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Identifying the value proposition is the key point. This is how companies or products solve or satisfy people's needs. By analyzing the value proposition and the mechanics of the value creation, one can begin to compare adjacent systems, technologies and products that have a similar value proposition.
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Change the way news media presents information and ideas across their channels. If media plays a role in dividing our society, then media must take on some of the work needed to rebuild trust and to bring us together. Designing programming that can engage us with the proper information and data is a step in the right direction. We need the proper information in order to seek out the right answers for our rapidly changing society and culture.
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More and more organizations are building brand ecosystems in order to engage with their audience.
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RISD and Pratt Design Management alumni Evelyn Kim was the subject of a Fast Company article this week.
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Start-up rental car company, Silvercar has designed an emotional connection between their service and customers. Silvercar’s design system provides a fresh storyline and experience for their tech-savvy travel customers.
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Adidas, who dropped to 3rd place in the sneaker wars in 2014 behind Nike and Under Armor, was called “out of touch” by their retailers. They immediately embarked on an aggressive push to regain the market.
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Design Thinking uses language to create its narrative. Because Design Thinking solutions work by connecting different parts of the business, building a storyline is important to explaining the process and its value. Creating a cohesive narrative is vital to communicating the ideas effectively.
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In the age of digital over stimulation, it’s helpful use digital notebooks so you can take notes and save articles for later consumption.
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The struggles of Baltimore has been in the national spotlight recently. Can the arts help create an urban renewal in Baltimore?
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Astronaut Chris Hatfield’s autobiography, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, begins with him floating in the airlock, preparing to take his first spacewalk. "Poised on the edge of the sublime, I faced a somewhat ridiculous dilemma: How best to get out there?", he writes. "The hatch was small and circular, but with all my tools strapped to my chest and a huge pack of oxygen tanks and electronics strapped on to my back, I was square. Square astronaut, round hole.”
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Using your digital channels to create a consolidated brand message is vital these days. Each medium has a different reach and engagement.
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The recent Verizon/AOL merger is a game changer. What Verizon appears to be creating is an ecosystem, one with great potential and one that its competitors cannot match. None of them have a comparable mix of mobile, web, TV and delivery platform and infrastructure. Verizon’s acquisitions appear to be designed to provide editorial content and advertising on many different media channels. The company is shifting its focus on to the “empowered consumer.”
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I recently read something that bothered me. It was a LinkedIn post that a friend had shared. The post contained misinformation and incorrect data. The originator’s words were meant to stir the ever-growing ideological divide that is plaguing our country. Although I did not agree with the direction of the content, I am open to any discussion as long as the facts are correct.
What was alarming to me was the fact that it was posted on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has become an amazing platform for news and content. Respectable Influencers post valuable information and opinions every day. But this particular post made me question how LinkedIn’s Pulse platform was evolving.
Our opinions are built on the information that we are given and consume. How can we trust that those channels are giving us the correct information? Certainly, the way media currently presents news and information plays a big role in the creation of our trust issues.
A survey called “Sex, Lies & News” was commissioned by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) in January 2015. The survey presented information on whom Americans trusted and who they thought acted with integrity. Of the people polled, 74% said they acted with integrity vs. 10% for newspapers. Only 6% thought that cable news had integrity.
48% percent did not trust any news source. “According to 4As Chief Marketing Officer Alison Fahey, ‘general consumers are looking to more than one news source for information, because they don’t trust one source.’ ” Only 32% of those polled trusted “Editorial content written by an experienced journalist or established news source.” Information from a 2014 Gallop poll presented similar data. The poll showed that only 40% trust the news that they receive through mass media, newspaper, TV and radio. This is an all time low for the past ten years.
This presents an interesting look at Americans. We believe that we have integrity, but don’t we trust the news sources where we get our information. What information is our integrity and knowledge based on and how can we trust ourselves to know what is the truth? We’re missing the information that we need.
The current media economic framework pays more attention to the needs of the advertiser, overshadowing the needs of the user. A balance between economics, content and users has to be designed. Trust is created when the content and delivery is connected to the users’ needs and they feel protected by the designed system. Can media channels adapt a business model that focuses on the needs of the viewer? Here are some questions that could help design a more connected system.
• Who is the user and which generation do they belong to?
• How do people use and interact with the different media channels that are offered: print, mobile, web?
• What content is relevant to present on each channel?
• When are the users engaging with the content on each channel?
• How is that content best adapted and presented on each media channel?
• How do the different media channels interact with each other?
• How do you maximize the interaction between the channels to build a more adaptable business model?
Why do we trust some people, companies, and brands—and not others? It boils down to how a trusting bond is created: It flourishes when a person feels his needs are being understood and met. Break that connection to someone’s needs and you lose their trust.
So, here I am posting my thoughts. Can you trust that I have integrity? Can you trust that my ideas are researched and thought out with careful consideration to the facts and the message?
Digital platforms democratize everyone’s voices; however, a feedback or review process that maintains editorial quality and control is something that is sorely needed. We need to design a system that can differentiate between trustworthy and trustable.
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Design Thinking is a creative problem-solving discipline that connects creativity, human resources and technology/tools to business needs in order to form strategic business systems. Designers are trained to visualize ideas that connect to user experience and business needs. Designers tell stories that use tools such as color, typography, materials, etc. to achieve their goals. These solutions are created to fit within the market and cultural trends.
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From Tesla to Ford to Honda, is technology taking over our driving experience?
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