How To Avoid Being A Robot In 2022 (And Beyond)
Part of our future relies on us being able to continue to think freely as humans in a world where technology may see us have to try harder to avoid being a robot.
Designing The Future Together
Design The Future Together
Envisionary Design is a design thinking consultancy helping startups, SME’s, and non-profits conceptualise, strategise, and design forward-thinking, human-centered, and sustainable solutions, interactions and brands.
Sustainable Innovation
Sustainable Innovation
Problem-Solving. Future-Thinking.
Concepting. Disrupting. Problem-Solving. Future-Thinking Impact
As an innovation consultant, I’m an expert in implementing design thinking and other creative problem-solving techniques to create original, sustainable and forward-thinking concepts and solutions across an array of different areas, helping local SME’s, non-profits, startups, and individuals target and solve the right problems to move forward.
As an innovation consultant, I’m an expert in implementing design thinking and other creative problem-solving techniques to create original, sustainable and forward-thinking concepts and solutions across an array of different areas, helping local SME’s, non-profits, startups, and individuals target and solve the right problems to move forward.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
I utilize a forward-thinking and adaptable approach that is Design 3.0 (what is 3.0?) to helps clients handle ‘the complex, ambiguous phases at the beginning of the innovation process where uncertainty lies’.
Concept development helps clients ideate potential ideas around a target focus and brainstorm many possible outcomes, whether this be for developing business branding, product name, slogan, viral ad, or future-thinking ideas the world may need within your industry or interest.
I can work with you on your current idea/s to help you develop them, or initiate new ideas to fit your aim (or which arise from subsequent problem-seeking), whilst asking and promoting questions along the way to both pinpoint the most sustainable idea/s to focus on and to help you look at something in a new or different way.
PROBLEM-SOLVING
Problem-solving is at the heart of good innovation. I’ll help you recognize and redefine problems, and to find the ‘right’ problem and process to focus on.
This involves creating intentional, alternative, and sustainable solutions for both now, and to improve possible future scenarios. It aims to challenge convention and outdated systems in order to create more ethically and sustainably considered solutions than if we didn’t challenge at all.
Businesses of all sizes today need to concern themselves with the ‘wicked problems’ of today that affect us all, and I aim to help develop innovative solutions and perspectives to all sorts of organizational design, business, and marketing problems for local businesses, startups, and even for individual projects.
Get 1:1 or team creative problem-solving coaching that will help you think out the box.
SUSTAINABLE, ETHICAL INNOVATION
Most design agencies today focus on developing better user experience and/or a brand that stands out, but not on the forward-thinking considerations that will shape the needs of our fast-changing current (and future) world.
When focusing on ethical consequences, sustainable growth, and future needs first, we can envision richer, improved ways of doing something, and then develop a better user experience within that.
It’s now our social responsibility to design solutions that improve our health and humanity (less addictive games, more richer human experiences and future-proofed solutions), but which also still make your business more profitable.
It’s also these human-centered, behavior-focused touches that people remember and will return for, especially for local SME businesses and startups.
CONCEPT dEVELOPMENT
Envisionary Design takes a forward-thinking and adaptable approach (that is Design 3.0) to help clients handle ‘the unclear and uncertain phase at the beginning of the innovation process’.
Concept development helps clients ideate potential ideas around a target focus and brainstorm many possible outcomes, whether this be for developing business branding, product name, slogan, viral ad, or future-thinking ideas the world may need within your industry or interest.
Envisionary will work with you on your current idea/s to help you develop them, or initiate new ideas to fit your aim (or which arise from subsequent problem-seeking), whilst asking and promoting questions along the way to both pinpoint the most sustainable idea/s to focus on and to help you look at something in a new or different way.
PROBLEM-SOLVING
Problem-solving is at the heart of good innovation. Envisionary will help you recognize and redefine problems, to find the ‘right’ problem or process to focus on.
This involves creating intentional, alternative, and sustainable solutions for both now, and to improve possible future scenarios. It aims to challenge convention and outdated systems in order to create more ethically and sustainably considered solutions than if we didn’t challenge at all.
Businesses of all sizes today now need to concern themselves with the ‘wicked problems’ of tomorrow, as we aim to develop innovative solutions and perspectives to all sorts of organizational design, business, and marketing problems for local SME’s, startups, and individuals.
Get 1:1 or team creative problem-solving coaching that will help you think out the box.
SUSTAINABLE & ETHICAL
Most design agencies today focus on developing better user experience and/or a brand that stands out, but not on the forward-thinking considerations that will shape the needs of our fast-changing current (and future) world.
When focusing on ethical consequences, sustainable growth, and future needs first, we can envision richer, improved ways of doing something, and then develop a better user experience within that.
It’s now our social responsibility to design solutions that improve our health and humanity (less addictive games, more richer human experiences and future-proofed solutions), but which also still make your business more profitable.
It’s also these human-centered, behavior-focused touches that people remember and will return for, especially for local SME businesses and startups.
Sustainable Innovation Examples
Here’s some forward-thinking social innovation concepts and projects.
NOTE: Click on the case study links below
Currently working on: a post-pandemic hybrid work-safe app, digital wallboard for quotes
The Envisionary ‘Innovation’ Articles:
Experience Design
UX & Service Design
UX. Interaction. Service
Interaction. Experience. User Journey
This is the ‘experience’ side of design. Whether it be about the user’s experience at particular touchpoints, or how the whole system flows to create a better-integrated experience or system for all involved, I help clients understand and create integral user experiences, especially when utilised alongside innovation and branding strategy.
This is the ‘experience’ side of design. Whether it be about the user’s experience at particular touchpoints, or how the whole system flows to create a better-integrated experience or system for all involved, I help clients understand and create integral user experiences, especially when utilised alongside innovation and branding strategy.
USER EXPERIENCE (UX)
Interaction and experience can be considered the heart of Design 2.0.
User Experience (UX) is specifically about the human-centered psychology of interaction from understanding who the users are and emphasizing what their needs and feelings are, in order to create experiences that are more effective, enjoyable, relevant, useful and easier to use for the end user, whether it be with a product, service, space interaction, or a brand on the whole.
Whilst UX is commonly applied to digital interactions today (with nearly 70% of users now research or connect online before going to a store), Think Richly considers the complete cross-channel interaction a user has with a product, service, or space both on and beyond the screen into the real world, at each main touchpoint that could affect their journey.
This could be making a checkout process faster, ensuring a brochure leads them to a website, the ease of using that website, designing a car’s interior for a smoother transit, or a relaxing feeling within a cafe.
SERVICE DESIGN (SD & CX)
Businesses often need to consider the flow of services and interactions for all stakeholders. Enter Service Design (SD).
Service Design envelopes Customer Experience (CX) and looks holistically at all the touchpoints a customer may have at different points of a journey with a product/service/brand (be it customer service, advertising, sales, marketing, brand, delivery etc.), but also extends further into the outward systems put in place, or in how business elements such as organizational design, personnel and business strategy affect the experience.
For example, an airlines touchpoints may be company’s ads, the website, check-in desk, drinks trolley etc. – i.e. all part of the overall service for users and staff alike.
The essential aim is to uncover the needs of all the people who interact with a product/service/brand, involving them as part of the design process in order to make more effective decisions, from defining and targeting a particular focus or touchpoint to run iterative sprints on, to analysing user-tested feedback.
UX PROCESS (UCD & HCD)
Each project starts with understanding users pain points and your brands aim, asking questions like ‘What issues or problem are you trying to solve to improve the experience for users?’, ‘Why are you the ones to solve it?, ‘How does it align with your core goals/brand values?’.
Research (focus groups, interviews, usability tests) then leads to journey mapping (crafting personas, user flows, scenarios within that journey), which helps (re)define the key touchpoints in the journey (copy, site nav etc.) to focus on.
This leads to the back and forth iterative phase of ideation, prototyping, testing, redefining, and so on, until a decided outcome is ready to launch.
The process may be user centered-design (UCD) to address the user’s problem, or a broader human-centered design (HCD) that concerns organizational or social SD aspects to address all stakeholder issues.
Every projects process will be different but most will bring a mix of UI, IxD, UX and SD together in order to create a richer human experience for all.
USER EXPERIENCE (UX)
Interaction and experience can be considered the heart of Design 2.0.
User Experience (UX) is specifically about the human-centered psychology of interaction from understanding who the users are and emphasizing what their needs and feelings are, in order to create experiences that are more effective, enjoyable, relevant, useful and easier to use for the end user, whether it be with a product, service, space interaction, or a brand on the whole.
Whilst UX is commonly applied to digital interactions today (with nearly 70% of users now research or connect online before going to a store), Think Richly considers the complete cross-channel interaction a user has with a product, service, or space both on and beyond the screen into the real world, at each main touchpoint that could affect their journey.
This could be making a checkout process faster, ensuring a brochure leads them to a website, the ease of using that website, designing a car’s interior for a smoother transit, or a relaxing feeling within a cafe.
SERVICE DESIGN (SD & CX)
Businesses often need to consider the flow of services and interactions for all stakeholders. Enter Service Design (SD).
Service Design envelopes Customer Experience (CX) and looks holistically at all the touchpoints a customer may have at different points of a journey with a product/service/brand (be it customer service, advertising, sales, marketing, brand, delivery etc.), but also extends further into the outward systems put in place, or in how business elements such as organizational design, personnel and business strategy affect the experience.
For example, an airlines touchpoints may be company’s ads, the website, check-in desk, drinks trolley etc. – i.e. all part of the overall service for users and staff alike.
The essential aim is to uncover the needs of all the people who interact with a product/service/brand, involving them as part of the design process in order to make more effective decisions, from defining and targeting a particular focus or touchpoint to run iterative sprints on, to analysing user-tested feedback.
UX PROCESS (UCD & HCD)
Each project starts with understanding users pain points and your brands aim, asking questions like ‘What issues or problem are you trying to solve to improve the experience for users?’, ‘Why are you the ones to solve it?, ‘How does it align with your core goals/brand values?’.
Research (focus groups, interviews, usability tests) then leads to journey mapping (crafting personas, user flows, scenarios within that journey), which helps (re)define the key touchpoints in the journey (copy, site nav etc.) to focus on.
This leads to the back and forth iterative phase of ideation, prototyping, testing, redefining, and so on, until a decided outcome is ready to launch.
The process may be user centered-design (UCD) to address the user’s problem, or a broader human-centered design (HCD) that concerns organizational or social SD aspects to address all stakeholder issues.
Every projects process will be different but most will bring a mix of UI, IxD, UX and SD together in order to create a richer human experience for all.
UX & Service Design Examples
Here’s some latest UX and SD projects.
NOTE: Click on the case study links below.
Currently working on: a productivity app that brings safe challenges, a freelance cafe finding website experience
The Envisionary ‘Creativity’& ‘Design’ Articles:
5 Important Reasons To Write Down Your Goals, Creative Ideas & Dreams On Paper
The importance of writing down goals, ideas, and dreams on paper, it’s therapeutic use and how it helps organize thoughts. Despite today’s digital age, adopting this habit can enhance creativity, comprehension, and productivity.
5 Important Reasons To Write Down Your Goals, Creative Ideas & Dreams On Paper
The importance of writing down goals, ideas, and dreams on paper, it’s therapeutic use and how it helps organize thoughts. Despite today’s digital age, adopting this habit can enhance creativity, comprehension, and productivity.
Branding & UI Design
Branding & UI Design
Brand Identity. Strategy. Content
Brand Identity. Strategy. UI. IxD. Content. Web
This is all about the ‘visual communication’ side of design. With my combined experience as a brand consultant and a UI designer, I can help you both develop your brand identity, message and strategy, as well as help you create well-designed content to consistently match it.
This is all about the ‘visual communication’ side of design. With my combined experience as a brand consultant and a UI designer, I can help you both develop your brand identity, message and strategy, as well as help you create well-designed content to consistently match it.
BRAND CONSULTING
Visual communication (Design 1.0) has always been at the core of how Think Richly started and remains as important as ever, as a brand today needs to captivate a lot more than just eye-catching aesthetics, it needs to stand for trust, sustainability & vision too.
Effective branding all about emotion, connection, and purpose. It’s bringing people into being part of the brand experience, as well as helping you discover your unique voice.
As a brand consultant I aim to help you define your goals, understand your target market, and develop a core brand strategy and identity that helps you stand out, carry your core message through, be future proofed (ideally), but also defines (or redefines) what your business is about and how you want to be recognised.
UI & INTERACTION DESIGN (IxD)
A good creative eye can take a desired message and turn it into a visually clear and ‘easy to digest’ brand identity or user interface design (UI), and make it a central part of the brand experience.
Think Richly doesn’t just consult, it also designs solutions to be good all-round experiences, and part of what makes a good UI design and UX seamlessly work together is the usability, accessibility, and interaction (IxD) between a device, product, or space and its user.
Through good omnichannel (O2O) branding and design, a users interactive overall experience is subliminally made richer and easier to navigate.
I test this through low-fid wireframing and high-fid prototyping to gain a clear sense of what’s working before moving forward.
WEB DESIGN, CONTENT & SEO
Most clients want to focus on having a good web presence today. After all, it is usually your main frontend window.
I have past experience creating responsive CMS Wordpress websites for local SME’s and startups, all built to integrate a good UI design principles and UX experience.
I created this site from scratch myself, which included everything from the design, brand, content copy, as well as the necessary speed, security and specific function plugin setups and management.
Brand strategy can also go further into market analysis, content marketing and keyword research to ensure your on-page SEO requirements are set up optimally, so visitors find your website and choose you over the competition (I outsource work to specialists I know for this).
BRAND CONSULTING
Visual communication (Design 1.0) has always been at the core of how Think Richly started and remains as important as ever, as a brand today needs to captivate a lot more than just eye-catching aesthetics, it needs to stand for trust, sustainability & vision too.
Effective branding all about emotion, connection, and purpose. It’s bringing people into being part of the brand experience, as well as helping you discover your unique voice.
As a brand consultant I aim to help you define your goals, understand your target market, and develop a core brand strategy and identity that helps you stand out, carry your core message through, be future proofed (ideally), but also defines (or redefines) what your business is about and how you want to be recognised.
UI & INTERACTION DESIGN (IxD)
A good creative eye can take a desired message and turn it into a visually clear and ‘easy to digest’ brand identity or user interface design (UI), and make it a central part of the brand experience.
Think Richly doesn’t just consult, it also designs solutions to be good all-round experiences, and part of what makes a good UI design and UX seamlessly work together is the usability, accessibility, and interaction (IxD) between a device, product, or space and its user.
Through good omnichannel (O2O) branding and design, a users interactive overall experience is subliminally made richer and easier to navigate.
I test this through low-fid wireframing and high-fid prototyping to gain a clear sense of what’s working before moving forward.
Web Design, Content & SEO
Most clients want to focus on having a good web presence today. After all, it is usually your main frontend window.
I have past experience creating responsive CMS Wordpress websites for local SME’s and startups, all built to integrate a good UI design principles and UX experience.
I created this site from scratch myself, which included everything from the design, brand, content copy, as well as the necessary speed, security and specific function plugin setups and management.
Brand strategy can also go further into market analysis, content marketing and keyword research to ensure your on-page SEO requirements are set up optimally, so visitors find your website and choose you over the competition (I outsource work to specialists I know for this).
Branding, UI & Web Examples
Here’s some of the latest branding, UI & web projects.
NOTE: Click on the case study links below
Currently working on: a book cover design for VR futurist book, UI wireframing for a team collaboration app
Richly Coaching
Envisionary 1:1 & Team Coaching
Innovation: Process, Toolkit, Blueprint
An Innovation Process, Toolkit & Blueprint
As an innovation and brand consultant, I’ve helped clients solve problems and develop better solutions for their customers. However, I found some clients also requested insight and training into finding these solutions to problems which is why I started 1:1 and team coaching.
Through experience, I found there were 3 ways I can help clients bring innovative thinking towards their startup or business so they can create and develop better solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s problems, which are:
Through experience, I found there were 3 ways I can help clients bring innovative thinking towards their startup or business so they can create and develop better solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s problems, which are:
Help individuals and teams ideate and develop a problem-solving thinking toolkit in work and life. (creative coaching). I developed Richly Wills to help train people to overcome biases and be able to think ahead with vision, little challenges to do that help create that adaptable and uncoventional, innovation-led mindset, that can help us in our daily life and in work, which takes our mind back into developing our ‘red’ creativity powers again and through the orange and green into yellow thinking.
As an innovation and brand consultant, I’ve helped clients solve problems and develop better solutions for their customers. However, I found some clients also requested insight and training into finding these solutions to problems which is why I started 1:1 & team innovation coaching.
Want be able to create an impact in your day or tackle a pressing global problem with your career? Richly can help you find that visionary spark within.
Through experience, I found there were 3 ways I can help clients learn how to bring innovative thinking towards their startup or business so they can create and develop better solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s problems, which are:
DESIGN SPRINT FACILITATION PROCESS
I help teams use a hands-on approach to solving product, service, and experience design challenges by utilising a step-by-step design thinking sprint process. (Either DIY or DFY).
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLKIT
I help individuals and teams become effective design thinkers by helping them develop and utilize a creative problem-solving toolkit (or design process), that they can turn to as needed.
NEXT VISIONARY LEADERS BLUEPRINT
With integral spiral dynamics, I help clients understand value systems and the development of people, businesses and society, so they can see changing trends quicker and think beyond as visionary leaders.
DESIGN SPRINT FACILITATION PROCESS
I help teams use a hands-on approach to solving product, service, and experience design challenges by utilising a step-by-step design thinking sprint process. (Either DIY or DFY).
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLKIT
I help individuals and teams become effective design thinkers by helping them develop and utilize a creative problem-solving toolkit (or design process), that they can turn to as needed.
NEXT VISIONARY LEADERS BLUEPRINT
With integral spiral dynamics, I help clients understand value systems and the development of people, businesses and society, so they can see changing trends quicker and think beyond as visionary leaders.
NOTE: During Covid times coaching is done remotely through Zoom.
For prices contact me below and let me know which coaching facilitation service you require.
For prices contact me below and let me know which coaching facilitation service you require.
About Envisionary Design
THINK RICHLY IS ALSO A UNIQUE DESIGN THINKING GROUP
Think Richly holds the branding, experience, and innovation freelance services of Rich Williams, but occasionally some projects require more than a one-man band, and so I’m also part of a flexible, remote team of other adaptable design thinkers and designers.
With a fresh, forward-thinking approach to design this network of design thinkers come together to solve problems and develop both concepts and workable solutions for your projects requirements.
Clients come to us for all kinds of design-centered problems from visual communication branding needs, UX experience requirements, and more recently for the growing need of solving social and ethical impact challenges that take businesses or ideas forward towards what we call the ‘value-economy’ approach.
Most have heard about the ‘attention economy’ but that is old thinking as far as we are concerned. Of course a business wants attention, but the idea behind the ‘value-economy’ is to focus on ensuring we are building sustainable solutions that aren’t just what people want, but are what humanity need today and in the future.
We deliver this through design thinking and lean UX processes that aim to both solve wicked problems and create richer experiences.
I’ve also worked hard on developing Richly Wills, the educational side of Think Richly which helps people open up their creative problem-solving minds, and where we can develop design thinkers of tomorrow and develop adaptable, pragmatic, and innovative Changemakers who can challenge problems from a new direction and come up with original initiatives collaboratively.
Future-thinking may not seem to matter to local businesses at first but if you were to simply follow today’s trends you will soon get left behind as trends quickly change.
The rules have changed. Our world is fast-changing and we need to ensure that businesses can also adapt to such an environmental and behavioral shifts (to this design 3.0 thinking), otherwise local businesses and startups may not have business tomorrow.
If you only focus on experience but not on innovation then you might fall short in only seeing wants in feedback, and not in the intentional design needs that could be uncovered and help deliver better services of the future.
You may think it’s wise to funnel your budget into marketing and advertising, but when you apply (3.0) design thinking to problems and their brand values then you see just how much time, energy and resources can be saved and placed in more desired areas.
WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING 3.0, 2.0, 1.0?
You may be wondering what Design Thinking 3.0. 2.0 and 1.0 mean, and why Think Richly focuses on all?!
When we talk about Design 3.0, Design 2.0 and Design 1.0 we are really talking about the evolved process of ‘design thinking’ over time, from when design was simply about aesthetics and visual communication, to how our thinking evolved to see design as a central part of creating a better experience, and to how our design thinking is evolving further to recognize and innovate the ‘wicked problems’ humanity needs to (sustainably) solve today onwards.
Design thinking is defined as a human-centered approach to challenging a problem from a new direction beyond current constraints, into a solution that is viable, desirable, and feasible.
It brings about an iterative process that aims to find the right problem to solve through first considering a wide range of potential solutions, and by emphasizing with both the surrounding conditions and human needs of today, as well as the future challenges that might develop.
Whilst Think Richly covers all 3 evolutionary states of design, we are particularly focused on Design 3.0 and refer to design thinking in that context.
Take the bike for an example. It’s not about making a bike prettier or well-branded (that is Design 1.0), or even a more comfortable experience to ride or rent via an app (that’s Design 2.0), but thinking about how bikes could be redesigned to tackle social problems, such as making people use bikes locked away in garages by fixing the problems that keep them in garages, like making tires easier to fix, bikes foldable to carry on transport, or developing a community spirit to ride bikes again (Design 3.0).
All three elements are important towards a well-designed and curated design solution, but often companies only focus on 1.0 and 2.0, when design is more like a triangle that should encompass the more forward-thinking element of Design 3.0 too.
In the example above, Design 3.0 is concepting new possibilities and solving problems first in order to reframe what bikes could be for people, and developing a toolkit for users that make it easy to navigate problems should they arrive.
This then leads through to 2.0 (creating a better user experience) and 1.0 (UI and branding aesthetic visual communication), as it all comes together using user-centered design and design thinking processes.
How Think Richly Helps You Make A Difference AND Make Money
Of course, every business needs to operate to make money but this certainly doesn’t mean you forego thinking about your customers needs to make a quick buck. It actually means the opposite today. You deliver what your customers need and create value through the experience and service you offer them.
There’s a worry amongst businesses that becoming so focused on human needs over profits and adopting this more ‘altruistic’ circular economy approach to business will see their profits decrease, but studies have shown that the opposite is true.
Your business ends up making more money because of the time and energy saved on wasteful marketing practices (before knowing what’s needed), plus less material cost and waste is created by thinking about problems and solutions sustainably.
What Type Of Businesses & Industry Do We Work With?
Think Richly has helped a variety of different business needs from startups, SME’s, non-profits and individual projects, through Design 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 services.
We work with all industry types looking to take their business towards the needs of their consumers both today and tomorrow, but we understand that certain industries are more standard and traditional than others, and therefore they may require more incremental (rather than radical change) at first.
We have a lot of experience as dedicated design thinkers who can scope out the problems and the forward-thinking solutions that can help your local business or startup not only deliver better products / services / brand and experiences to your clients or customers, but help you think about the ahead-of-the-curve potential of your business in terms of forward-thinking solutions that will help you stand out from your competition for delivering better value (not just experience).
For non-profits looking to develop social innovation impact then we also have can also help.
How Much Does A Service / Package Cost?
This is the ‘how long is a piece of string’ question.
Each project and clients needs vary in so many factors from timeframe, depth, and cross-platform solutions.
Often our prospective clients know they want to develop a better experience for their product or service, or want a certain design package, but have little idea in the best approach for their needs or how all the elements fit together, which is why we also help with sprint facilitation to help them target and define the right focus and touchpoints for their project.
We encourage you to either email or call us with your requirements and we can help find the best route forward for your goals.
We are only a small in-house team, but we are a growing network of remote design thinkers, so we can find the right expert to fit the design thinking requirements for your project.
How Did Think Richly Start?
Think Richly started out as the graphic design freelancing entity of Rich Williams. Rich gained experience working in design agencies for 5 years following university, before moving to freelancing full time 10 years ago (2011-12).
Over time Think Richly emerged as a small group of designers merged and outsourced work to each other’s expertise, which gradually found more of a specialism within helping local SME’s and startups develop their web presence through good visual communication and user experience.
Over the past 5 years the emphasis on Think Richly has shaped around more ethical and future-minded projects where design thinking has become a central part in how Richly operates and innovates concepts and solutions through solving problems first.
Over the last 2 years Think Richly expanded to become a central education hub for helping people and businesses develop more adaptable, creative and innovative thinking to their brand / products / services / projects etc., which led to the development of this new site Richly Wills.
Think Richly services now connect together with the Richly Wills active education side in helping people embrace daily mindset shifts to become changemakers and ethical design thinkers who can challenge problems from a new direction.
About Envisionary Design
THINK RICHLY IS ALSO A UNIQUE DESIGN THINKING GROUP
Think Richly holds the branding, experience, and innovation freelance services of Rich Williams, but occasionally some projects require more than a one-man band, and so I’m also part of a flexible, remote team of other adaptable design thinkers and designers.
With a fresh, forward-thinking approach to design this network of design thinkers come together to solve problems and develop both concepts and workable solutions for your projects requirements.
Clients come to us for all kinds of design-centered problems from visual communication branding needs, UX experience requirements, and more recently for the growing need of solving social and ethical impact challenges that take businesses or ideas forward towards what we call the ‘value-economy’ approach.
Most have heard about the ‘attention economy’ but that is old thinking as far as we are concerned. Of course a business wants attention, but the idea behind the ‘value-economy’ is to focus on ensuring we are building sustainable solutions that aren’t just what people want, but are what humanity need today and in the future.
We deliver this through design thinking and lean UX processes that aim to both solve wicked problems and create richer experiences.
I’ve also worked hard on developing Richly Wills, the educational side of Think Richly which helps people open up their creative problem-solving minds, and where we can develop design thinkers of tomorrow and develop adaptable, pragmatic, and innovative Changemakers who can challenge problems from a new direction and come up with original initiatives collaboratively.
Future-thinking may not seem to matter to local businesses at first but if you were to simply follow today’s trends you will soon get left behind as trends quickly change.
The rules have changed. Our world is fast-changing and we need to ensure that businesses can also adapt to such an environmental and behavioral shifts (to this design 3.0 thinking), otherwise local businesses and startups may not have business tomorrow.
If you only focus on experience but not on innovation then you might fall short in only seeing wants in feedback, and not in the intentional design needs that could be uncovered and help deliver better services of the future.
You may think it’s wise to funnel your budget into marketing and advertising, but when you apply (3.0) design thinking to problems and their brand values then you see just how much time, energy and resources can be saved and placed in more desired areas.
WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING 3.0, 2.0, 1.0?
You may be wondering what Design Thinking 3.0. 2.0 and 1.0 mean, and why Think Richly focuses on all?!
When we talk about Design 3.0, Design 2.0 and Design 1.0 we are really talking about the evolved process of ‘design thinking’ over time, from when design was simply about aesthetics and visual communication, to how our thinking evolved to see design as a central part of creating a better experience, and to how our design thinking is evolving further to recognize and innovate the ‘wicked problems’ humanity needs to (sustainably) solve today onwards.
Design thinking is defined as a human-centered approach to challenging a problem from a new direction beyond current constraints, into a solution that is viable, desirable, and feasible.
It brings about an iterative process that aims to find the right problem to solve through first considering a wide range of potential solutions, and by emphasizing with both the surrounding conditions and human needs of today, as well as the future challenges that might develop.
Whilst Think Richly covers all 3 evolutionary states of design, we are particularly focused on Design 3.0 and refer to design thinking in that context.
Take the bike for an example. It’s not about making a bike prettier or well-branded (that is Design 1.0), or even a more comfortable experience to ride or rent via an app (that’s Design 2.0), but thinking about how bikes could be redesigned to tackle social problems, such as making people use bikes locked away in garages by fixing the problems that keep them in garages, like making tires easier to fix, bikes foldable to carry on transport, or developing a community spirit to ride bikes again (Design 3.0).
All three elements are important towards a well-designed and curated design solution, but often companies only focus on 1.0 and 2.0, when design is more like a triangle that should encompass the more forward-thinking element of Design 3.0 too.
In the example above, Design 3.0 is concepting new possibilities and solving problems first in order to reframe what bikes could be for people, and developing a toolkit for users that make it easy to navigate problems should they arrive.
This then leads through to 2.0 (creating a better user experience) and 1.0 (UI and branding aesthetic visual communication), as it all comes together using user-centered design and design thinking processes.
How Think Richly Helps You Make A Difference AND Make Money
Of course, every business needs to operate to make money but this certainly doesn’t mean you forego thinking about your customers needs to make a quick buck. It actually means the opposite today. You deliver what your customers need and create value through the experience and service you offer them.
There’s a worry amongst businesses that becoming so focused on human needs over profits and adopting this more ‘altruistic’ circular economy approach to business will see their profits decrease, but studies have shown that the opposite is true.
Your business ends up making more money because of the time and energy saved on wasteful marketing practices (before knowing what’s needed), plus less material cost and waste is created by thinking about problems and solutions sustainably.
What Type Of Businesses & Industry Do We Work With?
Think Richly has helped a variety of different business needs from startups, SME’s, non-profits and individual projects, through Design 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 services.
We work with all industry types looking to take their business towards the needs of their consumers both today and tomorrow, but we understand that certain industries are more standard and traditional than others, and therefore they may require more incremental (rather than radical change) at first.
We have a lot of experience as dedicated design thinkers who can scope out the problems and the forward-thinking solutions that can help your local business or startup not only deliver better products / services / brand and experiences to your clients or customers, but help you think about the ahead-of-the-curve potential of your business in terms of forward-thinking solutions that will help you stand out from your competition for delivering better value (not just experience).
For non-profits looking to develop social innovation impact then we also have can also help.
How Much Does A Service / Package Cost?
This is the ‘how long is a piece of string’ question.
Each project and clients needs vary in so many factors from timeframe, depth, and cross-platform solutions.
Often our prospective clients know they want to develop a better experience for their product or service, or want a certain design package, but have little idea in the best approach for their needs or how all the elements fit together, which is why we also help with sprint facilitation to help them target and define the right focus and touchpoints for their project.
We encourage you to either email or call us with your requirements and we can help find the best route forward for your goals.
We are only a small in-house team, but we are a growing network of remote design thinkers, so we can find the right expert to fit the design thinking requirements for your project.
Who Started Envisionary Design?
Envisionary Design started out as the graphic design freelancing entity of Rich Williams (see Rich’s experience and journey)
Rich gained experience working in design agencies for 5 years following university, before moving to freelancing full time 10 years ago (2011-12).
Over time Envisionary Design (under a different previous name) emerged as a small group of designers merged and outsourced work to each other’s expertise, which gradually found more of a specialism within helping local SME’s and startups develop their web presence through good visual communication and user experience.
Over the past 5 years the emphasis on Envisionary Design has shaped around more ethical and future-minded projects where design thinking has become a central part in how it operates and innovates concepts and solutions through solving problems first.
Over the last 2 years Envisionary Design has been expanding (into The Envisionary) to become a central education hub for helping people and businesses develop more adaptable, creative and innovative thinking (that helps them visualise better ideas and solutions).
The Envisionary is now an active education site in helping people embrace daily mindset shifts to become changemakers and ethical design thinkers who can challenge problems from a new direction.