Value of Design in Future Economies

Leading world economies, name design as the core element of efficient and successful innovation processes. Product development businesses analyze market demands and direct their investments based on statistics. Design helps businesses increase investment returns and shine some light on their future investments. Sale success and market performance alone are no longer enough to understand brand value; innovation capacity must also be taken into account. Today the need for innovation puts design at the beginning of business processes rather than in the middle.

Is it possible for a brand to succeed without design and digitalization? In 2015 UK brands invested 14.7 billion pounds into design services. Companies which spent money on design saw return rates 20 times their investment. Why does UK rank at the top out of countries which invest in design? UK’s insight regarding value of design actually goes back quite a while.

“Churchill’s war government established the Council for Industrial Design in 1944 to support the economic renewal of the nation. The country turned to design to rebuild, innovate and instigate growth. Our role now as Design Council is to make life better by design.  So as the country faces seismic economic challenges and change, it is time to once again turn to design.” –Design Council UK

The Design Economy 2018 Report >>

The need for design services is shifting investment paradigms worldwide. Brands are now searching for creative solutions in addition to technological solutions, causing design businesses to grow at a faster pace than sales, marketing, services and production industries. Influenced by this industry expansion, businesses seem to acknowledge the importance of design much more compared to the past. To understand the benefits of design in formal terms professionals in the field set out to quantify design and its benefits.

How many short-term and economically valuable investment platforms do you know?

Consulting, production, marketing and sales investments are important for business management. But what will differentiate your brand from competitors and make you known as a leader in the industry is design.

Design is biggest source of innovation. According to experts, businesses which have in-house design teams or consult design agencies are better at coming up with new services, products, processes and are generally more successful overall.

Analysts used brand success to determine the economic value of design; brands that grew bigger, quicker were considered successful businesses. Consecutively, researchers found that brands which held design strategies closest to their core were the most successful. Research showed that even though design strategies are unlike business strategies, which are data based scientific information, applying design strategies increased businesses’ success. Luckily, in addition to numerical data researchers were able to pin down descriptions used by successful businesses when they described their design strategies. The most common descriptions were noted as analytical leadership, cross-functional talent, continuous iteration and user experience.

Analytical Productivity

Rigorous design departments were present in all successful brands. Businesses that undertook design with the same discipline as their other branches found success easier to achieve than their competitors.

Organizational Diversity

Businesses which hired multi-talented workers showed more success compared to competitors. Research showed that when workers with multiple talents and different backgrounds were brought together more innovative ideas were developed. Innovative ideas lead these businesses to succeed more than other brands did.

Reiterative Process

Work places that valued rethinking and remaking outperformed their competitors. Brands that valued iteration culture of design came up with better ideas than others. Iteration allowed businesses to deliver fully developed ideas to customers.

Customer Experience

Innovative companies grew quicker than close minded ones. Brands which embraced the current trend of integrated user experience gained bigger follower bases.

Analysts concluded that in the longer run, companies that mentioned above points succeeded more in the market. Moreover, in every industry, design had a positive impact on businesses’ welfare.

‘Analysis of the UK Innovation Survey shows engagement with design increases the probability that firms will undertake both product/service and process innovation.’ – Design Council UK

When growing economies such as ours embrace new technologies and work models, a need for design thinking arises. The idle production industry and regional inequalities of our country, alongside our country-wide reactions to global economic changes, requires us to take a new economic path. Turkey needs jobs that accelerate innovation. Design thinking can help new, innovative and valuable country-wide businesses to succeed. Research in other countries have already shown that design thinking increases gains and productivity of new businesses. It is our duty as a design agency to encourage innovation through design in order to create high value production. We need to make sure every Turkish company regardless of its size can design their own products and services.

At Arman Design our philosophy is that ‘Design is the best investment’.  It is good to have creative ideas. It is better to be able to adapt those ideas to the commercial world. Only a good collaborator can help you achieve great commercial solutions. Quality design is user-centric, it uses creativity to solve everyday problems and offer better lives to users. Designers shape the everyday; the environment, the digital world, the products and services. We help our customers succeed with our design practice and methodologies. As an office we believe that design is the ultimate catalyst for success. If you too would like to make an investment for the future with the right product strategy and user experience, we invite you to work with us.

Value of Design in Future Economies