ABOUT

Why is design important?

Design is central to financially and culturally successful experiences.

It can deliver:

• Enhanced user-satisfaction
• Improved service uptake
• Fully effective services
• Improved Return on Investment

Design-led innovation, or design thinking or practice, is among the top methods for generating effective development strategies.

Over the last decade, qualitative and quantitative studies analysing the economic impact of design in private sector companies have linked well-managed strategic design practices to performance in terms of revenue growth, profits, export figures and increased attractiveness as a potential employer.

Studies also show that companies with the deepest knowledge of design methodologies benefit most from procuring external specialist design services.

SHAPE builds on this evidence to make design thinking more accessible to public sector officials throughout Europe, so that you too can benefit from improved efficiency, appropriateness and effectiveness in your projects.

Why Design?

For some, the initial unpredictable component of working with design and designers – “you never know what you’ll get!” – constitutes an increased negative risk. On the other hand, projects without strategic design face a increased negative risk of accidentally solving the wrong problem, or addressing the symptoms rather than the cause.

Good design does not happen by chance or random creative thinking. From the very beginning, it is carefully directed through a well-managed, systematic, thoughtful and collaborative methodology that includes stakeholder engagement, concept iterations and a cyclical work process.

Combined with continuous prototyping and focus on emotional user-responses, that initial ‘unpredictable’ component is harnessed into a powerful tool for delivering deliberate, planned and measurable improvements in performance and value for money. This is why design-thinking is central to delivering genuinely innovative, focussed and successful projects.

The thinking behind SHAPE

You may already be familiar with the many effective project management models and tools already out there, some of which might seem incompatible with design-thinking. The SHAPE process model is inspired by, and combines easily with existing models found in modern organisations.

SHAPE advocates a truly user-centred approach to public sector project development as well as guidance and hands-on tools for:

• Validating the challenge and defining potential routes to meet it before committing to a full scale project process
• Procuring professional design and other innovation-related services
• Engaging citizens and other stakeholders in the process
• Understanding the internal management procedures required to benefit most from the SHAPE process.