Physical Connection in a Digital Age
While some new methods require complete departure from standard practice, design teams can modify status quo forms and methods. In this instance the designers repurposed personas and heuristic analysis to arrive at three insightful design criteria for bringing the postal service into a future state of value for its customers.
India
June - July '21
What external trends might impact this opportunity space?
What of the existing postal system should remain unaltered?
What public and/or private sector partners could produce new value?
What might be repurposed?
Buvaneswari R.
Shanmukh O.
Sharmistha B.
Leaning in to familliar methods, toward different outcomes.
Personas a great for developing usable products and smoothing out pain points. Here the team uses the model of a persona to explore actual people and their motivation. Rather than a fiction to coordinate product features, these character studies synthesize insights across different kinds of human experiences.
If client asked for a heuristic analysis of a competitor’s offering, one might focus on comparing like to like. For example this team could have tried to define the unique value proposition of the different services and prices offered by the postal service vs. private sector shipping companies. Instead, they took the direction to take the time to closely examine everyday materials until they were surprised by what they found.
The results of these two approaches can be used as features and criteria for this client, but could also apply to any analogous design opportunity where asynchronous communication between undeniably human actors is necessary to the value of a product or service. Creating assets like the ones below can result in lasting value if archived for future use by the client, or kept in house at an agency.
Investing in the future of interpersonal communication
These insights about the tradition of hand written correspondence can function as design criteria. If the postal system were to define its future value by investing in this direction, what becomes possible?
During inflection points like these teams can struggle to turn insights into product offerings. In these cases we as creative directors guide teams to turn back to the brief. In this specific case next steps could come from looking at partnerships that expand the infrastructure the client has access to. They could also look at local, regional and global themes that help hone in on which leverage points to apply pressure to.
