Innovation by design - Centre for Design Innovation

An investment in design is agood investmentInfacta believes that lots of smallthings add up to a good overall userexperience. “We’re looking at how tochange a lot of the small little thingswe do to make us appear nicer tocustomers. Even small little things likeour auto-responders that tell peopleyou’re in a queue and we will get back toyou. Let’s make it a little more friendly.”Involvement on the programme hasalready contributed to developingnew products and services and Martinbelieves that this approach will helpInfacta be more competitive anddevelop new markets. Customerscurrently buy their products mainly onprice, but “once we get things right” heexpects the company to be competingmore on added value and usability.Their investment in design has increasedsignificantly. They have even hiredtheir first in-house designer. “In thepast we would have hired anotherdeveloper.” Infacta are now working withan established agency on branding asopposed to turning to a smaller outfitfor logos as they might have done inthe past.Martin claims “the whole thing thatyou’re doing here is changing ourcompany. Not just our marketing, butour development and the customerservice we offer. In the beginning wethought it was about design, and thenwe realised, ‘OK, this is not about design’,this is about our whole company, thisis our whole strategy, this our wholebusiness plan. It’s changed the design ofthe Miximo project. It’s changed the waywe design products in the future. It’schanged the whole company branding,in that we’re changing our name.It’s heightened our expectation ofcustomer service.”Our interview ended with an invitation.“I’d love in a year’s time to come backand talk about how Miximo goes.”Offer accepted.30|31 CASE STUDY THREE: INFACTA