Design and Digital Rice

How should businesses exist in the digital space and what design brings to the table.

Abel Maningas
Sep 3, 2018 · 5 min read

Businesses today often experience the pressure of having to keep up with the fast pace of the digital age, and that’s without even delving into innovation. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see even small mom and pop businesses dabbling in engaging in social media.

These are not gimmicks, but rather, are fast becoming necessities. Smartphones are now essentially portable retail stores, billboards, and television sets. With the proliferation and mass use of these devices, the opportunity to reach and sell to your customers 24/7 is just too good to pass up.

The modern marketplace may leave us with a ton of questions like, “What do we need to have to compete today? How do I do that?”, “Do we need an app?”, “Is an Ecommerce site necessary?”, “Should I advertise on Facebook? Instagram?” These kinds of questions quickly become overwhelming, so it helps to have a clear direction. You always have to consider your value proposition to come up with strategies, roadmaps, and execution steps.

But let’s say you haven’t considered these things yet. You may be wondering, “What are the staples you need to exist in the digital space today?” In other words, what are the requirements of businesses today to be competitive? Or, to put things another way, what is the rice of the dish you’re serving?

Photo by Vitchakorn Koonyosying on Unsplash

1. Branding: You need to have an identity.

With all the noise in the digital space today, you need to help your audience recognize you, and you need to stand out. There are many elements in branding: A logo, an aesthetic style, and a voice. Not that these things didn’t exist before, but they are as important as ever nowadays.

2. Webpage/Website: You need a place where people can find you.

Yes, the internet can be accessed practically anywhere, but your customers still need to know where to find you. They need a place where they can find out all about you and what you offer. Sure, you can achieve this somewhat through Facebook or Instagram, but a webpage or a website is a place on the internet dedicated to your business, your company, or your products where you’re able to have a proper “conversation” with the customer. Not to mention that having a dedicated website will improve your credibility with your potential customers, and convince them that you are a legitimate business. Virtually anyone can make an account on social and scam people, but a website gives you a certain air of professionalism and credibility.

3. Social Media: You need to be where the people are.

(Little mermaid?)

So, you have a webpage where your customers can know all about you, but how do you get them there? Social media. Besides it being part of your funnel, social media is where you’re able to showcase your identity as a business, engage with your customers, and give more value. This is where you can Inform and Entertain.

These staples work for most businesses, and that’s why you’ll see software companies, product businesses, service businesses, and others that have some form of each.

“Wait, I have those three already, but they aren’t giving me any results.” It’s a common sentiment, I’d say, and this is precisely where design comes in.

Have you ever had an experience wherein poor-looking branding lead you to decide not to buy from a seller? Or, in contrast, have you ever bought an expensive product, having been swayed by the allure of the brand and aesthetically-pleasing packaging? *cough*Apple*cough* Or, a time when you didn’t buy from an online store because the payment options were such a hassle, it’s like they don’t want you to buy?

The point is, customers are ruthless and are quite demanding these days. The small details matter, and can ultimately decide whether you make a sale or not.

With design, you get what you pay for. Yes, you can go cheap and skimp on the design of your brand or your website, but that’s thinking of design as a “nice-to-have.” In fact, design is the tool that could help you achieve your business goals. Let’s frame things this way:

“I want more revenue” — “I need another revenue channel” — “What else is a good revenue channel? Ecommerce?” — “I now have ecommerce, but how do I make people buy?” — “Provide a good shopping experience. How?” — “Design an easy payment flow”.

In this example, we see how a business goal turned into a design objective. From that point, there are creative ways to achieve the design objective. It turns into more questions and different solutions, which are all part of the design thinking process.

Investing in design that aligns your business goals with the right implementation justifies its cost. Instead of just having a website because of external (“peer”) pressure, you have to understand how investing in a good website design aligns with your goals, and ultimately adds value to you.

Design is usually viewed as a “nice-to-have.” It may initially seem like little more than some extra flair or shine, but in actuality, it really is a must-have. It’s a necessity. Not only to achieve your goals or gain a competitive advantage, but also to help your customers achieve their goals, and to ultimately keep those same customers loyal to you.

Design doesn’t only give you identity, it also improves what you do, reduces your cost and ties different aspects of your business if done correctly.
It completes your meal and turns that old boring cup of rice into a meal.

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Want to learn about the value of design for businesses?
Read Daniel T. Santos’s Article on this:

What’s the value of design for businesses? Here are the hard facts

The things I’ve said here are influenced by the people from the Futur,
Follow the Futur on Instagram, Youtube, and their website theFutur.com


I’m a Product Designer from the Philippines offering product design services and Design Sprints.

Find me on Instagram: @abelmaningas

Find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abelmaningas/

Send me an email: abel@teneleven.design

For branding services,

Check out my friends from Artsmith Creative House in http://artsmithph.com/

Special thanks to my friend Pons Caparas for helping me with the writing.

Abel Maningas

Written by

Product Designer & Design Sprint Facilitator at Ten & Eleven Design

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