How far does design
extend into the enterprise? All the way to the format of packaging a
sandwich. How does this effect ROI? Well when your selling more than a
million sandwiches a day, every inch of packaging counts and more
specifically where the data on that package is placed, means seconds for
checkout staff. A design function. Definitely. TESCO in the uk saved
more than 500k British pounds after simplifying design and the placement
of that product label. As described by Sir Terry Leahy, past CEO of
TESCO describes in his book and described here.
Simple
examples of the design work being completed by Dove and L’Oreal are
great examples and even the advanced R&D design work of Sunstar
Butler amongst others show the necessity to push forward on materials
and manufacturing capabilities.
And this isn't a new topic, especially in the world of packaging as described and detailed by Smashing Magazine's Packaging Simplicity Article
where even the placement of logo can effect the way, end users, in the
case of checkout workers, can effect the time it takes to scan customers
items. Thus simplicity isn't just for management, or even packaging
design, but must begin with the 1st steps of the design, review and
release process.
