Ugliness doesn’t sell

January issue of Touchpoint magazine focuses on the role of aesthetics in service design – which now is recognized not only in agencies, but in boardrooms world-wide. The fight for customer loyalty has entered a new era: smooth interfaces, cool icons plus seamless interaction on one hand – on the other, frustration tolerance levels hitting rock bottoms.

Beauty is a function of a function

In the main interview of Touchpoint, Edenspiekermann Berlin partners Pia Betton and Erik Spiekermann comment on the importance of aesthetics in the design of services. “Beauty is a function of a function”, states Erik. It is as simple as that: if something is ugly, it lowers acceptance – “aesthethics always play a role”, adds Pia. The “Nutzerkette”, all points where a user would interact with a system (= a service), must be kept in mind. We know that in theory. And for our businesses? Actually designing the user experience across all touch-points is still a big task for many an organization.

Learn to communicate

Pia sees service design as “a logic extension of more traditional design disciplines”, that can “positively influence change processes”. She points out a fact which clients will like – especially in the context of change: “Beauty isn’t necessarily more expensive than not so beautiful applications” – but it certainly works better.

Erik gets  quite explicit when it comes to daily work: “It’s high time that all the engineers and spreadsheet addicts learned to communicate.”

So, what must we be like? Pia refers to the “famous t-shaped designers” when describing that today “it can be very hard to distinguish a designer from a coder or an account manager from a change agent”. Not convinced? Well. Just take a look at Edenspiekermann’s people site.

Learn to communicate! “Beauty isn’t necessarily more expensive than not so beautiful applications.”

PS

Touchpoint was launched in May 2009 as first journal on service design worldwide. It is published by Service Design Network (SDN) and provides a record of the ongoing discussions. All issues are available on the SDN website as hard copies in the online shop, plus downloadable selected articles on service design. Pictures and PDFs provided by Touchpoint – thanks to Project Manager Claire Allard.

Here you find current Touchpoint issue’s table of content plus Pia’s and Erik’s interview to download.