Since the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the entire world, there's something we've learned, much to our regret: that some things are unpredictable. Changes, new developments, reversals… We live in a very changeable environment and we're not always prepared for it. Much less without resilient design.
Not all people, and not all companies. The years of Covid were a clear example of how those companies that weren't prepared for change saw their results reduced to practically nothing. Meanwhile, others like Glovo knew how to react in time, modify their services and double their revenue in just one year.
Adaptability in such a changeable economic, social and digital environment is a must. But it's not always easy to find the key to being adaptable. In fact, more and more companies are looking to improve and optimise their processes to be able to react faster. And that's called resilience.
In this article we'll talk about resilient design. A discipline within business that also requires adaptability, knowing how to react in time. Because if something changes and your business model changes too, the design needs to be able to evolve at the same pace (or even faster).
Although we all know how extremely difficult it is to arrive at a final design that convinces everyone in the company, passes pilot tests and is liked by customers, the process never really ends there. It's something that's always in motion and always changing.
And not all changes are as drastic as a pandemic. Sometimes it's just a preference of your customers, an operating system update or a European Union regulation. But whatever the change, you need to be prepared to react in time.
The lack of preparation for change is the great problem of current design. We're increasingly seeing high-quality designs that take care of every detail, but are too static. Designs that, faced with any setback, have to be rethought from scratch. From top to bottom. And that's a major problem.
To prevent your product or digital design from being too static, it's better to think more strategically. You need to understand your design as a living element that evolves constantly, that is always changing. And if you prepare for those changes, you're already applying resilient design.
When we talk about resilience in design, we're referring to a way of approaching planning and execution that is based on very rapid adaptation to changes and emerging (and unpredictable) needs.
Resilient design is characterised by 3 key elements:
Flexibility — Whether your design accepts changes and lets you adapt according to the needs of each moment.
Modularity — A great characteristic of resilient design is a modular approach, understanding the final design as a sum of independent and interchangeable parts that allow different configurations.
Responsiveness — Resilient design also takes into account the processes and the way changes are executed, so it's important that these are agile and react with sufficient speed.
For your design to be sustained by a resilient approach, you need to have a good foundation that facilitates flexibility, modularity and the responsiveness of your processes. That's why we recommend you always follow these strategies:
Your customers are your best allies. In fact, they tend to identify problems faster than internal teams and are also the ones who generate the main opportunities for your business. You just need to make sure you listen to them well.
To do so, you have an endless list of tools for generating this feedback. The main ones are those you already know (but often forget): surveys, heat maps, focus groups, direct feedback…
When your data is clear and under control, it's easier to respond to changes in time. Your analytics is key to identifying patterns and anomalies in your design and in your users' activity. And if you do it automatically, you can make changes before your business even notices.
The key question is having useful and reliable analytics. For that you need to make sure the data you collect is correct and that you visualise it in a useful way. Having a good dashboard will let you know what decisions to take before changes even occur.
We've already talked about modularity: a system that allows quick adjustments to your design without needing to redo your entire strategy. But that's not all. Flexibility must also come from the processes and the way you approach your design.
To achieve this, it's always interesting to work with agile methods that let you continuously iterate your design and standardise the way you measure the impact of each change or decision. That way you don't have to wait months to see results.
Companies are people. Everything starts and ends with them. And if your company or team doesn't have resilience as its guiding star, things are going to be difficult. Listening to your users, following an agile methodology and using a modular system will count for little if your team doesn't have a mindset based on adaptability.
This is the responsibility of company leaders. They are the ones who need to create a proactive, change-ready work culture that always sees change as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Being prepared for change is always positive. Having your company capable of making more agile decisions and reacting to changes before it's too late is excellent. But in addition, this design culture also impacts your financial results.
More competitiveness — When there are so many companies in the market, we always end up choosing the one that reacts first to changes and new needs.
Improvements in user experience — Your customers will notice the change in your design approach. They'll soon start seeing improvements in their interactions and feel that their needs are being heard.
Long-term sustainability — The more adaptable and resilient your design, the more likely it is to evolve organically and effectively over time. And moreover, the change will be gradual.
More strategic data-based decisions — Data never lies. And if your decisions are guided by it in real time, they're less likely to go wrong. This increases the probability of success too.
Changes in company culture and the approach you take to design are deep and take time. Often, they seem so daunting that we simply prefer to give up on them. But you have to start somewhere.
One option is to get in touch with Boost so we can start identifying areas for improvement in your design strategy and help you shape a more flexible, modular and agile design. Resilient design is about being prepared for change and for that, changing things is almost always necessary.
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