Why good design doesn't always guarantee success

Design Management Journal, Winter 2002 by Cuffaro, Daniel F

Stories abound of great designs that go nowhere. Danie F Cuffaro, along with colleagues Brian Vogel and Brian Matt, examine why things go awry, and to counter such outcomes, propose a model of design that emphasis the orchestration of the total consumer experience, from awareness and engagement through ownership and use. Their "do"s and "don't"s are a checklist of good practices for executives and design managers alike.

You've heard good things about a new restaurant in town and decide to check it out for yourself You drive to the published location and you think you see the place-it's just that it's not marked well. In any case, you start looking for somewhere to park. The streets are crowded and there is no parking lot, so you have to circle the block for 15 minutes before you find a spot. However, once you reach what you thought was your destination, you discover that it is, in fact, not the restaurant you were looking for. Luckily, the management is helpful and tells you that you're only a block away from the right place. Thank goodness you left home early: You make it to the restaurant just in time for your reservation. Unfortunately, you still end up waiting 20 minutes for a table, and because there's no place to wait, you find yourself outside on the street again. But eventually you are seated, you order, the food comes-and it is outstanding, truly one of the best meals

you have ever had. You compliment the waiter, the chef, and the bus boys on the outstanding meal and service. To top it off, the restaurant owner, who is well known in the area, makes the rounds and greets all the patrons. You're feeling pretty indulgent when you get the check and discover that it is incorrect-- though when it takes 15 minutes to sort out the math, you feel somewhat less so. After that situation is finally resolved, you head back to your car and find a nasty note and a bent antenna.

What point are we trying to make here?

The restaurant's product is the meal. It turned out to be excellent. However, the total restaurant experience may not make it worth another visit, and you may not want to recommend it to others. Did the restaurant's management handle all the things that were in their control sufficiently so that the meal was part of a quality experience? Will they be blamed for things out of their control because things in their control were not considered? If a customer's total experience surrounding a product is bad, it can supersede everything else about the product, even its outstanding design.

The customer's experience, comprised of many factors, begins when he or she becomes aware of the product (through advertising or testimonials), and ends when the product's useful life ends.

Building the total customer experience

Good design is, of course, a primary building block of the total customer experience. The way in which a product is designed directly affects the customer's use of it, and so it is one of the most obvious factors in his or her enjoyment of the product. Design is important to the company's success, as well. It builds brand awareness, increases the perceived value of that brand's products, and draws customer loyalty. Good design can be cost-effective in that it helps avoid continuous redesign and retooling. When design is used intentionally, it can help to make a manufacturing process more ecologically responsible; it can also make a product accessible to a wider variety of people, as in "universal design."

All design has three primary components: aesthetics, function, and manufacturing. The aesthetic component relates to beauty, appropriateness, and first/lasting impressions. Function covers ergonomics, usability, and features, and the manufacturing component involves manufacturing costs and perceived quality. When a product is visually appealing or exciting, has good functionality, and is made well, it has a higher perceived value and the customer is far more likely to consider purchasing it. The well-- designed product that is reliable, lasts a long time, and is a reflection of one's personality will endear itself to the user.

Good design in itself does not guarantee a positive customer experience. Other factors include building customer awareness, making the product easily available, pricing it properly, packaging it well, and offering support after the purchase. When these factors are achieved in support of an excellent product, they make three things possible-three things that make up a sort of "value pyramid" (figure 1).

The value pyramid

Having the capability to bring a product to market is only the price of entry-the base of the pyramid. You could call it the "satisfaction" layer, in that your first duty is to give customers what they are asking for. The next layer of the pyramid is more difficult. It could be characterized by "subtraction," in that it involves removing all "negatives" from the customer experience. The negatives are any attributes that are likely to disappoint the customer: automobile cupholders located in a position that prevents them from being useful, or flashlight batteries that always seem to be dead just when you need them. The third layer, the top of the pyramid, involves "surprise." Successful products offer the customer pleasant surprises-benefits they may not have expected, but soon find they value. These "surprise" factors include things like the bud vase in the new VW Beetle, Volvo's work gloves located in the same compartment as your spare tire, or the illuminated Apple logo on the back of a PowerBook. They are unpredictable but delightful traits that make each experience of the product endearing and distinguish it from the competition. They are the traits that make customers say "wow." As you move up the pyramid, you increase the value to the customer.