Transform experiences using imagination and design process

Creating a vision for a business's future is a critical strategic process. But, it comes with several challenges. It’s especially hard to define whilst adapting to a changing environment. This often results in a fragmented customer experience. Making it difficult to support and frustrating for users.

Creativity works best when you have time to reflect and time to think. It encourages designers to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to design challenges. This can lead to new features, functionalities and user experiences that set the product apart from the competition.

As a design consultancy we can often remove ourselves from the business as usual. This enables us to think big, think holistically and imagine more ambitious experiences.

Our design process gives us the framework to ensure that our ideas are grounded in customer insights and deliver business value. It also helps us to rapidly prototype, test and communicate the vision. By defining the end state we can work closely with the development team to create the right foundations for future experiences.

I personally love working on complex problems. I get satisfaction from organising information and breaking it down into neat little briefs. This gives me a safe, bounded set of blank canvases that tie back to a set of customer needs, pain point or business problem. Approaching these challenges with a creative mindset can lead to innovative solutions that set a project apart.

Across most projects we work at Pattrn we find three challenges when problem solving. First is dealing with complex and sometimes unorganised information. Second is working with the wrong sort of information. And finally, overthinking or over analysing solutions. The key to any design challenge is to work through it as thoroughly as possible. The trick to avoid overthinking the solution is to time box the idea stage. Then,  make a proof of concept and test it, pronto.

Design helps to bring structure and process to problem solving. It considers and improves the entire customer journey down to every interaction. It also helps to share the problem with a cross-disciplinary perspective. By bringing ideas to life and quickly demonstrating them. It’s much easier to get feedback from people and to test your assumptions. Design helps to ground creative ideas. It provides objectivity and purpose. Creativity helps to imagine fresh ways to improve the experience or meet unmet needs.

This process made the information actionable and workable. And it made it easier to communicate. We did the hard work to make it easier to design. I can’t stress enough how important it is to organise insights into the right altitude.

Two customer experiences have really stood out to me recently. The first was buying some new clothes at Uniqlo. I picked out my clothes and headed to pay. This is where the ‘magic’ happened. Instead of standing in a queue, I placed my items in an empty box next to the terminal. It scanned my items and within seconds I headed out the door with a dumb smile across my face. My experience was convenient. They had identified a pain point and used design to identify it. They used creativity to think of the solution and tech to make it happen.

The second experience is the Webflow university. The experience was informative and hilarious. They had gone the extra mile and made the experience delightful. Design had identified the need and creativity made the videos memorable.

We find that by focussing on how creativity can improve the convenience and the engagement of our customers' experiences. This goes a long way in convincing them to love your brand. There are two principles we would recommend in your design process; knowing your customer and thinking big.

To lead with the experience you need to know your customers' needs and pain points. Emotions play a significant role in user experience. Knowing your customer allows you to design experiences that evoke positive emotions. This leads to increased user satisfaction and brand loyalty.

For us, thinking big has two parts. The first is considering the entire customer experience. The second is to be ambitious, challenge yourself but also challenge existing norms and known patterns. But like the saying goes, you have to know the rules to break the rules. ;)

Taking a holistic approach encourages a deep understanding of the entire user journey. This means considering all touchpoints and interactions with the product or service, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. By understanding the complete user experience, you can address pain points and opportunities at every stage.

For now I want to focus more on thinking big helps you to push known limits. In our ‘thinking big’ process we do a lot of competitor and landscape research. We’re also avid - and slightly judgemental - users of things. This helps us to judge experiences. It helps us to gather things that we like and don’t like and use that in our work. This combined with the ambition and tenacity to make outstanding experiences is the fuel to make any experience great.

Creativity in digital design can create an emotional connection between the user and the product. By considering the people’s needs and emotions, designers can use creative elements to elicit specific feelings and responses. Empathy is our superpower.