Quicksand works with clients through the following three phases of the Product & Service Innovation process:
- a rich understanding of the users and the context (See USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH)
- converting these insights into concepts & prototypes (EXPERIENCE BLUEPRINT – below)
- bringing the concept to life and into use (DESIGN DEVELOPMENT – below)
Experience Blueprint
There is often a big gap between the needs of designers and the approach taken by market researchers on design related issues. Traditionally designers have struggled with texture-less research data while research teams often lack the skills to convert insights from field into tangible & intelligible design directions that can guide product, service and brand development.
Almost all innovations happen through a painstaking & deliberate process of converting design concepts into functioning products & services. This requires fostering new collaborations, changing internal systems and bringing new suppliers and vendors on board. What this necessitates is a coherent design vision that can be articulated to all project stakeholders and brief them in ways relevant to their task.
The most significant contribution of our research efforts are experience blueprints which give details of the design vision and depending on context, concept simulations that can become rich briefs for design development to start.
The context dictates the format of the experience blueprint. In most cases, it is a combination of illustrated storyboards, info-graphics, scenarios, low-fidelity prototypes and visual renderings.
Here are a few case studies that illustrate this methodology and relevant outputs
Reliance: Experience Center
One World South Asia: Education Helpline
Coca-Cola: New Product Launch
Design Development
We realize that the conversion of concepts into tangible, real-life products and services is often the only test of a successful design intervention. Our role in this phase can be in one of the following two formats:
- User Experience Experts: As custodians of UX information, we are in a position to ensure that research insights get assimilated into the design process seamlessly. We manage that process by working closely with the design teams and provide a valuable sounding board for design decisions.
- Design Management: Interfacing with stakeholders in a more specialized design discipline requires project management discipline and an intimate understanding of the design process. Quicksand is in a unique position to provide both design and project management expertise.