We need customer input to create products people love—products they want to use and pay money for. You can use questionnaires to try and understand your users’ motivations, but the problem is that questionnaires lack flexibility and don’t get to core human emotions.
The solution: generative research.
Hands-on exercises unlock the mental space where your customers’ motivations live. There’s always a gap between what we say and what we do—that’s just human nature. Generative research gets past the cognitive filters and brings out the deeper levels of human experience.
Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders wrote (opens PDF), “When all 3 perspectives (what people do, what they say, and what they make) are explored simultaneously, one can more readily understand and establish empathy with the people who use products and information systems.”
Benefits of hands-on exercises for interviews
Become a better listener and reach a shared understanding
Make a conversation unfold naturally and achieve a strong rapport
Get rich information on users’ motivations and expectations
Discover ways to get stories full of emotion and detail
Learn from the participant’s own insights about themselves
Feel true empathy to generate a solution
Types of exercises
The cool thing about the generative research method is that it’s just a framework. It’s a way of thinking and conducting research, and it encompasses many types of exercises. Let’s explore some of them.
This exercise is basically asking participants to recollect ideas related to a given concept. What you’ll get are ideas from the top of their mind, which is good because it means those are the most important to them. Lists are low effort to complete but yield rich discussion.
Lists are useful for:
Collecting elements of a category (e.g. “Types of meals I cook”)
Gathering feelings and needs around a topic
Compiling inventories (e.g. “What’s in my bathroom cabinet”)
Capturing schedules about a day
Sentence completion
For this exercise, you give participants a series of incomplete sentences that they must finish. This is a good trick to have them project their inner associations with the concept you’re exploring. These are easy to complete and are good conversation starters.
Use sentence completion to:
Elicit associations, desires, preferences, and values about a topic
Gather a participant’s own words to understand the symbolic meanings associated with the concept
Assess motivations and attitudes
Sorting
Card sorting involves giving participants set of cards, each labeled with a piece of content or functionality, then asking them to sort the cards into groups that make sense to them. The result you get will help you to increase the system’s findability.
With card sorting, you can:
Identify and explore categories
Understand relationships among elements, which leads to uncovering users’ mental models
Learn about preferences and priorities (when participants rank order elements)
Remember stories (when participants select or sort images)
Make
This is a broad range of exercises, but they all center around the idea of giving participants tokens they can arrange to tell a story about themselves. They’re also useful to help them exemplify subjective and complex ideas, like thinking about the future or health-related issues.
Some activities to consider:
Drawings
Collage
Sculpture, models
Building (e.g. with Legos or paper cut-outs)
Keep in mind participants need lots of time to create and explain.
We can gain access to the emotional space of our users if we use hands-on exercises. If we empathize with them, chances are we can design a product that will fit into their lifestyles.
Generative research techniques will help you explore the hidden nuances and create solutions to their problems. Let’s not forget that people are the real experts at understanding their own ways of living.
As Steve Jobs said: “It’s not the consumers’ job to figure out what they want.”
Misael Leon Misael Leon is a Product Designer at Nearsoft, Inc. He has over twelve years of experience creating, developing, and designing strong visual concepts and solid software products. He simplifies complex systems by throwing users into the mix. He does it through Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design methodologies.
He is passionate about the future and believes the world can be a better place if people stay connected and share knowledge. His mission is creating effective and intuitive tools that facilitate the work of others.
Congratulations—you’ve won the pitch and got the job. As a designer, though, the hard work has just begun.
Whether you’re a freelancer or working at an agency, it’s not always easy to ensure you get the information you need from a client. You may feel like you’re going blind into a large company with a set culture, and defined identity and values.
Still, initiating contact and getting the right preliminary information from your client prior to starting work is vital. The information you gather will set the tone for the rest of the project—and help in putting together an accurate quote, timeframe, and working schedule.
It’s easy to shy away from asking vital tough questions early in the process when you’re working for yourself. If you want to set up a successful client relationship, however, you need to ask these questions.
How are you different?
What sets your client apart from the thousands of other people who offer the same thing?
Push for a solid answer here so you can better understand their culture and how they’re different in the services or product they provide, their office space, or their approach to work.
From there, think about how to reflect that in their design.
Why do you want a new brand/logo/identity/website?
If it turns out they’re looking for a quick fix or a rapid increase in short-term business, it may be wise to question whether they’re looking as far into the future as they need to.
What do you think this project will improve?
Though a new design might look better, what exactly will it improve? Your client might be sending the wrong message if you rebrand or change their visual identity too strongly, and these updates will have to be justified.
As a designer, the last thing you want is to have your site design bear the weight of bottom-line business performance. There are of course strong cases for how refreshing a brand identity will improve the marketing, direction, and profits of company, but ensure they are well thought out and solid.
Before working with a client, make sure they have a clear vision of how a new brand or look-and-feel will improve the company—or will at least let you help them find that vision.
Don’t avoid the ever-pressing issue of budget and spend. Address this early and come to grips with how much your client has budgeted for the project. Ask for specifics, and don’t make any assumptions.
This is especially true with first-time clients, before a working relationship has been developed. If nothing else, it will give you a good idea of the scope of the project, and how much you will be able to deliver within their budget and associated timeframe.
What are your long-term goals?
This ties into the previous questions about timing for the project, and why your client seeks a brand refresh or digital/print rebranding.
Ask about long-term goals. These form the backbone of a company, especially a small one, so probe into what they’re looking to achieve in the future. Also be sure to ask about existing designs, other current design projects, and anything else you should be aware of before you begin. Most companies will have existing structures you might need to work around or within.
A very clear idea of a project timeline needs to be established so everyone knows what to expect when. It’s easy to get going on the work, get excited by the idea, and get caught up in the creative—only for the client to say they were expecting it far earlier than you were expecting.
Ask honest questions about what your client wants done and give honest answers about your capacity and abilities.
Who are the key stakeholders/decision makers?
This may not be a difficult question, but it’s an important one. The answer to this needs to be pinned down as early as possible.
You need to be speaking to the right people—as in, the ones who can sign off your work.
We all know work can often be held up throughout the review, feedback, and sign-off process. This can get even worse if you realize down the line you’ve talked to people with no real power to say “yes” or “no” to your designs. Many people within an organization will have creative opinions on your work, but it’s vital that the main decision-maker is happy with it.
Questions—and attempting to find the answers—are a huge part of the job we do when we’re creating or refreshing a brand identity for a client.
In the best-case scenario, you’ve asked and answered the right questions about potential clients before you ever sign on the dotted line. If not, ask these vital questions as early as possible in the process to save yourself potential headaches later.
Consider this “getting to know your client phase” to be the crucial first part of your design process.
Jacob Little Jacob Little is the Digital Marketing Manager at Bristol based Fiasco Design, a multi-award winning creative design agency based in Bristol. Bringing ideas to life with design and code, whether it’s branding, web design, animation or print.
from InVision Blog http://blog.invisionapp.com/design-client-questions/
On staying busy: “Once you’ve accomplished a goal, you’re all done. And I don’t ever want to be all done.” On collaborating: “I don’t walk into a meeting with a ‘me, me, me’ attitude. I walk in and say, ‘How do I become your partner?’ ” Read more.
Time he wakes up: Between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. First thing he does in the morning: “Get up, go to the gym. I’m probably in there for an hour to an hour and a half.” Productivity tool: “Kevmoji. Kevmoji puts a constant smile on my face and helps me take text messaging to the next level.” Most productive space: “I go onstage to figure things out. I’ll have a premise, a couple of beats, and I’ll go onstage and talk about the thoughts. That’s how I write.” Time he goes to bed: “Depends on the day. Tonight, probably 11:30 or midnight.” —As told to Benjamin Svetkey
Cochair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
“When I worked at Microsoft for nine years and didn’t have kids, I would often stay late, polishing some presentation for the next day. My best friend had two kids at the time, and she had to go home for dinner—she didn’t have a choice. If you have to be home, you squeeze a lot into the last hour. Being a parent taught me to task-shift very quickly. But it also taught me to take pauses.” Read more.
Time she wakes up: “6:30. My morning starts with a little bit of yoga and meditation. And then right after that, I get the kids up.” What she does while commuting: “I have been listening to the Hamilton sound-track pretty much nonstop.” Email strategy: “I split my personal and my office emails into two different folders, and I’m very disciplined about only going into business ones at certain times of the day.” Last thing she does at night: “I think of one thing I’m grateful for. It’s a nice way to settle your mind before you go to sleep.” Time she goes to bed: Between 9:30 and 10 p.m. —As told to Missy Schwartz
President and CEO, Gucci
“In fashion, you cannot make a decision with 100% of the information. You can collect all the data and conduct all the focus groups, but that is a picture of the past. You have to [make decisions] based on demand, feelings, rationality, and emotions. Why do you go into the shop to buy something? Because you are emotionally driven. Nobody needs any more bags and suits. Sometimes you see shows for luxury companies and you say, ‘My God, that is so boring. Why did you need to do a show for this?’ If you don’t take risks, you’re going to lose. . . .We are not a consumer-goods company, we are a luxury company. We have to create demand even if the people aren’t ready, because in 18 months, they will be.
“If [someone] makes a decision and they make a mistake, at least it keeps things moving. Everyone knows that I am always accessible. [I think of] my iPhone as an extension of my hand. The conversations I have [during the day] last between one and five minutes, never more than that, so that everyone knows they can always get an answer from me.”
Time he wakes up: “Around 7 a.m. But I have a problem with sleeping when I travel. I just came back from Japan and I think [I slept] five hours in five days. At a certain point, I collapse.” Mantra: “ ‘No’ is not attractive. If someone has a new idea, I expect people to be open-minded.” Worst habit: “I’m impatient. When my leg starts moving up and down, that is a signal that people need to speed up or change subjects. It’s kind of a joke at the company at this point: ‘Don’t move the leg, please don’t move the leg.’ ” Most productive time: “When I run. My mind is free. I try to run for an hour three or four times a week.” Time he goes to bed: “Around midnight.” —As told to J.J. McCorvey
Showrunner, author, CEO of television production company ShondaLand
[Photo: Robert Trachtenberg/Trunk Archive]
“A giant part of my job is running the business, but I need most of my time for creative work. A lot of that involves shutting off everybody else. I have a rule that you’re not allowed to come into my office unless you have a solution—not a problem.” Read more.
Time she wakes up: 5 a.m., to spend time alone before her kids wake up. What she lets slide: “Right now, I don’t feel guilty that I’m not working out. I’ll feel guilty about it at another time.” Worst habit: “Too much caffeine. I haven’t tried to curb it in any way.” Most productive space: “Any place I can wear headphones. [The music] has to be something I can sing to. Last year, it was just Aretha Franklin. The year before it was Marvin Gaye. This year it’s only Hamilton.” Time she goes to bed: 10 p.m. —As told to J.J. McCorvey
CEO, Google
“Nothing makes me happier than a product review in which I can sit with the team and they’re showing me something they’re building. Being able to react to it and think through, ‘When users get this, what will their feedback be?’ I’m always on a quest to do that better and do more of it.” Read more.
Time he wakes up: “6:45 to 7:30, depending on how late I stayed up.” First thing he does in the morning: “Check my email, brush my teeth. Sometimes at the same time.” Most productive space: “Anywhere that’s quiet and has large windows.” Lunch routine: “I actually have two lunches: the first one at around noon, and then a sandwich at around 3 p.m.” Motivational object: “The first Chromebook we ever made. It reminds me of the journey we’ve been on to make computing accessible for everyone.” Daily breaks: “If I’m at work, I’ll take a walk. If I’m at home, I try to sit down and have a chat with my kids—I always learn something new.” What he lets slide: “Personal emails. Sorry, Brian, I promise I’ll respond soon.” Best habit: “Listen first, and ask why. Also, I’ve been told that I’m a voracious reader.” Worst habit: “Eating sugary things when I’m stressed.” Time he goes to bed: “Later than I should.” —As told to Harry McCracken
Creator and host, Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods series; chef; CEO, Andrew Zimmern’s Canteen and Intuitive Content
“Restaurants have informed everything I do. The kitchens that I grew up [working] in were serious food environments. That kind of teamwork, where different people are working on different aspects of the same thing and it’s all meeting at a certain place, is how I run all of my businesses. A lot of it is cadence. We have a rhythm in our company that I think has been the saving grace. We have weekly management meetings that take place whether I’m in town or not. Waiting for the guy at the top who’s overextended can sink a lot of businesses. I employ people whose job it is to keep me from procrastinating. I’m very transparent about my need to get help. A lot of people think talking about the problems they have is a sign of weakness, but I think it’s a sign of strength. If you’re a successful business leader and you have problems with procrastination, everyone in your office knows it. Everyone!
“No is the most powerful word in the English language. Saying no to something means you’re able to say yes to something else that may be more important. I’ve had to do a lot of self-coaching to learn to say, ‘Let me think about it and get back to you.’ That helps me put space between my thought, which is: Do it, and my action.”
Time he wakes up: 7 a.m. “I have a little prayer and spirituality moment for 90, 120 seconds in the morning.” How he handles stress: A deep-breathing exercise he learned from his Pilates teacher. Mantra: “Don’t be the best, be the only.” Lunch routine: “The first thing my assistant asks me in the morning: ‘What do you want for lunch?’ I don’t like to waste meals. [What I eat is] the exact opposite of the sad desk lunch.” Most productive space: “My son’s room when he’s asleep. Being in his room is a calming influence on me.” Time he goes to bed: “Between 12:30 and 1 a.m.” —As told to Rob Brunner
Founder and CEO, Bumble
“I literally work from the moment I open my eyes. Bumble has gone from zero to over 8 million registrations in less than two years. We have to be as fast as our users are. It’s not abnormal that I’ll wake up to urgent emails and spend three hours in my bedroom working through them before I leave [for the office]. I’m the type of person who loves ‘inbox zero,’ but I prioritize. I have a severe phone addiction, and to curb it, I set microgoals: You don’t need to look at your phone right this second. Leave it in your bag five more minutes. I try to cook something every single night, and that forces me to put it down because I only have two hands. I’ve [learned] that nothing really is the end of the world; it can all be solved at some point. But walking your dog and paying attention to the people you love, that cannot always wait.”
Time she wakes up: 6 a.m. Most productive space: “Outdoors. You can’t stay cooped up all day.” Productivity tool: “Facebook Messenger. Everyone is supercomfortable with it because they’ve been using it personally. I don’t like to introduce things at work that [employees] don’t feel like they’d want to use in their personal life.” Best habit: “Refreshing my email every 10 seconds is probably my worst and my best. While I don’t miss anything professionally, I might miss the stop-and-smell-the-roses moments.” Nightly routine: “I’m trying to change it because currently it consists of some sort of red wine.” Time she goes to bed: 10:30 or 11. —As told to Missy Schwartz
Journalist, screenwriter, producer, and coanchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box
“When I’m doing one thing, I’m really focused on that one thing. I have no to-do list. I put everything on a calendar, [which helps me] know that this call is going to take 15 minutes or that this is a 25-minute project. The calendar also helps me create artificial deadlines. When I was writing Too Big to Fail, I would spend three or four hours doing that, and then I’d switch gears to writing daily stories or columns [for The New York Times] related to the financial crisis, and I would have to force myself not to think about [the book].” Read more.
Time he wakes up: Between 3:55 and 4:25 a.m. Productivity philosophy: “I don’t think anybody can be particularly successful or productive on their own.” Email hack: “SaneBox does a pretty good job of prioritizing email and eliminating stuff that I don’t really need to look at.” Go-to motivator: “On my desk at home, I have tacked [up] this quote: Aren’t you worried? And the next sentence says, would it help? It comes from the movie Bridge of Spies. If it wouldn’t help to worry about it, [I’m] not going to worry about it right now.” Best habit: “I’ve never been a big drinker, but I don’t drink on weekdays. I don’t get as much sleep as I want anyway, so it [would be] just another thing slowing me down.” Time he goes to bed: “9:30 or 10 p.m. Later if I’m being bad.” —As told to J.J. McCorvey
CEO, Deloitte
“I was a Division I college athlete, and I grew up with five brothers and two sisters. I’ve always been a competitor. [But] I’ve learned that productivity should not be a competitive sport. You’re never going to win.
“I am responsible for almost 80,000 people. I prioritize people over tasks. One Note allows me to put different tasks [involving] each of my executive-team members in a tab. That way when I talk to them, I can be more effective, because the five things I wanted to talk to them about [are right there].
“If I looked at email and Twitter and texts [during the day], I don’t think I would ever give my full attention to anything. You cannot be insightful if you’re deluged with information. We’re all drowning in data. We all need moments of recovery. For me, that includes not going right to my phone when I wake up in the morning. I got on a plane about six months ago, and I forgot my phone. For two days, I didn’t have my phone, and nobody died.”
Time she wakes up: Between 6 and 7:30 a.m. Worst habit: Late-night emailing. Mantra: “Technology should help you do your job, not control your job.” Nightly routine: “Watch Seinfeld or Friends on TV.” Time she goes to bed: 11:30 p.m. —As told to Ruth Reader
Master taster, Woodford Reserve
“I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid and needed to take Ritalin. But as an adult, I’ve figured out how to make it work for me. My mind wanders when it’s quiet, so I listen to music to help me focus. I’m involved with the boots-on-the-ground distillery work, making sure instruments are calibrated and doing quality control. I also work on the more artistic side of production, creating new flavor profiles for Woodford Reserve. [It’s helpful that] my job requires me to bounce between a lot of different functions, because I can’t stay on one task for very long.
“I travel a lot as master taster to educate people on how to explore different flavors, so I spend a lot of time in the car brainstorming simple cocktail recipes. To capture my wine- and-champagne-loving friends, [I came up with mixing] Woodford Reserve and LaCroix orange-flavored soda water, with orange bitters to make the flavor pop. I find myself daydreaming about grain bills and barrel finishes.”
Time she wakes up: 5 a.m., to visit her horse before work. “I don’t have enough time to ride, I just groom him. It’s very therapeutic.” Email strategy: “I’m so ‘on’ at work that the moment I get home, I don’t check my email again. Everyone has my phone number if they need me.” Audible assists: “For creative work, it’s James Taylor, Tom Petty, George Strait. For a repetitive task, it’s something more energetic, like ’80s pop, Beyoncé.” Productivity philosophy: “Say ‘yes’ first, figure it out second.” Nightly routine: “Whiskey on the rocks and TV.” Time she goes to bed: 9:30 p.m. —As told to Elizabeth Segran
We’ve had 23 incredible speakers so far this year in our #DesignTalk series. Tens of thousands of you have participated in discussions ranging from freelancing skills to how to design for executives.
Check out our top 5 most popular talks below—and find out how you can get your topic idea on the list for 2017.
5 years of Lean UX
Since the idea first percolated in 2010 through to its current state as a permanent hashtag on Twitter, Lean UX changed the way we look at designing products—including how we work with our colleagues in product management, software engineering, marketing, and executive leadership.
In this tactical talk, Jeff Gothelf, author of Lean UX, shares his key insights from 5 years of teaching, writing about, and practicing Lean UX.
Unified design
Today’s web users are fanatically multi-screen users. They’ll add a product to their Amazon cart on a laptop at work and finish checking out on a smartphone in bed. Responsive web design laid the foundation for designing multi-screen UX within the browser by creating a unified browsing experience. Unified design aims to build on that foundation by unifying the entire experience across devices and platforms.
Cameron Moll teaches 10 best practices for delivering a unified, consistent user experience regardless of where the digital experience begins, continues, and ends.
The human-first principles for mobile success
We all strive to be better human beings. We want an attractive body, a meaningful life, and to become more intelligent about the things that count. And the more connected we become to our mobile products, the more we expect from them. Mobile products are essentially an extension of ourselves.
Mobile guru and Silicon Valley veteran SC Moatti teaches the “human-first” principles that are the foundation for mobile success, in this robust talk.
Done is better than perfect
You’ve wrapped up a project, and now you’re ready to ship it. But then your mind starts racing: Is it even good? Did I miss anything? Will people like it? Is it actually done? If your work does what it’s supposed to, it’s ready to go—but how do you overcome that fear and just press send?
In this talk with Brad Weaver, Chief Experience Officer at Nine Labs, we cover the steps to getting more work out there more often—and how to build better relationships with your clients and users along the way.
Nir Eyal, the bestselling author of the number-one ranked book on product design, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, shares his new research into how to persuade people for good.
Our last DesignTalk of 2017
Want to create a product people love? You have to get into the habit of doing more research. The problem is that most teams mistakenly believe research is time consuming and expensive. If you get into the habit of doing fast and frequent feedback, you’ll glean critical insights that inform every product decision and prevent you from building something people don’t want.
from Stories by David Travis on Medium https://medium.com/@userfocus/what-makes-a-great-ux-practitioner-hint-its-not-what-you-think-1bc677097dd?source=rss-934fcb05e8b5——2
7 minutes ago from Sam Moore, Senior Experience Designer at Cantina
from Designer News Feed https://www.designernews.co/stories/77123-zeplin-sketch-measure-and-invision-inspect–comparing-design-spec-tools-for-ui-development
Warning: If you’re part the team behind InVision, please don’t hate me, I published it here hoping this well help you improve the app in a way or another. I’m a big fan (clearly kissing some asses before you get to read all the critical criticism and become angry).
P.S. there are a lot of gifs in here, so hold on for a couple of seconds until they all load.
from Sidebar http://sidebar.io/out?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.prototypr.io%2Finvision-is-awesome-but-not-perfect-81f48b52875c%23.bqp8pvuky
As you drive around a city, you’ll see streets, avenues, lanes, courts, parkways, and more types of roads than you can count. Turns out, those naming conventions aren’t just for kicks. They actually mean something.
In this video from the Vox YouTube channel, Phil Edwards gives the lowdown on what all those words means when it comes to transportation. Here’s a quick taste of what you’ll learn:
Road (Rd.): Can be anything that connects two points. The most basic of the naming conventions.
Way: A small side street off a road.
Street (St.): A public way that has buildings on both sides of it. They run perpendicular to avenues.
Avenue (Ave.): Also a public way that has buildings or trees on either side of it. They run perpendicular to streets.
Boulevard (Blvd.): A very wide city street that has trees and vegetation on both sides of it. There’s also usually a median in the middle of boulevards.
Lane (Ln.): A narrow road often found in a rural area. Basically, the opposite of a boulevard.
Drive (Dr.): A long, winding road that has its route shaped by its environment, like a nearby lake or mountain.
Terrace (Ter.): A street that follows the top of a slope.
Place (Pl.): A road or street that has no throughway—or leads to a dead end.
Court (Ct.): A road or street that ends in a circle or loop.
Knowing what each road type does can help you navigate almost any city a lot easier. You’ll have a better sense of direction and won’t have to rely on Google Maps as much. Not every city in the world follows these naming conventions exactly, but you’d be surprised how many do.
In September 2016, Microsoft founder Bill Gates slipped to #2 in Forbes’ annual list of the World’s Richest Billionaires. Gates’ premier position, which he had steadfastly maintained for many years, was usurped — if only for a few days — by an Amancio Ortega. In comparison to Gates’ public stature and celebrity, Ortega was a relative unknown and it took market watchers, entrepreneurs and business journalists a few incredulous Google searches to discover that the 80-year-old Spaniard was actually the founder of clothing giant Zara.
On closer inspection though, it seems hardly surprising that a figure as unknown and low-key as Ortega helms one of the world’s largest fashion empires. For one, Zara, in keeping with Ortega’s reluctance to do interviews or court any kind of publicity, invests little to no money in advertising. Unlike competing brands and fashion houses, Zara scarcely appears on billboards; its collections do not figure in fashion shows; neither does it lobby for Vogue’s gilded pages, nor does it associate itself with any celebrities or high-profile fashion designers.
Indeed, it bends all the rules and defies all the conventions that have endured since the time fashion, as it were, emerged from the aristocratic salons and bohemian boutiques of 19th Century Paris, and entered the mass market. And yet, Zara is thriving. With over 2,100 stores across the world and a revenue of $15.9 Billion (2016), it is one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Unlike competing brands and fashion houses, Zara scarcely appears on billboards; its collections do not figure in fashion shows; neither does it lobby for Vogue’s gilded pages, nor does it associate itself with any celebrities or high-profile fashion designers.
Unlike competing brands and fashion houses, Zara scarcely appears on billboards; its collections do not figure in fashion shows; neither does it lobby for Vogue’s gilded pages, nor does it associate itself with any celebrities or high-profile fashion designers.
So how does Zara do it?
The answer is Fast Fashion. Fast Fashion, pioneered by Zara, is both the dynamo of its success and its most distinguishing factor. In contradistinction, legacy fashion brands, whose products are priced higher, follow the more orthodox and time-honored approach of Seasonal Fashion, wherein the bulk of their inventory is designed and manufactured before the beginning of every season, allowing no room for design improvements or changes mid-season.
Before proceeding, let’s strike a clear distinction between Fast Fashion and Seasonal Fashion clothing. While most apparel brands reserve 80% of their inventory towards Seasonal Fashion clothing, Zara does the opposite, reserving only 50% for its seasonal line and devoting the rest to Fast Fashion items. From hereon, all facts, figures and details will relate to Zara’s Fast Fashion clothing and not the other 50% of its inventory.
What is Fast Fashion?
Since it came en vogue, Fast Fashion has been adopted by several other brands — H&M, notably, commits up to 20% of its inventory towards Fast Fashion items — with the result that the concept has become elastic and loosely defined. We’ve, however, tried to delineate it by examining its core features.
Fast Fashion is at the very centre of Zara’s strategy; it is what gives it an edge over legacy fashion retailers like Calvin Klein, Armani etc.
Frugal
Zara’s approach to Fast Fashion can be traced to Ortega’s earliest business venture in 1963 — when he sold quilted bathrobes and lingerie that were inspired from designer brands. To this day, Zara stays true to Ortega’s thrifty design processes. Compared to its competitors, the company does not hire high-profile designers or invest too heavily in crafting wholly original designs. In contrast, its designers, young, anonymous and enthusiastic, work in concert to create and modify designs with strict adherence to market demands.
Imitative
Zara’s genius lies in identifying the latest fashion fads; it keeps an army of fashion watchers who keep an eye on what’s trending on runways, what couture brands are producing and what avant-garde designers are exhibiting, and accordingly tailoring its fabrics to stay on top of trends. In doing so, Zara has run afoul of the storied gatekeepers of fashion as well as indie designers. In 2012, luxury brand Christian Louboutin took legal action against Zara for allegedly imitating one of its shoe designs and selling it at half the price. Although the case was dismissed, fashion journalists surmised that Zara manages to steer clear of trouble by tweaking its designs just enough to avoid copyright violations. Similarly, young and emerging designers have railed against Zara for selling alleged knockoffs of their work.
Zara’s genius lies in identifying the latest fashion fads; it keeps an army of fashion watchers who keep an eye on what’s trending on runways, what couture brands are producing and what avant-garde designers are exhibiting, and accordingly tailoring its fabrics to stay on top of trends.
Zara’s genius lies in identifying the latest fashion fads; it keeps an army of fashion watchers who keep an eye on what’s trending on runways, what couture brands are producing and what avant-garde designers are exhibiting, and accordingly tailoring its fabrics to stay on top of trends.
Responsive
If you had been shopping for jeans at any of Zara’s outlets in New York City in the later months of 2001, chances are that you purchased a pair that was black in color. This isn’t mere coincidence; instead, it is a part of Fast Fashion’s core strategy. A few days after the September 11 attacks rocked NYC, Zara’s store managers realized that the bulk of their customers were in a sullen mood. The observation was relayed to Zara’s designers, who quickly swung into motion. Only a few weeks later, Zara rolled out a new collection that was entirely in black.
In fashion parlance, turnaround time represents the time it takes for a current collection to be replaced by a new one. For most fashion retailers, the turnaround time is 3–6 months. In comparison, Zara, as it demonstrated in the aftermath of September 11, can push a collection from the canvas to the store shelf in two weeks.
What Makes Fast Fashion So Fast
The Cube is where Zara’s 200-member design team, its procurement and production teams work in coordination. Tokyo, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro or London — no matter where you shop, at least 50% of every Zara outlet’s inventory (in other words, its Fast Fashion inventory) begins its course at The Cube.
The Cube is where Zara’s 200-member design team, its procurement and production teams work in coordination. Tokyo, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro or London — no matter where you shop, at least 50% of every Zara outlet’s inventory (in other words, its Fast Fashion inventory) begins its course at The Cube.
Arteixo is a quiet town located in A Coruña, on the Spanish coastline. With its Galician architecture and historical landmarks, it seems hardly indistinct from the dozens of heritage towns dotting the Spanish countryside. Under its cobbled streets, though, runs a 124-mile-long network of high-speed monorail tracks that converge under a colossal and forbidding megastructure called The Cube. Given its enormity and futuristic design, The Cube seems like something out of the sets of 2001 A Space Odyssey. It is, in actuality, the nerve centre of Zara’s worldwide operations.
The Cube is where Zara’s 200-member design team, its procurement and production teams work in coordination. Tokyo, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro or London — no matter where you shop, at least 50% of every Zara outlet’s inventory (in other words, its Fast Fashion inventory) begins its course at The Cube.
from The Startup – Medium https://medium.com/swlh/how-zara-spent-0-in-advertising-to-disrupt-the-fashion-industry-59526b5000af?source=rss—-f5af2b715248—4
Over the last 3 years, I’ve worked as a UX design intern at 2 independent advertising agencies and a famous product company based in Australia. As a passionate and young beginner, I learned how to be open to different perspectives—and how I actually didn’t know anything at all.
This list is a culmination of the important lessons I picked up along the way. I hope this helps you in your own path as a designer, as I continue to tread mine. Enjoy!
Design isn’t about how things look—it’s a plan, strategy, and an execution.
Appreciate the small details. Things like whitespace, padding, and consistent iconography go a long way.
Most UI redesigns are done without the context of business goals or user needs, goals, and motivations. They’re just there for eye candy.
Research methods are your best bet to an informed design.
Qualitative data provides context to quantitative data—these are partners in crime.
Presenting findings is part of the job.
The term “user experience” is ambiguous—people have different conceptions, definitions, and meanings for it. I think it’s about making products and services easier and delightful to use.
Articulating design decisions is important so your stakeholders can trust you.
Just create an MVP and test it out. You’ll learn along the way.
Bureaucracy brackets the growth of UX in traditional organizations.
Your portfolio should show your thought process more than the final “look” of the product.
Psychology is deeply intertwined with UX. Learning it will give you an edge.
UX designers need to come up with solutions that not only look good, but have a solid research foundation.
Your formal education won’t be able to keep up with the industry, so curate your own design education. (Though, it’s worth noting that thinking critically, negotiating, presenting ideas, and doing research are essential skills to be learned while you’re in school. These are skills important to a UX designer.)
Design systems make prototyping faster, but they’re hard to maintain.
Gestalt principles, Occam’s razor, and Fitts’s Law for UI design solve most UX problems.
The best companies in the world hire UX designers because they inevitably bring in more profit in return.
Hiring a UX designer is cost effective. What will happen to your time and resources when you find out people wouldn’t use your product? So hire a UX designer.
UX is more than just building apps or websites. It’s about representing the user in the whole design process.
Keep track of all the new tools and find the ones that help you do your job best.
Personas can inform design. Base them on real data.
Educating clients and stakeholders about UX is part of the job. Not doing so will cause you more headaches in the long run.
You appreciate how architects design physical spaces and how they care deeply for their users.
People have a wide range of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that can influence how they see your brand—ultimately affecting the product as well.
There are tons of UX resources out there. It’s easy to find them and learn the various methods and tools. The hard part is actually applying them to specific business situations and contexts.
If you’re the lone UX wolf at your organization, it’s your job to get others on board with design.
Go to more meetups. Meet more people. Listen and learn. Connect with people you look up to. That’s one of the best ways to learn.
Alexis Collado Alexis Collado has interned for award-winning companies such as Jump Digital Asia, Freelancer.com, and NuWorks Interactive Labs—usually being the first UX Design intern. He had been passionate about web design and user experience ever since high school, so he founded User Experience Society — the first student organization of aspiring UX and product designers in the Philippines. Alexis is relentless in seeking challenging opportunities that push his knowledge and talents to the limit. You can reach him at alexis.collado@uxsociety.ph.
