The design of endurance races

In the second post of Design Strategy, I would like to touch on the design of experiences. Experiences which leaves a lingering and impactful memory on consumers who got in touch with the brand. The design of such an experience takes a lot of planning, brainstorming and proper execution. A well thought out design from start till end.

Events which I can personally relate to are endurance races like biathlons. Having completed a few over the past few years, I have my personal hits and misses.

For the 10th year running, the Singapore Biathlon is the longest running biathlon and the largest in Southeast Asia. I had the chance to relish this race experience on the 13th March 2010. There are high expectations on the race organiser to maintain interest amongst existing endurance tribes and new ones.

 There are different areas of experience which can be streamlined to.

1) Design Themes for Comunication: The entire experience revolves around safety, sense of achievement and scale. These are the themes to reinforce its brand promise as the biggest biathlon in the region.

2) Design for Engagement: It is a qualification race. First timers have to qualify by swimming 50m in a swimming ppol for 1.5km under a certain timing. Lapsed participants have to go through this process if they did not race for two consecutive years.

3) Design for Emotional Branding: Medal and Finisher T-shirt. These are the main items for rewarding the well deserved biathletes whom finished the course. These items are badging products which form part of the loyalty towards the race or brand.

Please leave your comments, if any. Picture taken from SAFRA website.

Great Design, Winning Experience

As a market researcher by training and profession, I have the chance of testing and researching on a number of products for my clients. Very often, clients are at my doorstep with design prototypes (unfinished products) wanting me to validate and improve their offerings. Over the years, I have conducted studies which range from chocolates to petroleum. I would like to take this chance to share some my personal thoughts with you on how to attain winning products for your customers.

Product experience matters.
A great product experience delivers impactful emotional branding. It is far easier and cheaper to retain a customer which has a pleasant experience with you before than finding a new one. Pleasant experience form deep emotional bonds between your brand and your business. It is priceless. Look for the ‘experience architect’ in your business. They are the ones that closes their eyes, holding the prototype in their hands and imagining what the customer will feel when they use their products or services. Design experience, it matters.

Purposeful design that meets a need is fundamental.

Many products are created for the sake of bringing in sales or ‘it’s already in the pipeline’. Too often, designers design for the sake of fulfilling project requirements and not knowing what is it designed for. Has the product lost its initial purpose? Do designers know why customers need them in the first place? Do they need another 10 TB drive that stores more media? Or do we need one that integrates all your media files that you have and make them ubiquitously accessible to make their lives easier? Sell your product benefits by first having a strategic purpose and meeting the needs of your customers.

Be open about your innovation. Involve your customers. Customers talk, be it to you or to each other. Point is that customers talk. With the prevalence of internet and social networking tools, you can stay in your rabbit hole and they will still be talking about you or your products. Why not make them talk to you and become your asset by integrating product research with them? Lego Factory is created for that purpose to integrate customers into their product design.

I hope you go on to improve your offerings for your customers and great product experience for them.

Please leave your comments, if any.