Apr 14, 2008
BusinessWeek: "It’s All About Experience" by Founder of ZIBA Design
Sohrab Vossoughi, Founder and President of ZIBA Design, writes in BusinessWeek that "It’s all About About Experience".
Many businesses understand that being "new" or "different" is no longer a differentiator. Countless companies are elbowing their way to the top with designs that are also "feature-rich" or "patent pending." Innovation in product design has lost its meaning and, therefore, its value.
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Apr 2, 2008
Microsoft Surface Coming To AT&T Stores In April
In May 2007 Microsoft introduced the concept of “Surface Computing” (see article here) and it has become pretty quiet since then regarding the first installations of this system. Speculations have been that the first installations will be in restaurants, hotels, retail locations or casino resorts but until today no announcements have been made.
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Mar 13, 2008
Do you like the atmosphere in the Hard Rock Hotel? Thank their "Vibe Manager"
One company that is frequently mentioned as a best practice example for great customer experiences is the Hard Rock Hotels and Cafes Chain. In order to design remarkable customer experiences the metaphor of staging service experiences is commonly used. The story about John Resnick, the vibe manager at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, is a perfect example of a company that focuses on staging remarkable experiences.
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Mar 10, 2008
Can designers rescue Chrysler?
Bruce Nussbaum, who is responsible for coverage of design and innovation at BusinessWeek, recommended in May 2007 that Cerberus, the company that acquired Chrysler, should not just focus on cutting costs but use its long tradition of design to reshape the company.
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Mar 7, 2008
Seven initiatives to improve the customer experience
As a teaser for their upcoming CRM Summit, Gartner published a short article on seven initiatives to improve the customer experience.
Targeting, attracting, and retaining new customers will remain a top priority for chief information officers (CIOs) in 2008, according to a worldwide survey of 1500 CIOs by Gartner Executive Programmes (EXP). CIOs will need to help sales, marketing and customer service to enhance the customer experience to meet this goal.
The seven initiatives that they introduce in the article are:
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Mar 1, 2008
Adobe Think Tank: On the ground running: Lessons from experience design
Adam Greenfield, author of “Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing”, talks about the increasing trend to see products and services being combined in a way that focuses on the customer’s experience when using the product/service bundle. In his article titled “On the ground running: Lessons from experience design” he explains some of the underlying design principles of some well-known products.
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Feb 26, 2008
Design Serving People: Turning consumers into creators
“Design Serving People“, an article written Elizabeth Sanders and published in the working paper series “Cumulus” by the University of Art and Design Helsinki, describes a major shift in the mindset of designers when designing new products or services. Consumers become creators when the designer’s mindset shifts from a perspective where people consume a service to a perspective when organizations support people in reaching their goals and creating value. The products and services offered by a company are merely resources that help the customer fulfil its needs and dreams.
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Feb 21, 2008
Harvard Business Review: My week as a Room-Service Waiter at the Ritz
Everyone likes to talk about delighting customers and how to create remarkable experiences. Only a few people get actually in a position when they have deliver these experiences. Paul Hemp, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, stepped into the role of a Waiter at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston and tells the story of his experiences when delivering world’s best service.
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Feb 19, 2008
DMR: Customer Loyalty and the Elements of User Experience
Jesse James Garrett, Director User Experience Strategy, Adaptive Path published an articles in the Design Management Review in Winter 2006 titled “Customer Loyalty and Elements of User Experience“.
He stresses the importance of emotional bonds for building sustainable relationships and explains the considerations that go into creating great user experiences as a set of five planes along a continuum from abstract to concrete.
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Feb 19, 2008
Future Consumer Study by Capgemini
Cap Gemini published a study in 2007 titled “Future Consumer: How Shopper Needs and Behavior Will Impact Tomorrow’s Value Chain”.
The vision report titled “2016: The Future Value Chain,” published in late 2006 by the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), Capgemini and Intel, describes the trends and developments that will impact the consumer products and retail industry over the next 10 years, with consumer behavior being a key driver of these changes.
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