“John Maeda is to design what Warren Buffet is to finance”. Definition given by the Wired magazine after the release of Maeda’s report about design and innovation in 2017.

Rhode Island School of Design, MIT president and ex teacher said that designers being promoted to better positions at big companies like McKinsey e IBM and “design thinking” be used at the main universities in the world shows how important it is.

Why are Design Thinking, Design Service, Design Interactive and User Experience (UX) so important to companies? That’s because companies aim customer satisfaction, pleasure and best price provided in the interaction between the customer and the product . That a the company culture guided by design, a broad view where is essential to look for different activities.

Tourism and its services have completely changed over the years. “Airbnb” is from 2008. “TripAdvisor” is from 2004-2005 as well “Booking.com”, some of the airfare price comparison websites and Google Maps, and after that Google Translate. Today we see a revolution in the payments transactions and in the way we buy foreign currency outside the traditional brokerage. It’s hard to remember about “travelers checks”, printed guides and, of course, travel agencies.

There are several other examples and you certainly have a few seconds already in thought. Now reflect on what these changes have in common. They make life easier for the customer through a friendly digital service, designed to satisfy you first and then generate revenue for the company. A change of mindset long worshiped by Maeda and other digital design authorities. “Design is not only aesthetic, it is about gaining market relevance and obtaining better results”, he says.

That doesn’t mean we should ignore efficient services and products that were designed decades ago. But we have a new generation of designers more prepared to merge technology and business with greater agility, leading to innovation at the center of corporate strategies, regardless of the area of ​​activity of the company.

This understanding takes the design to several areas within a company. In the search for products and services, search for the best relationship with customers. That happens  with products already in circulation, via service design, or in projects that are in the pipeline of corporation releases, through ethnographic research and experiences. Internally, companies can also streamline processes and create workflows that privilege innovation by business design.

The record of decision makers is increasingly falling on the need to build a new company. Today, according to a recent Deloitte’s survey of more than 10,000 companies, only 14% say they are satisfied with the traditional corporate hierarchy for defining and executing strategies for definition and implementation of strategies. An indicative that certainly answers the question of the beginning of the text. That’s why we talk about both Service Design, Interaction Design, Thinking Design and User Experience (UX).

Article published on Meio & Mensagem.