Brands and interaction design
Martijn van Welie has written useful guidelines to help interaction designers deal with brands in “Brand behavior in interaction.” This is part of a longer series he’s doing called “Thoughts on interaction design.”
I’ve addressed the same subject from a slightly different perspective in Interaction design: the new key to brands.
Brands as interactions
If brands are interactions, then interaction designers will play an increasingly important role in brands themselves, especially as brands migrate to digital platforms like the iPhone. Their talents will be needed to make brand interactions amazingly productive for companies and customers, with solutions that address:
- How to maximize customer autonomy and freedom, through the brand
- How to make the brand a “second skin” to customers, one that is also personal, portable and persistent.
- How to foster customer participation and collaboration in building the brand, on an equal level with the company
- How to create strategic brand communities, value nets and “creation nets.”
- How to source brand innovation at the edge
- How to ensure that the brand delivers value the customer can use
- How to intensify and enrich the brand engagement
Interaction designers as the rock stars of brands
I’ll still keep my original prediction that interaction designers stand a great chance of being the new rock stars of brands. Their skills can unleash myriad new ways for brands to create customers, widening the gap between brand winners and losers.