that they want o take advantage of the fact that you want a place to call home. So, instead of creating positive associations (warm, welcoming) they rather rely on the feeling of dependency.
Touchpoints: Website/ customer service/ TUDelft
They give an unfinished neglected look as far as design is concerned. They present a consistent image but not a positive one. TUDelft should be aware of the fact that is perceived a Duwo touchpoint.

Delftulip: The experience was positive. Good information design and empathic feeling. They do stand for “friendly and welcome” which is needed in such a journey. The customization of your page offers you a first place to call home.
Touchpoints: We consider Delftulip a touchpoint of TUDelft and as such it performs adequately and its design features are even more consistent than those of the “mother brand”

- Rotsvast (red): Housing Agent. Bad overall image. Bad communication and information design. Long distance and face-to-face communication really badly designed. They look professional, but in reality they don’t remain consistent to their value.
Touchpoints: Website/ Offices / Customer Service
The design of the touchpoints is really consistent with the brand image (in all positive and negative aspects). Improvement needed on communication design and empathy.

- Behome (red): Housing Agent. Good brand image but they don’t deliver what their communication design is promising.
Touchpoints: Website/ Ofiices / Customer Service
Really inconsistent brand design between the website and the other touchpoints. They put much effort on designing the one touchpoint and forgot about the whole customer experience.

- OudeDelft (green+red): Housing Agent. They are not elaborately branded, but their corporate behavior shapes a strong image. Their brand is empathetic, warm but unconsistent and trustworthy.
Touchpoints: Website/ Ofiices / Customer Service
The design of the touchpoints is barely there but their corporate behavior gives a “loose” warmth, which makes them unique (compared to their competition). Whenever there is person-to-person communication they deliver. Brand relies on staff’s personality.

* Detailed documentation on design objectives, functions and layers is seen in the pictures.

In general, it looks like brands have realized that this customer journey is a really important one, and very emotional for the consumer. Instead of trying and comfort and support him/her through their services they rather rely on his need and take advantage of that. As the user mentioned “next time I want a place in Delft I will find it on my own”! So, for a city that has a lot of “traffic” in the real estate market it seems like there is a space for a new, reliable and ,most importantly, empathic brand. Another interesting aspect of this journey is that the only brand that managed to deliver and be true to its promise is “Google”. The weird thing is that although “Google” isn’t directly situated with the real estate market it managed to offer everything necessary. It is impressive how this brand has managed to deliver all the information needed for -mostly- any customer journey, without its products and design looking irrelevant or out of context.

Nov 09, 2011 @ 10:53 pm
peer2peer

In practise: working with design strategy tools

Chapter 5 – Building a brand-driven design strategy

For the consumer journey we choose something which everyone could relate to easily. Therefore we selected ‘visit to the museum’ and all the team members had to explain their experiences they had during the last visit of a museum. This would give us rich insights of different consumer journeys. In the end we decided to choose the ‘Rijksmuseum’ because most of us were familiar to this museum.
We combined all the consumer journeys of the different team members in detail.

The Rijksmuseum is in Amsterdam one of the biggest museums and therefore it has a lot of different exposure and communication material compared with other museums in Amsterdam. It begins at visiting the website throughout the whole route through the museum. Not only the collection and the exhibitions is very characteristic, but also all the other communication design fits very well to the brand.

We structured the different activities and steps of the museum into five different stages. Each stage has a different objective towards the consumer throughout the consumer journey.

Design functions
1. Enhance creativity and innovation
2. Enhance empathy in user-centredness
3. Bridge silos and connect departments with different agendas
4. Envision futures for the organization
5. Resolve conflicting interests and demands into one fitting solution
6. Make plans and ideas tangible and concrete
7. Make innovations usable and relevant for end users
8. Create coherent experiences that satisfy all the senses
9. Create aesthetics that communicate the right story to the right people

Design layers
1. Aesthetics of the folders and advertisements are good. No interaction with users.
2. The website contains a lot of information but the performance is not so good because you have to click a lot in order to go through the structure.
3. The environment is constructed really well and is very appealing. The interaction in the entrance hall is not very nice because you do not feel appreciated as a visitor; you have to wait in queues.
4. The communication in the museum is very good; you can easily see where you are and what you are looking at. The product and service design aesthetics can be implemented more thoroughly in all elements of the museum (eg. The restaurant).
5. The exit steel looks nice, but the service for guests leaving the museums of low level.

Conclusion
The main question is: “How would you help the organisation behind your experience develop a design strategy?” We think the Rijksmuseum puts a lot of effort of attracting first time visitors. This is done by a lot of exposure and attractive discounts, but the experience stops after the journey through the museum. We would like to suggest coming up with a strategy focused on the binding of existing users and trying to make it more attractive for them to come more often. This could be done by means of social media, but also by guiding them more gentle through the exit and make it a positive ‘leaving experience’.
[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/In practise-workingwithdesignstrategytools(peer2peer).jpg[/img]

Nov 10, 2011 @ 12:28 am
3plus3

As a group, each of us contributed a few possibilities whereby the method of a consumer journey tool would fit and be feasible. As a consumer journey, we thought it should be a journey with an experience that begins before and continue after a product/ service. In truth, a journey is rather hard to find given that most journeys are rather short and convenient in modern lifestyle. Within a journey, most brands would have been touched upon. A few ideas such as MacDonalds, T-Mobile, Schipol airport were some examples in we have considered and familiar to us all. In the end, Ikea was selected as based on the predefined criteria as mentioned and also that we have experiences from Ikea. As a journey, how each of us experience is highly unique and subjectively, but there is a distinct manner which is common to us all since Ikea is highly choreographed, as it would for BDI, would be used to describe the experience as a group.

The steps are divided into 7 parts including the layout of the Ikea namely home (before), restaurant, showroom, marketplace, transportation, home (after) and its after care.

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/IMG_9166 copy2-1.jpg[/img]

Analysis
For our consumer journey, not all information could be transferred from the wallpaper, the basis of the tools, into writing – well, the purpose of wallpaper is to uncover hidden values. As such, one would need to use this text in conjunction with the image of the wallpaper, only the key message and a much general findings are summarized for this purpose of discussion.

Branding
Ikea is familiar to everyone, as one of the largest retailers in the world and operate internationally, it is difficult to say that Ikea is not branded. Ikea is branded in such a way for it to be so successful, we associate furniture with Ikea these days. In that, we agree that Ikea is branded but the extent of its branding is revealed with the breakdown into the 7 steps as listed above. It is worth to note that a brand like Ikea has been ingrained into our mind, unless we consciously sieve out this information, we will not have thought about it, even if so, it would be on a superficial level.

Branding as in this case is the touch points, they exist on various scales and levels; both tangible and intangible. Firstly, on the broader level, they exist similarly in various parts of the world housed in a familiar blue warehouse. The physicality of the brand gives a 3rd dimension in terms of volume and spaces provided an experience is memorable. Secondly, at a more distance level, catalogues were already introduced before the raise of the internet, served as a connection- bringing customers into the stores as well as raising the brand awareness. Lastly from a sub-conscious level, small detail like Ikea’s screws, fonts, unique manuals and packaging, free writing and measuring kits and its never-ending route in the showroom-both tangible and intangible, only serves the hidden brand values.
From all these elements, Ikea appeared to be focused on Do-It-Yourself (DIY) strategy, which would be disguised since some of their products are highly priced and well-designed at least in terms of its aesthetics. For some products, they even resembled some of the most famous furniture such as the egg chair. The focus on DIY as a strategy could explained why certain aspects of the journey are less branded. For example, the delivery service was less advertised and pricey but the DIY aspect of a bike-cart is provided as a preferred alternative. By branding, Ikea masked their hidden objectives in terms of cost and space reduction by the mass production and flat packaging for storage. On contrary, they appeared to care for the people by means of providing easy to build and price attractiveness. From this point of view, design has certainly been used to achieve it. Lastly the brand comprised of many aspect, design should not just be seen in terms of products but also services like the Ikea’s.

Design
As a whole the design objective is to provide affordable designed furniture for the masses. The objectives of each step is different, however they appears to be related step-by-step in ensuring the journey do not stop before it should be. These design objectives are mostly internal with a simple goal that is to increase sales in mind. For example, the catalog is to bring people into the store, the large minimal entrance foyer is a transition whereby latest and promotions are introduced, the restaurant is also to bring people into the store or to fill one’s stomach before the journey begins, customers are presented in fixed route which showcased the products in sequence, the marketplace allows customers to pick the smaller goods they might have seen in the showroom before etc… As you can see the objectives of each step has a relation and a reaction to the next, without one or the other, the journey would appear abrupt or unsustainable.

Its strategy is clearly in line with the brand and vision. People like and accept Ikea and its brand promise in terms of cheap and affordable furniture based on their expectation. As a whole, the experience of this consumer journey is orchestrated and the touch points are touched, therefore further improvement is not required. From the wallpaper, there could be some minor improvements in terms of having an inclusive delivery service and an exciting warehouse that is pleasing to look at would suffice.

[img]http://www.branddriveninnovation.com/wp-content/IMG_9166 copy2-2.jpg[/img]

Nov 10, 2011 @ 1:09 am
Four

In this assignment we will be studying the sequence that occurs when buying a book through the bol.com online shop. Our analysis starts by finding and choosing the book and finishes at unwrapping and experiencing the book. We will be studying the whole process through different levels of abstraction, from the description of the user experience to unraveling the underlying strategic structures through the different forms and levels of design. Our final goal in this assignment is to, through an in depth analysis of the experiences, processes and strategy, produce clear design challenges.

User cycle

The first stage is a very hands-on approach depicting a classic purchase scenario of buying a book through bol.com, as seen and experienced by the consumer.

Process

During the previous stage, we addressed the user’s experience and perspective. However, the process contains underlying stages that aren’t visible by the customer. Exploring “behind the scenes” will bring us to new levels of understanding of the big picture. In our case, we have to include the logistic and financial aspects which are fundamental in online shopping.
Including these new aspects bring new players in the process, linked through partnership. They all are elements of the process, sharing different responsibilities and strategies towards a common goal. Therefore, they evolve on different design levels and functions.
Studying these different stakeholders and strategies allows us to reveal and further understand the underlying structure of the organization. We are then also able to estimate their contribution as a company in the process; consequently evaluate the fulfilled and underperforming roles of design carried by each company.

Synthesizing

Eventually we managed to address and categorize the different design approaches into clusters over the whole purchase experience. These clusters correspond to the elementary blocks of the process. This new organization provides us with a rational and synthetic view of the previously complex sequence. By doing so, we realized we could distinguish different levels of commitment and involvement of the process. Furthermore, this synthetic organization allows us to be more efficient at addressing precise design guidelines to each stage. We believe that reaching higher levels of abstraction helped us grasp the fundamentals of the strategy implemented by Bol.com. (See Graph A)
Having previously analyzed the roles of design in the process, we were able to produce a synthetic list of the roles of design in the bol.com organization and convert that list into design statements for each elementary block. Therefore, we have now addressed the satisfying and/or improvable qualities within the process.

1. Selecting and browsing the website
Facilitate finding and discovering new books
The easy to use interface allows the consumer to find the book he is looking for, and also develop his curiosity, by suggesting new products.

2. Purchasing the product
Simulate a tangible shopping experience
The website provides tools to the users that help them simulate real life shopping habits.

3. Identification and confirmation
Centralize, process and transfer information
The website helps to create a seamless purchasing experience for the user by

Provide a more user centered and relevant service
The website doesn’t provide an insightful relation with its customer, but a mechanical one instead

Transfer the client to TNT
The Bol.com order is now TNT cargo.

4. Processing delivery
Creating a visible bridge between a virtual seller and a physical buyer
TNT allows people to visualize the commercial exchanges

5. Transmitting to end user
Transmitting the product to the user
TNT brings together a product and its user by making internet shopping a tangible and concrete experience.

One way and single serving interaction
TNT doesn’t establish a followed and in depth customer relation, instead it provides a superficial and one way interaction from the deliverer to the receiver.

Transfer to user
The TNT cargo is now in the user’s book.

6. Product user experience
Satisfy needs and expectations
The book should provide fulfilling experiences that satisfies expectations
The packaging reflects the purchase and delivery process

Problem identification

Having processed the overwhelming amount of information into graspable elements of the organization, we managed to clarify the sequence and address the required improvements.
Our observations suggest that the overall process satisfies the expectations set by the different design layers. However
As it turns out, our findings suggest that the field of improvement is to be found in the field of interaction between the user and Bol.com, when personal information is asked; and between TNT and the user, when the product is delivered.
In the first case, research area A, we reckon the method used doesn’t comply with the rest of the experience, where Bol.com is trying to provide an easy to use and enjoyable shopping experience, trying to relate it to a real bookshop. We believe this stage engages the customer to fill in personal and important information about address and bank details in a mechanical, cold and opaque way.
Secondly, research area B, we believe the delivery and reception of the product conditions a lot of the future experience. Here TNT can improve on the ease of use of receiving packages, which usually occurs when people aren’t available to receive them, which then involves a lot of time to retrieve a non-delivered package.
We believe these difficulties arise in those stages because of the changing state of information and products. Physical information (an address…) is transferred onto a virtual data base, which will then become a physical task (delivering); An order becomes cargo, then becomes someone’s book. A service becomes an interaction and then a product. All the shifting occurring in the process adds complexity.
In that respect, we think interaction design can be considered as a vast field of research in improving and innovating online shopping. Therefore, and in the light of our analysis, our problem formulation would be:
How to improve the online shopping by developing tighter and more insightful interactions?

Conclusion

Exploring a user experience as simple as buying a book online in depth revealed a very complex system that expanded as we got deeper in our analysis, to finally identifying the building blocks of the strategy and the design implications within. This assignment also provided us with a method to effectively expose a company’s core qualities and weaknesses by confronting ourselves with its complexity and then discovering its underlying rationality.

Nov 10, 2011 @ 12:42 pm

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this is Erik Roscam Abbing's blog on topics relating to the synergy between branding, innovation and design. Erik is a consultant (www.zilverinnovation.com), teacher (www.io.tudelft.nl), and frequent speaker on the topic of Brand Driven Innovation. He is also the author of the book by the same title, to appear in autumn 2010 at www.avabooks.ch. For inquiries, contact erik at erik at zilverinnovation.com