No longer is design in the backseat when it comes to building digital products and services. In fact, it’s now commonly recognized that design is at the core of these products, and is fundamental in ensuring they exceed user expectations.
It’s no surprise then that McKinsey reported that companies that excel at design grow revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry peers. Design is necessary at every step of the way – from ideation to execution, to continuous improvement.
intive recognizes this more than anyone. Our design team has grown by 100% since the start of 2021, with 100 designers spanning three countries and two continents. One core aspect that lays the foundation of great design is enthusiasm. Only when designers feel inspired, excited, and passionate, can they cultivate deep client relationships and create market-leading products.
There’s no doubt that designers that are enthusiastic about their projects turn out being more collaborative as they openly share what they’re working on with others. This creates the space for feedback and ideas from different perspectives.
Designers that are passionate about what they do often live and breathe design, further expanding the space for out-of-the-box thinking, as it’s something they have top-of-mind throughout much of their day. Furthermore, they’re more likely to be braver in their designs, explore new paths, and most importantly, have fun with what they’re doing. This will then shine through in the end result. Whether the impact will be seen in higher user engagement, better process optimization, lower costs, or something else - the enthusiasm translates to success.
This is evidenced by the numerous awards that intive’s design team has received over the years, including the Red Dot Design Award. intive received the award for its work on adidas GMR, a mobile app that allows users to track their performance on the pitch through a physical tag that is inserted into the adidas GMR football boot. This was a truly innovative product, which came as a result of team collaboration between intive and adidas – and an incredibly inspired idea.
As such, enthusiasm, collaboration and courage are all connected. Enthusiastic designers are more likely to draw inspiration from and collaborate with others. This may take a little extra effort in virtual environments, but through modern tools and establishing best practices, designers can foster this type of culture, ultimately leading to better end products. Not to mention, they’re also more likely to attend conferences, external meetups, and webinars, helping to spark ideas and inspiration for the projects they’re working on.
When designers are enthusiastic about a project, the customer gets excited too. This creates an infectious sense of anticipation about what might be possible, allowing teams to push boundaries and explore possibilities they may not have otherwise thought of. As designers talk openly about their vision, customer stakeholders are pushed out of their comfort zone and begin to see the bigger picture – with a higher level of trust in the design process.
Even in highly regulated business environments, the customer can get on board with exciting developments – it’s about not delivering all the ideas in one fell swoop, but using each other as a sounding board. When the teams share enthusiasm, provide feedback and ideas in a trusted space, the customer are more empowered to doing things in ways that they have not previously considered.
What does this process of enthusiastic collaboration look like at intive? The design team starts with a co-ideation workshop, where creative juices flow between the customer and our designers. When the customer can see excitement sparking in our designers, they develop chemistry and are more open to bigger ideas. This type of collaboration may also come in the form of innovation consulting, where clients need an injection of excitement from intive’s team to create something new and innovative for their business.
intive also conducts internal initiatives to create the space for designers to put forward any new ideas or trends they’ve picked up on that might help our customers – ensuring that designers always have an opportunity to bring ideas they’re enthusiastic about to the rest of the team. When COVID hit, for example, the team held brainstorming sessions to uncover different ways that we could help businesses digitize and adapt to new circumstances. This proactivity has brought about extra trust and closeness of relationship with customers. One result of this was a social watching solution that was developed for Virgin Media, which allowed people to connect through video and chat while watching a show or movie in tandem during quarantine.
Finally, enthusiasm is essential to create not just design that performs smoothly – but that also has an impact. Digital products must be envisioned by designers who get excited about the ways in which the product will change people’s lives.
Just take the xarvio™ SCOUTING app. While most of our designers didn’t personally know anyone who would use the app, they got excited about how they could use cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to help with a seemingly ordinary task like crop quality checks. The close customer relationship also helped drive this project to success. In fact, the xarvio™ SCOUTING app was so successful that intive won an iF Design Award for its intuitive and inclusive design.
And it’s not just designers that get excited about impactful products. Undoubtedly, impactful design excites end-users too, as they are ultimately the ones that experience the multitude of benefits of people-centric design – whether that’s time savings, increased convenience, or innovative experiences. Enthusiasm is at the core – and intive’s success is a testament to this. Interested in learning more about what we offer? Get in touch.