/ not so contagious

articles across diverse environments & culture from a designer’s viewpoint on design, business, politics, history, science & technology

Business by Design

April 23, 2021 / By 

In a normal world, you buy items from a marketplace with a currency. Imagine, one day, the shop owner tells you whatever you shop is free. Whilst for a moment you would grab happily, you will also question after a while if everything is free, this place must go bankrupt soon. What if I tell you such a shop exists where everything is free for customers and the shop owner is growing about 10% every year over the last 20 years and shop is estimated at $300 billion by the year 2020. The shop is Google.

Over the last few years, user/customer experience emerged as a key differentiator and Google designed their products & services precisely on this principle. Not only Google but, Apple, Airbnb, Amazon, Phillips to name a few invested big in design. They invested in design to become more innovative & profitable and grow faster than companies that doesn’t.

Off late I started thinking less like an architect and more like a designer. Innovation, rapid amendments in technology and more context-driven solutions forced a change in thoughts & approaches. The lateral thinking ability is appreciated & valued more as a designer & solution provider developed within the formal architecture curriculum. The development of a service or product is concerned with Human-Centred Design. Hence, the conventional architecture practices demand correction in their business model. Architects must understand each private practice, independent of the category of projects is in the business of serving consumers. You must become a problem solver or strategist. And to students, you approach every single architectural design project to achieve a solution to a user problem of that specific space.

If you truly want to stay engage and prolific for the long term, let’s begin the transition from architect to designer. You just should be a little more purposeful in the creative process.

For more information on how we can help you recalibrate, please get in touch at connect@geodesy.co