Chinese companies are not lacking in designs, but they lack a strategy on how to develop the right design.

Shanghai. June 18. INTERFAX-CHINA - Chinese companies, driven by growing demand from style-conscious consumers as well as their ambition to break through in overseas markets, are realizing the importance of effective product and service design to their success. On the other hand, many foreign companies have been disappointed by the results of simply transplanting their design ethos to China, according to China Bridge International's founder, Cathy Huang.

Huang established CBI in 2003 as a response to the lack of design strategy in China and the increasing need for such services. The Shanghai-based design management and innovation strategy firm aims to help both foreign and Chinese companies develop people-focused innovation strategies that make the most of their creative talent.

"Chinese companies are not lacking in designs - they have too many products, confusing consumers - but they lack a strategy on how to develop the right design, when and for who," Huang said.

"Design management can be two things. One is deciding your design strategy. The second is how to manage your resources, including time, budget and people," she continued.

When it comes to Chinese companies, a big part of CBI's mission involves addressing how design is perceived and valued in the country.

"There are a lot of contradictions in how design is valued in China. Designers tend to lack knowledge of how to market themselves and their services. Then there is the lack of time and space to develop ideas," Huang said. "Chinese people are not used to paying for intangibles, or how to evaluate such services. Design can be about ideas and intangible things."

This lack of understanding can all too often stifle creative design, according to Huang.

"The Chinese tend to treat people who they pay as vendors, and they want control over everything from their vendors. However, design services are about mutual respect and understanding. Designers should be treated as consultants rather than vendors. Chinese people are not so familiar with this, especially in the area of industrial design," she said.

For foreign companies who may assume they have superior design expertise to their Chinese counterparts, and therefore an easy way in to China, Huang has some words of advice.

"When western design companies ask me what opportunities there are in China and how to export their services, I tell them is it's not an easy job," Huang said. "They need a partner to build bridges, and must not expect to step into the market and get everything done."

"We help multinational companies gain the insight to inform their solutions for China. Top companies in different industries we work with include Toyota, Samsung, GM and Panasonic," Huang said.

Huang concedes that some areas of design consultancy have taken a hit due to the economic downturn, although she remains upbeat regarding the field's general outlook.

"We work for multinational clients, whose hope is in China, which has become an even more important part of their operations. They want to put money into developing their strategy for China. So this year, our business will grow. We will develop new clients while our old clients will stay with us. However, in general, industrial design is suffering as production is going down and companies close," Huang said.

A major growth area is service design, according to Huang, which she illustrated with a project her company is undertaking for China Telecom to help the operator offer converged mobile services to its clients.

"Service design is a very new concept in China. An example of service design is our project for China Telecom. They received the mobile license allowing them to compete with China Mobile. However, China Telecom cannot hope to compete with China Mobile's huge base of individual users. China Telecom's strength is that it has a good foundation of corporate and government users."

The service design CBI came up with to allow China Telecom to play to its strengths was one that focused on services that would allow corporate users to integrate mobile technology with their business operations.

"That's the concept of service design - moving from research to solution. You can provide something very powerful, not just a product, but a system, a service package," Huang said.

CBI service designer Emanuele Laviosa gave iTunes as an example of a service that contributed a large part to the huge success of a product, the iPod.

"Now we think about what goes around a product to make it bigger. The concept of the product as a tangible device is disappearing," Laviosa said. "In China, it can be hard to make people understand this concept, but it is opening, and people are understanding this intangible side more."

Another project CBI is working on with China Telecom is developing mobile phones specifically for blind people.

"We started the project this year and have already created a very interesting concept for the user interface and design of the phone, and this will come out very soon," Huang said.

CBI designer Jacky Zhu elaborated on the concept, which he based on findings from visits to the home's of blind people and focus groups made up of blind mobile handset users.

"We wanted to develop a touch screen for blind people. So we developed a touch screen made up of nine squares that operates like a filing cabinet. It works in a very logical way through which blind users can remember how to access each function."

06/18 16:08
Tagged as: Design