'Tis the week before Christmas and panic has finally broken loose. Where can I get that new gadget? Where do they sell that cuddly bear? And why, oh why, didn't I start shopping earlier? Say, in July?
One of the main tools of service design is the customer journey. It clearly illustrates how people spend more time around your service, than actually using it, and equally demonstrates that if you knew what precedes and follows your contact with the customer, you might gain some valuable insight.
So this Christmas, allow us to illustrate what Christmas actually looks like, from an average adult's point-of-view with our tongue-firmly-in-our-service-design-cheek.
The packaging design course Dan was conducting at the British Higher School of Design in Moscow past summer caught the attention of the leading Russian packaging webizine 'What the Pack?'.
How did the young Russian designers react to a Scandinavian approach? Here's a thorough interview, plus a visual review of the results. The outcome was really surprising, considering the ultra-tight timeframe. But it was a lot easier to direct, hence the exercise was rooted in a real project Brand Manual is engaged in - and we had gone through a thorough Discovery process by then. Building a house is a snap once you have a strong foundation ready and you know in what surroundings it will stand.
On November 26 and 27, our partner Margus, visited the Generator conference in Gävle, Sweden.
The reason we decided to participate in the conference was manyfold:
1. The Generator conference is not a typical creative or policy conference, but rather a meeting place to generate ideas and policy for creative and cultural industries;
2. Brand Manual is going to expand to Sweden and this was an excellent opportunity to "test the water" of how people and government think about creative businesses;
3. A conference is a wonderful place to meet like-minded people, have involving conversations and maybe find some useful contacts.
The conference was centered on the value that culture industries create. Throughout the conference there was an emphasis on proving the value of creativity to the "real" economy, both through soft examples as well through strict scientific method. Although at times the tone became apologetic: "I'm sorry, we're artists, we don't know how to earn money so you have to support us", then for the majority of the program the focus was much more rationally creative.
Two speakers in particular, Julia Romanowska from Karolinska Institutet and Emma Stenström from Handelshögskolan and Konstfacket proved beyond any shadow of a doubt the importance of creativity to business leadership, the need for a greater purpose than just profit and, in the case of Ms Romanowska, that conventional business and leadership training creates worse leaders, not better.
Ms Stenström also noted, that one of the world's leading business schools, the University of St.Gallen, includes in its business curriculum 25% of humanities education. This ensures that business decisions don't become detached from human decisions. In fact, her presentation centered on how the business school, Handelshögskolan, has included interaction with a circus for MBA students, and how in many cases MBA students learn more from the passion that artists have for their craft, than vice-versa. That although MBA's can put anything and everything into well thought through Excel tables, they often forget the most important question: is this something I actually want to do? For a circus artist this question has unequivocally been answered.
Overall, the take-away from the conference is that the need for a more creative approach to business is fundamental if business is to survive in the creative and service economy. As business demands more qualified people, able to manage and execute sophisticated tasks, the need for a purpose to these tasks is much more important than the profit motive.
The visible difference in the Swedish approach to the creative and culture industries, in terms of setting national priorities for industry development, and the Estonian approach in emphasizing innovation and developing a national policy based on that, is the difference between developing services and developing products.
Based on the impression of this conference, we can note with reasonable certainty, that Sweden's name at the top of the innovative-and-dynamic-economies list is assured. Sweden's approach is quite holistic and really brings into sharp relief the understanding of the need to provide a high-quality living environment, which enables innovation to flourish rather than trying to create innovation in order for the living environment to improve, will be the key to future growth. The focus on cultural and creative industries, from solitary painters to game developers, provides a consumable service to both locals and tourists but which in many cases has to be consumed on the spot. If these experiences are unique and valuable, they will no doubt help to boost tourism as well. Considering the growth in global travel, this is no small achievement.
A third valuable insight was offered by Simon Kyaga of the Karolinska Institutet. His presentation asked if the Mad Genius is actually fact, or fiction? As a researcher and psychologist he demonstrated his research into the topic. Thanks to the accurate files kept on patients in Sweden, he could trawl through patient data of over 300 000 people to draw the inescapable conclusion, that some kind of madness indeed does come with genius.
His summary quoted George Bernard Shaw who said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." We couldn't agree more.
If you have Swedish skills, we highly recommend watching the presentation videos.
And here you'll find an English summary of Simon Kyaga's research.
Companies in the process of creating their web presence often get confused about the cost involved in creating quality content for their homepage. Custom made is expense. And of course there are more affordable substitutes around. Some of them are even free. But cutting the corners of content creation eventually shows. Here is an example that we came across on the website of a very respectful company...
В Таллинне прошел фестиваль DisainiÖÖ (Ночь дизайна), заполнивший город выставками, лекциями и разными шоу на данную тему. Заодно раздали и годовые награды дизайнерам всех мастей - впервые и лучшим дизайнерам услуг.
Радио 4, русское радио Эстонии, озадачилось - что за новая дисциплина? За разъяснениями обратились к Дану Миккину, так как Брэнд Мэнюал одно из немногих предприятий действующих на этом поприще. Не только в Эстонии, но и во всем регионе.
The course was very intensive indeed – in two days (!) students had to produce believable mock-ups of a 3-member packaging range. The brief was based on a real case Brand Manual is working on right now for the Russian market – so we can't reveal too much detail of the product so far (In due time, we'll come back to that). But for students that meant working on something live and real, which gave the whole exercise a totally different feel.
Dan met the course with low expectations - and was blown away by extremely high level of both creativity as well as executional skills. The 18-strong course was given an introduction of our approach to packaging and identity as such, then briefed - both orally as well as by written text. Divided into 4 groups, they had to work as teams, delegating tasks and optimising the workload. By the end of day one they already had all produced plausible draft concepts, day two showed impressive presentations with half a dozen shiny mock-ups. All of them were tested on a virtual shop shelf in Moscow against competition - and at least three of them, with minor tweaks, could have been shipped to retail right away. Beware of the young Russain designers!
One of the tasks students were faced with was a Nordic feel of the product - although meant for the Russian market, it had to have a foreign feel (that can be a selling argument for local consumers). Amazingly, students created more Scandinavian packages than Scandinavians do. Just being inspired by Nordic nature, lifestyle and design, not copying anything in particular. Strong, original stuff!
If you read Russian, here's a more comprehensive review of the whole session in the leading Russian packaging design webizine What the Pack?
Oleme oma meeskonnaga juba paar aastat osalenud xDreami nimelisel seiklusspordi võistlusel, kus kolmeliikmeline meeskond peab piiratud informatsiooniga kaardi ja legendi alusel läbima suuri vahemaid kõikvõimalikel maastikutüüpidel, kasutades liikumiseks lisaks jooksmisele jalgratast, rulluiskusid, kanuud, ronimisköisi, lestasid, tõukeratast jmt vahendeid. Orienteerumisega pole meist keegi varasemalt kokku puutunud, mistõttu on meie jaoks alati jäänud suurimaks väljakutseks aru saada meile antud juhistest ja neid korraldajate poolt ettnähtud viisil tõlgendada.
Viimasel Raplamaa võistlusel sattusimegi hunt-kits-kapsapea tüüpi olukorda, kus korraldaja suunas meid kanuuetappi vahele jätma ning jätkama punktis C, kuhu kohale jõudes aga selgus, et sealt omakorda jätkamiseks vajalikud rulluisud on punktis B, mis jäi hoopis teise suunda ja kust meid äsja lahkesti mööda juhatati. Uiskudele järgiminek olnuks meeletu ring ja ajakulu, ilma nendeta jätkamine aga reeglite rikkumine. Korraldaja oli soovinud enda poolt kanuuetapi vahelejätjatele kõige paremat, ent oli jätnud jätkamise võimalikud stsenaariumid lihtsalt läbi mängimata. Kuna tegemist on seiklusega, siis ei hakanud me lamenti lööma, ent jätkamine muutus mõttetuks ja me veeresime rahulikult finišisse.
Kui palju sellist tõlgendamisruumi ja stsenaariumite läbimängimist me kohtame aga oma igapäevaelus? Tallinna liikluskorralduse kurbmäng on ehk viimase aja säravaim näide sellest, kuidas lünklike reeglitega mängu ei saa kaasa mängida. Poolik vastus ei anna vastust, pool lahendust ei ole lahendus. Erinevalt orienteerumismängust ei ole inimesed andud oma nõusolekut osaleda eksperimendis, kus harjumuspärane olukord on kaotatud, uus veel ei tööta ning iga päev toob uusi ajutisi reegleid.
Head süsteemiloojad, palun kaasake inimesi, kes oskavad süsteeme näha kasutajakeskselt – uues olukorras peavad kehtima vanad reeglid, minu olemasolev kogemus peab olema kasutatav ka muutunud kontekstis. Ma pean mulle antud juhistest aru saama, ma pean oskama iseseisvalt üles leidma tualeti, tee sadamasse, voolupistiku, ankeedi vajalikud andmed. Kui sa paned prügikasti kraanikausi alla ja lüliti ukse kõrvale, leiavad inimesed selle üles. Ja kui sul on parem idee, siis sa pead inimesed selle juurde juhendama. Klassikaline näide astmelisest üleminekust on kella sihverplaat, kus iga aste säilitas sarnasuse eelnevaga – nii ei tekita ilma numbriteta kell enam segadust, kuna meid on õpetatud vaatama kella ka ilma numbrinäiduta.
Tagasi metsa, orienteeruma. Taban endas alati jõuetut viha korraldajate vastu, kes on koostanud segase juhendi või loonud võimaluse, kus olen juhistest valesti aru saanud ning seetõttu jooksnud asjatult 10 kilomeetrit vales suunas. Seiklusspordi olukorras olen tegelikult mina see, kes tegi vea ning ei suutnud välja peilida korraldaja salakavalust asjatuid haake sisaldava ja eksitava kaardi koostamisel. Ent kõikide teiste inimeste, asutuste ja teenusepakkujate vastu, kes koostavad segaseid juhiseid ning mänge, mida pole võimalik kaasa mängida, peaks olema seda sallimatust kordades rohkem.
Me kõik oleme end tabanud "haake" tegemas, sest õige tee leidmine oli võimatuks tehtud. Kellel on häid juhtumeid elust enesest, on teretulnud neid Brand Manualiga jagama, et saaksime neid kasutada näidetena koolitustel ja sarnaseid olukordi edaspidi lihtsalt paremini vältida.
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