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DESIGNING THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE.

A MODEL FOR THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE DESIGNER
Jeroen van Erp
Fabrique [brands, design & interaction]
jeroen@fabrique.nl

ABSTRACT
This paper introduces a model for designing the total
experience of a product, service or product-service
system. In most research and models the user takes a
central place. The so-called cone model also
integrates strategic company concerns. The model
shows what the role of the designer can be in order
to create more meaningful products or services from
a holistic perspective. It gives design thinking -
defined in this context as creating added value at a
strategic and conceptual level - a natural place in
the innovation process and it shows why the role of
the designer will change rapidly in the coming years.
In a world where products tend to commoditize, it
becomes more and more difficult to create distinctive
products solely through design, as in the tangible
result. The brand and added meaning from context
such as storytelling are sometimes equally as
important to the product experience as intrinsic
product features.
Keywords: design thinking, experience,
emotion, product-service system, storytelling.
INTRODUCTION
There are a few underlying thoughts that evoked the
need to capture the experience of a product from a
holistic point of view instead of looking at
fragmented pieces such as usability, brand
experience or the different design disciplines that
were involved to design the product. At the basis is
the belief that the role of the designer has to shift,
from designing as an act to acting as a problem
solver: from doing to thinking. In a rapidly changing
world, the role of the designers is changing, as is the
place in the design process. As the needs of
consumers change, so the needs of the industry must
also change. There are a few beliefs that form the
basis of these assumptions.
CONTEXT
All the beliefs mentioned below have a direct or
indirect influence on the role of the designer.
THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION
When we look back on the last 2 decades 30 years
from now, it would not surprise me if we refer to it
as the digital revolution. There are 2 main reasons
that caused this digital revolution.
The first reason was the fact that the price of fast
microprocessors and solid state memory kept
dropping and became affordable. This, and the fact
that the speed of microchips and the capacity of the
memory chips kept growing rapidly caused an
accelerating effect regarding possible applications.
The second reason was the emerging world wide
web. From 1993, the web started to grow and to
create this network of which we could only dream.
When William Gibsons Neuromancer came out in
1984, it was inconceivable that part of it would be
reality just 2 decades later. The web created almost
unlimited access to information and knowledge,
independent of time and place. It also made it easy
to contact peers, a development that was propelled
to an even greater extent by the rise of social media.
These two developments exhibited major synergy.
Increased processor speed made the web faster, so
the content to be shared could become larger and
more complex. The world has become transparent,
which has had a major influence on the way we think
and behave. It has even changed economic
regulations. New knowledge is spread quickly and
easily, and is accessible for everybody, at any time
and any place.

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The digital revolution also propelled the digitization
of services. Processes that originally were carried
out on paper, for instance transferring money or
filling in your tax form, became available online or
through mobile devices. In the case of mobile
devices, they became a vital part of the product
experience. Its hard to imagine the iPad having any
value without the apps. There is no reason to believe
that this digital revolution is over.
Another effect of this digital revolution was the
digitization of the design profession itself. The
engineering process of a simple plastic product like a
pocket calculator could take weeks. You needed
experience and making moulds - for instance - was
expensive and not without risk. All these engineering
processes have become much simpler, which benefits
the freedom of creating the design and alternatives.
THE COMMODITIZATION OF PRODUCTS
At a functional level, mass-produced products or
product features generally tend to commoditize very
quickly. Products within a price category offer
roughly the same benefits. This is the case for
phones and cars, for instance. There are different
reasons for each group of products, but it all comes
down to the fact that it has been difficult for
companies to claim either a knowledge advantage, a
technical advantage, a distribution advantage or an
economic advantage due to the world becoming
transparent. This is one of the reasons why brands
have become so important in order to gain a
competitive advantage. A positive brand experience
can create the difference. A brand reflects your
personality or says something about the group to
which you want to belong. A strong brand personality
takes years to build and is hard to copy. Consumers
trust you because of a perceived authenticity. Its
possible to copy the Apple products or product
features but its hard to copy the brand values and
personality and be trustworthy. A strong brand is
hard to beat.
The total experience of the product is not only in the
product but also in the brand that offers you the
product. In many cases the storytelling aspect of the
product has become equally as important as the
product itself. The major western brands were
already known before they entered the Chinese
market, without the Chinese having the products
themselves. Ferrari is in everybodys mind, but who
has actually driven a Ferrari?
USERS, CONSUMERS AND CLIENTS
In literature and education, the user of a product,
service or product-service system is often hailed as
not to be forgotten. As a design practitioner, I
always have to interact with a client. Clients dont
usually refer to users, but to consumers. The most
important step for our clients is to sell the product.
Of course, a consumer becomes a user and should
become an ambassador of the product. But the state
of mind of a consumer is quite different to that of a
user. Using an anonymous product which has
excellent characteristics is not a problem. For
instance, using equipment or tools that are bought
by your boss. But selling an anonymous product is
quite complicated.
MANY SKILLED DESIGNERS
There are currently an estimated 1400 design schools
in China alone, and the number of students is
growing each year. When design became a true
profession sometime during the fifties and sixties -
designers were hard to find and there was hardly any
education, let alone a tradition in design education.
During the last 3 decades, schools have developed
and the overall quality of design education has
improved. Theres a lot of competition among young
designers and there are no signs that this will
decrease in the coming years. For designers it
becomes important to question their role. What will
be the added value of the designer in the future?










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THE CONE MODEL
THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE
The model is created in design practice and takes
four levels of entrepreneurship as its starting point:
the enterprise, strategy development, concept
development and design. Decisions at all these levels
influence the consumers experience of the product
and/or service in a different way. The model aims
for giving insights in order to create more coherent
and therefore more meaningful products or product-
service systems. The aim should be designing the
total experience.

As designers, we want to play a vital role in the
development of products and services. Traditionally,
the designer is asked to design the product or
service; to create the tangible part of it, with which
the user can interact. A lot of the thinking
strategy, brand development, among other things -
has been done before. In the traditional way of
working the designer is given a brief and creates the
design. In recent years many people have started to
question this working method. Tim Browns book
Change by Design contains many insights and
examples, and explains why design is much more
than creating a form. Many publications have been
written on why a different view on design is
valuable, but there arent many models that
encapsulate the thinking and the doing
at once.

The central idea of this model is that decisions at
every level of the innovation process influence the
product experience. The model represents the
whereabouts of a company, an undertaking.











Figure 1
At the top there is the entrepreneurship, the core
that drives the company (figure 1).It often starts
with a belief and goals that belong to this belief.

At the second level, strategy is defined, for instance
by a strategist, brand developer or innovation
manager. This is where direction for new products or
services is developed. In most cases, the end result is
a written piece, a brief.
At the third level, these strategies become more
tangible in concepts. In general it comes down to
defining interaction between the product and the
consumer. The end result is often a combination of
text and sketches.
At the 4th level, the actual designing takes place.
This is where the product and all the features
become definitive. It is the level at which the design
disciplines operate.

Looking at the cone, the upper level gives input to
the level below. In the classic way of designing that
was taught 25 years ago, the design process looked
like the process shown in figure 2.











Figure 2: the classic way
The designer was given a brief and he was then
supposed to come up with a few alternative
concepts, one of which would be chosen. He didnt
have any influence on the strategy or company goals.
His ability to create leverage was limited by the
strategy brief.

Looking at the cone model, you can say that all the
activities at the bottom are discipline oriented,
while at the top they are discipline independent. You
can also say that at the top its more about thinking
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and creating business, while at the bottom its about
doing and creating designs (figure 3).











Figure 3: from doing to thinking
In recent years it has been generally acknowledged
that the development of strategies has a vital
creative component to it (Tim Brown, among others)
and that designers can play a role in this. Not only do
they possess creative talents, they also have
experience in connecting strategy to the actual
design discipline. But what happens if designers start
acting at a strategic level?
To start with they can influence the whole
innovation process. Their influence will increase
which benefits the impact of the end result (figure
4). It will increase their footprint.











Figure 4: a bigger role for the designer


But there is an interesting side effect. Operating at
the strategic level gives you the opportunity to
move around. Youre not held back by the
limitations of a design discipline (figure 5). And it
could be that the direction that is defined as most
promising ends up at an end result thats out of your
comfort zone, in a discipline youre not trained in.
This is a direct consequence of the idea of design
thinking.











Figure 5: out of your comfort zone
Why would we want this? I believe in designing the
total experience: from product features to brand
experience, from hardware to software. In my view,
this is the only way to create competitive and
coherent product-service systems.
THE EFFECT ON THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PRODUCT
Decisions are being made at all levels, and they all
have an impact on the experience of the product
(figure 6).













Figure 6: the total experience
Dreams
The dreams of the entrepreneur or the board of the
company can have a meaningful effect on the
experience of a product. The maverick behaviour of
Richard Branson influences the way we look at the
products of Virgin. His challenging the
establishment attitude makes some people want to
fly with Virgin Atlantic instead of British Airways.
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Recently people have become very angry about the
salaries of bankers after the financial crisis. They
were perceived as unethical, although a lower salary
for the directors would not influence the financial
services at an instrumental level.
Direction
Strategic decisions influence the product experience
in different ways. Decisions about the product range
of a brand influence the way you feel, for instance
about the car you bought. The top model of Audi is
the R8. The owners of an Audi A4 might feel much
more pride in driving an Audi, knowing that this cool
R8 is the top model, rather than the A6. Being part
of the family that owns this cool car is meaningful
for the user (figure 7).
Of course; strategic decisions also directly influence
the user experience. Apples decision to limit
mechanical interaction for the iPhone and iPad as
much as possible and to move all interaction towards
the touchscreen had a big impact on the experience.
It increased flexibility but also created a brand new
tactile experience.









Figure 7: the Audi R8 Spyder
Interaction
The interaction of the product and/or service is
defined at the conceptual level. This applies not only
to the physical interaction, but also to the visual
interaction or the way the brand is expressed in the
product. In the concept phase, strategic input
converges to a design of the interaction.
Design
The actual designing takes place at the fourth level.
Needless to say that all the decisions made during
the design process have an impact on the product
experience. The product becomes tangible, touches
all the senses and carries all the decisions made at
the levels above. Figure 8 and figure 9 are two good
examples of how a company strategy is made
tangible. In these cases its about retail design.
Needless to say which one is the price fighter and
which one aims to sell a high end product.









Figure 8: Carpetland Amsterdam, the Netherlands (photo by
Lars van den Brink)











Figure 9: Janssen Amsterdam, the Netherlands (photo by Lars
van den Brink)
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WHY THE DESIGNER?
The fact that decisions at all levels in the model
have an impact on the experience of the product
doesnt answer the question of why the designer
should play a role in this. All design disciplines
originally aim at designing intrinsic product features
rather than designing the total experience. The only
way to create a coherent and impactful product
experience is first to create awareness of the impact
of the decisions on all levels and second to start at
the strategic level. By starting the design process at
the strategic level, it is possible to follow a more
integrated approach, taking into account meaning,
aesthetics and emotional experiences. The designer
has all the skills and talents to be the director of
such a process. In most cases this part of the process
is done within the company. Why then opt for a
designer? To start with the designer is creative and
should be able to enable this creativity at a higher
level. Also: designers and creative people in general
have the ability to challenge, which is a great
characteristic in change processes. When the
strategic and/of concept part of the design or
innovation process is handled internally its more
difficult to challenge processes or decisions. Beside
this, because of the experience with designing, the
designer is able to connect all levels. He can take
care of making the fit between goals, strategy and
realization (design). In this way an innovation
process can be approached from a more holistic
point of view, and serve company concerns and user
concerns. The benefit for industry is in better and
more distinctive products and/or services. The
benefit for the consumer/user lies in a more
coherent product-service systems experience, such
as a better embedding of branding in the product
experience.

And what can the designer do to take this place? To
start with it would be wise to embrace a multi-
disciplinary approach. The designer of the future will
be more a director in order to create relevance
instead of just designing.
THE FREITAG CASE
In 1993, Markus and Daniel Freitag, designed a
messenger bag cut from an old water resistant truck
tarpaulin. The two brothers from Zurich Switserland
wanted a heavy-duty and water resistant bag. They
got their inspiration from the colourful trucks on the
highway, just in front the apartment where they
lived. The graphics of the old tarpaulins are partly
still visible on the bag. Every bag looks different but
also unique. You can choose the one you like most.
The carry belt is made from a second-hand car seat-
belt, and bicycle inner tubes were used for the
finishing of the edges. The idea of Markus and
Daniel, graphic designers by training, was to make
bags for themselves, but they ended up running a
company with a staff of over 120 people, producing
bags and other products like footballs. The Freitag
brand is well known throughout the whole world.
They have flagship stores in Berlin, Davos, Hamburg,
Cologne, Vienna, New York and Zurich.











Figure 9: tarpaulins are cut

Figure 10: the iconic Freitag bag


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They managed to create meaningful products from a
holistic perspective. The strategy (especially the
brand personality), the interaction and the product
itself: they all fit to their dreams. Their strong and
humorous visual identity gives expression to who
they are and what the products can mean for you.
Markus and Daniel created a great total experience
for the buyers of their products by connecting all
levels of the cone. They designed a brilliant strategy
by accident.
GIANT FLAGSHIP STORE
In 2008 the Dutch design agency Fabrique was asked
to design a flagship store in Amsterdam for bicycle
brand Giant. Giant is the biggest bike manufacturer
in the world and in the Netherlands its the number
three in the market (after Batavus and Gazelle). The
aim was simple: create a shop that fits the brand and
makes a profit. The Giant brand is renowned for its
innovative strength, its bold identity and leadership,


























Figure 11: the shop in the Van Woustraat, Amsterdam
Traditionally, the shop owners are repairmen without
much connection with modern retail. The shop-in-
shops created awareness of the fact that displaying a
bike creatively and arranging your shop properly can
boost your turnover. The bike shop owners were also
trained and the whole supply chain of bikes,
accessories and clothing was reshaped to become an
almost just-in-time delivery model.

The flagship store was the next step.
Fabrique was involved in decisions at all levels of the
cone model. In fact at the start of the project there
was no brief. During the first weeks we created the
brief, together with the client. At the strategic
level, the design company took decisions regarding
the category management, target groups (more
women), brand expression and the positioning, all in
close cooperation with the client, Giant Benelux.
Decisions taken at the strategic level formed the
starting point for the development of the concept of
the store. At the concept level additional services
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were defined (repair & go and free coffee, among
other things). The shop should have a focus on
communicating the technical quality of the bikes.
Also a different point of view was added: a bike is
important as an expression of someones identity,
prospects should recognize themselves from a
lifestyle point of view. A bike is more than a gadget
to get from A to B. At the design level all this was
translated into a brief with 3 focus points:

- It should be clear at a glance where to find
which type of bike. Clients should be able to
recognize their type of bike which is more
related to their lifestyle than to technical
specifications. Therefore a set of giant
visuals was created.
- Show the bikes as heroes. So called
catwalks were designed in order to
experience the (technical) beauty of the
product. Some of them are mounted against
the wall or upside down!
- Make accessories and clothing especially
female clothing clearly visible.













Figure 12: the shop in the Van Woustraat, Amsterdam
The shop in the Van Woustraat in Amsterdam has a
clear layout: on the left side of the entrance you can
find all the city bikes, and on the right side the
racing and mountain bikes are positioned. The aim
was to create a quiet shopping environment with
fewer bikes than normal. To be honest: up to now, it
has been a challenge for the shopkeeper to find a
balance between attractively displayed bikes and
filling up the space with all the models Giant sells.
The rather large clothing and accessory department
is in the back and is clearly visible, thanks to the
natural light entering through the glass ceiling. The
various segments are indicated by big visuals. Extra
services, such as repair & go and the free coffee,
are clearly indicated.












Figure 13: the shop in the Van Woustraat, Amsterdam
The result of all this thinking and designing was a
shop that not only in the first two years after
opening performed 130% above target but also tells
the story about the brand. The clothing department
was extended and the shop attracts more women
than normal. In short: the shop is a big success, and
in the meantime a second flagship store has been
opened in Hilversum.
CONCLUSIONS
The cone model presented in this positioning paper is
a helpful model for creating a total experience that
is coherent and powerful. A solid conversion from
one level to the next is important in order not to
lose sight of the highest ambition. The levels should
be connected very carefully. Its a challenging
thought to research the effectiveness of different
types of conversion from one level to another.
The Freitag case shows that entrepreneurship leads
to a good, integrated brand experience where where
company concerns and user needs meet each other.
The Giant case shows that close cooperation
between company and design consultancy on all
levels can create a great experience and a solid
business case at the same time.
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