My Design Notes

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16 Apr 2012

Branding a less known travel destination - Finland
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How would you promote a country that is not a mainstream tourist attraction? The Finnish Tourist Board has decided to use a conceptual identity to tell what Finland is and why you should come here.

Finland was eight in the 2010 Country Brand Index, ahead of the UK, Sweden, Germany and Italy. However, in tourism terms Finland is a challenger brand. Most overnight visitors come from Russia, Sweden, and Germany. "Visit Finland" is the conceptual identity that should attract travelers also from other parts of the world.

The new website (now in beta) of Visit Finland wants to communicate Finland's identity through four characteristics: credible, contrasting, creative and cool. Accordingly, it provides a top 10 list of reasons for traveling to Finland:
- Get off the beaten track of traditional European tourist attractions
- You need to hide
- You want to do something that your friends haven’t done
- You’re bored of crowded places
- You want to see Santa
- You want to experience clean nature (while the world still has it)
- You like to have fun in the snow
- You love the Moomins
- You want to learn real driving
- You feel cold (Come to the land of the sauna)
The Tourist Board has developed three themes that reflect Finland's core values:

SILENCE, PLEASE

"As a counterbalance to the hectic, ever-accelerating rhythm of daily life, Finland offers peace and quiet, and space to breathe, even in the heart of the city. Visitors can take things easy, stay at a cottage, enjoy a sauna, and explore an untouched natural environment."

WILD & FREE

"Every traveller would like to experience at least one memorable adventure during their holiday. Finnish nature offers opportunities for spectacular nature activities, such as snowmobile and dog sled safaris, island hopping by boat, canoeing in the archipelago, or even a snowball fight in the city."

CULTURAL BEAT

"The uniqueness of Finnish culture is recognised around the world, from its classic design and Father Christmas to heavy metal music and tasty fresh produce."

The Finnish Tourist Board has identified the type of travelers whose own preferences coincide with that of Finland. They are "modern humanists", according to the RISC Monitor research. About 15 percent of world travellers are estimated to be modern humanists, people who have traveled a lot and are seeking fresh options.

"Finland is for people, who have seen the major metropolises of the world and are open to further broadening their horizons. People, who find advancements in technology, sustainability and design close to their hearts." - Visit Finland

Photo credit: Aarni Heiskanen

Site screen capture: beta.visitfinland.com
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25 Mar 2012

Four strategies for improved client-designer relationships
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Most designers offer their services through short-term projects, which means that the client-designer relationship is often temporary. What are the other types of designer-client relationships and how are they best managed?

The relationship quadrants

Two aspects are important when characterizing client-designer relationships:

1) The scope of the service

2) The role of the designer in the client's process

The scope of the service can be either a project or an ongoing process. In both cases, the role of the designer can be either assistive or participative. In order to compare the two types of scope and the two alternative roles, we can visualize a matrix with four relationship types (see diagram, below).

Each type has different goals, opportunities, risks, and competitive strategies associated with it. Here is a short characterization of the four relationship types:

A) An assistive role in a project – The Project Supplier
- Driver: Client’s need to get a solution to a single, well defined problem.
- Duration: Short-term agreements.
- Designer's goal: To be awarded the supplier’s contract.
- Competitive factors: Price or service performance.
- Critical success factor: Price-quality ratio.
- Designer should know: Decision-makers and their criteria for providers; customers’ needs; ways to improve your own productivity
A project can be the start of a successful designer-client relationship. However, many clients feel that they have to tender each project, which makes this kind of relationship potentially transitory.

B) An assistive role in an ongoing process – The Outsourced Process Provider
- Driver: Client's determination to focus on core business.
- Duration: Long-term, ongoing service.
- Designer's goal: To allow the client to focus on their core business.
- Competitive factors: Provision of cost-effective services.
- Critical success factor: Integration into the client’s processes.
- Designer should know: The right service scope and the client’s own cost for providing the same service level.
It is naturally good business practice for a client to focus on their core business. Therefore, many companies want to outsource processes that they consider complementary. This provides a design company with the opportunity to build a long-lasting relationship with the client. Clients are very cost-conscious in outsourcing deals, so the designer must be able to provide a high-quality service cost-effectively.

C) A participative role in a project - The Consultant
- Driver: A strategically important issue that requires a solution.
- Duration: An ongoing relationship with recurrent projects.
- Designer’s goal: To create and maintain a trusted relationship.
- Competitive factors: Strategic thinking; understanding the client-s business.
- Critical success factor: Ability to improve the client’s competitive position.
- Designer should know: The client’s strategy.
The difference between a type-A relationship and a Type-C one is that, in the latter, the designer contributes more directly to the competitiveness of the client. The designer can be, for example, taking part in a new product or process design that improves the client's core business. A designer is a trusted advisor, even though the relationship is formed around projects.

D) A participative role in a process – The Strategic Partner
- Driver: New business value that can be derived from working together.
- Duration: Long-term relationships.
- Designer’s goal: Shared business goals with the client.
- Competitive factors: Ability to provide unique value to the client.
- Critical success factor: Partnership-management competence.
- Designer should know: Strategic fit with the clients is key; risks related to working together.
This relationship type is the most mature and the most demanding. It is similar to a joint venture, where the client and designer share a vision and a strategy. They also share the business risk to a certain extent. David Lewis certainly had a strategic relationship with Bang & Olufsen. The work of Lewis’s company played a crucial role in B&O's success.

Which relationships to pursue?

All of the four designer-client relationship types have their pros and cons. Some designers are perfectly happy taking on projects that have a limited life span. Some strive to build long-term relationships. Whichever your strategy, it’s advisable not to rely on one single relationship model. By developing a range of models, your company increases its chances of success in a business world where uncertainty has become the norm.
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11 Feb 2012

Risk Analysis App - My design of the week
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I had the pleasure to design our Thinking Portfolio Risk Analysis app for iPad. The app is a tool for indentifying and analyzing project risks.

More information at http://www.thinkingportfolio.com/riskanalysis/. Go to App Store to buy the app.
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19 Feb 2011

The continuing story of a website
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I know B2B companies that are still struggling to maintain a decent web site. I'm not talking about one man bands, but companies with 20 to a few hundred employees.

These companies and their customers don't do business online. A website for them is more like a brochure than a business tool. I know this may sound strange to social media savvy bloggers and Facebook devotees. But there are still those who are satisfied with that level of online presence. As a CEO of a medium-sized company told me recently, "The trouble with the news section on our website is that we don't have that many news."

Perhaps you recognize this chain of events: At some point the company's management starts to feel ashamed of their obsolete website. They send requests for proposals to 2-3 companies that provide "easy to use" content management systems. After the client has picked up one of them, the vendor holds 1-2 definition workshops. There is probably a web designer involved. Once the new version is up and running the client is happy. They send an email to the customers inviting them to visit the renewed site.

But the initial enthusiasm wears off gradually. Eventually nobody finds time to maintain the site. The news are -once again- over 12 months old. Finally the company's marketing guy suggests that it's time to renew the website. He says that the original vendor was not that good, and the system is too complicated. The next cycle begins.

Photo: iStockphoto
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26 Dec 2010

Why visual storytelling is so powerful
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I've just read Susan Weinschenk's book Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? The book contains practicable information on influencing and activating Website visitors.

In the chapter It All Turns into Pictures Weinschenk writes that when we read, we are actually processing pictures. We break the words into letters and the letters into small patterns and shapes. In our brain we process the shapes into words, and then process the meaning of the words. Finally we turn the words and phrases into pictures.

Our brains are built to process pictures, and we think in pictures. The visual part of the brain takes up half of the brain processing power. A study from the 1960s shows that we can remember pictures a year later with 63 percent accuracy. We remember only 10 percent of what we hear or read (without pictures).

Stories are another, very powerful way to activate our brain. Stories contain a large amount of information that we break down into digestible chunks. Stories also cause surprising, measurable effects on our brain.

Researcher Tania Singer used brain scans to see what parts of the brain were active when the participants experienced pain. She discovered that some parts of the brain processed the location and intensity of the pain. Other parts separately processed how unpleasant the pain felt and how much it bothered the person feeling it.

After a while Singer asked participants to read stories about someone in pain. The parts of the brain that processed how unpleasant the pain was became active! When we hear a story, our brains are partly reacting as though we are experiencing the story ourselves.

Science has proved what marketers have known through experience. Combined with stories visual images are the most powerful way to get and hold our attention and persuade us to take action.

The book is available as a paperback and Kindle edition at amazon.com (affiliate links).

Photo: iStockphoto
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25 Jul 2010

Can printed brochures harm your business?
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There are two kinds of companies: those who hand out printed brochures and those who don’t. I do not fancy brochures unless there is a really good reason for them (like, if you are in printing business). Otherwise I think they can be even harmful.

These are my reasons why you should give up “obligatory” printed brochures
- People don’t read them anyway
- They are always out of date
- They are costly
- Making them takes your energy from creating valuable content on the net
- They create the false idea that marketing is handing out brochures
- They take up space
- They create a lot of waste
- They use materials that are often damaging to the environment
What would be my alternatives to printed brochures? Here are some:
- A good website
- An email newsletter
- A blog
- An e-book or a printed book
- A mobile device application
- A game
What, on the other hand, seem to work in print are books, magazines, and product catalogs. I published a printed booklet some time ago and got very positive feedback from my clients. They didn't throw out the booklet right away but kept it for reference.

Photo: iStockphoto
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23 Jul 2010

Can you explain your design in 5 seconds?
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I just wrote an article about selling ideas to decision makers. One of my sourcebooks was IdeaSelling by Sam Harrison. He writes “If you can’t describe your concept without having to take a breath, you probably haven’t nailed your theme.”

How could you describe some great design concepts? Here are my three, quickly made examples:
- Fiskars scissors: Scissors that are fun and feel good in your hand
- MiFi 3G wireless router: WiFi hotspot in your pocket everywhere you go
- Dropbox: Synchronize folders automatically between your devices and access your files online
If you are designing e.g. a building, a web site, a piece of software, or a service try describing it in five seconds. What does the result sound like?

Photo: iStockphoto
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24 Jun 2010

Business cards with a personal touch
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Exchange of business cards is a trivial thing you might think. But by coincidence my cards have become a conversation piece. Instead of handing out just one card I can now let the receiver pick one out of ten different designs.

I recently run out of business cards. Instead of ordering some more of the old kind I tried something different. A couple of days before I came across moo.com. They make print on demand products like MiniCards, business cards, and stickers. I uploaded ten different photos from cities around the world, composed the text to the other side, and voilà, the new cards were designed in minutes. After a couple of days I got the new cards, printed on really thick paper stock, in stylish cardboard boxes.

My cards invariably arouse interest whenever I hand them out. People start chatting about the cities they've visited. Some have even wanted to grab more than one card. That did certainly not happen before.

MOO is at www.moo.com
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