- Design Strategy
- Product Design
- UX and UI
- Design Engineering
- Research
Design Strategy
Design strategy will help you create a clear direction for your brand development. We plan what to do (or make), how to do it and structure all stages for easy activation over short and long term perspectives. What we’re working to achieve is the perfect balance of business and customer values for sustainable, mutual happiness on all fronts.
Strategy sits at our core
Strategic thinking is the core of Propeller’s design expertise, with our vast multi-disciplinary experience in creating design strategy, and handling design management, for large and small companies.
We work together with clients to examine and analyse the product and service interaction between company and customer, to formulate new design strategies and create a coherent design identity. At the end of our collaboration you’ll be left with a real foundation of confidence about the actions to set in place, the effect they’ll have on your customer, and on their own experiences.
Every business
needs to know
where it stands
Design strategy helps you plan. It provides an overview of where and who you are, plus how to move forward. It helps you to create a consistent customer experience over time. It’s a smart, cost-cutting investment that shows you how to act in the customers’ world. Your future activities will be sharp, clear and easy to execute as a result, giving you a really rapid ROI and lean edge to the way tasks are performed. Bringing in an additional level of design management, Propeller can also help to structure your internal conditions for operational product and service development.
Engaging the consumer is
now standard practice
Today customers are more aware and demanding. They don’t just want to be engaged positively in their experiences, they expect it as standard. Their journeys need meaning and consistency, independent of channel and regardless of whether it’s a physical, digital or mental.
Understanding human behaviour and knowing your customer are key elements in order to develop successful solutions. Tapping into the mind of the customers, to get insight about their needs and expectations, is a key part of the research we conduct to ensure that we establish a valid design strategy.
Sustainability is an
essential business tool
Today, it’s extremely important to understand the wider implications of your product or service in the long term. Socially, environmentally, and as a business, such an understanding of how these factors affect your profitability gives you a competitive edge. Through Propeller’s partnership with Green Leap, at the Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm, we’ve got access to a unique network with a vast research and knowledge base in the areas of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
Product Design
Propeller’s award-winning product design creates products that mean something to the user, solve functional problems and enhance emotional connections. It’s a recipe that brings press attention, wins awards, leads to innovation, generates sales and always places customer need first and foremost.
In the eyes of a consumer,
there is no middle ground
People respond to a new product within a second – either positively or negatively. There is no middle ground. As consumers, we unconsciously review style, materials, texture and colours instantly, and assign value accordingly. Each product is emotionally categorised based upon our previous references and experiences; things like: price, function, status, comfort, historical connotations and brand. It’s all done in the blink of an eye, whether we recognise it or not.
SEND A CRISP VISUAL
SIGNAL
TO ENHANCE VALUE
When designing it is important to break down ‘feelings’ into tangible visual components, each representing a perceived value. These elements vary depending on product category, purpose, target groups and context. Propeller’s design process refines values and adapts them into crisp visual signals that attract the specific target group. Our design work maximises perceived values for the customer and creates cost and production-effective value for our clients.
It’s more than a purchase,
it’s a life choice
First impressions should last. Once you physically interact with the product, emotions are created. It’s therefore important that any proposed visual feelings are confirmed. Physical solutions have a long-lasting emotional affection on people and the products that live up to their expectations take an important place in our every day life.
A successful product needs
optimised production
In order to create a successful product, optimised production is crucial. You need to scrutinise the complexity of the product to understand, at an early stage, the limitations and conditions needed for streamlined production. Propeller prefers to collaborate with the client’s internal development team to optimise parts and manufacturing processes. We strive to lower the total manufacturing cost without reducing the perceived values or compromising on quality.
You’re creating dedicated
brand ambassadors
While a good product needs to be aesthetic, functional, economical, and easy to produce, it also needs to express the brand itself. Today’s product acts as a brand’s ambassador, taking brand messages straight into the home and embedding them into the user’s daily life. If the promises of the brand are fulfilled, then the logical outcome is an almost viral brand loyalty.
UX and UI
Beautiful, functional, bespoke digital solutions that stimulate and engage the user. We’re skilled at crafting intuitive embedded systems, native apps (iOS, Android…) and responsive web solutions. Our design team creates interactive experiences that are pure, emotive and feel natural to use.
We live in an ever-evolving
digital ecosystem
Our connected lives are evolving fast, with the coupling of hardware and software more and more commonplace – a digital ecosystem linking people to products, services and objects. Propeller brings with it a wealth of experience from product, hardware and software design; essential to both navigating this tricky landscape and maximising the impact of the connected life.
Our clients face the challenge of tackling a completely new way of designing and bringing it to their customers in a winning format. Our role is to help you and your customers benefit from the early adoption of this really exciting emerging market, and the opportunities it brings for everyone.
Interaction design
is not guesswork
Successful interaction design stems from socio-behavioral insight – gleamed from the user. It’s certainly not guesswork; it’s structured process-driven examination and paying attention to the small details.
We begin with real user contact: analysing their needs and often finding the seed of a solution during this stage. Yet it’s a balance of these seeds combined with our expertise as an ‘idea filter’ that results in the optimum solution. Propeller converts ideas into function by fast-tracking to prototyping and user-testing. It’s a cost and time efficient process that leads to rational design-driven digital solutions.
Never forget what the
end-user really needs
We feel our best work is when an application needs to fulfill a specific purpose; a solution with longevity for the user – an experience beyond that of just a marketing gimmick. This thinking is injected into all our interaction projects, whether we’re leading a holistic digital development, making a native app, working with responsive web, or simply stepping in to refine an existing digital system.
Logical systems drive a smooth life
Just because it’s on a piece of kitchen equipment, petrol pump or your washing machine, there’s no reason why an embedded system has to be any less crafted then an app or website. Propeller has considerable experience developing user interface solutions for embedded systems. We optimise the interface according to variables like cultural trends, language restrictions and get the most of the technical platform used.
Design Engineering
By channeling our combined know-how, we will push your product past the finishing line, managing every step of the way. From high-quality surfacing to final production drawings, supplier communication and design validation, we will make sure that your vision is realised.
We turn manufacturing limitations into unique opportunities
Our deep knowledge across a wide range of manufacturing processes empowers us to design successful solutions. We turn manufacturing limitations into unique opportunities, expanding our creative elbow-room early in the process. We strive to optimise production as well as lowering cost. More importantly, we aim to administer your investment optimally in order to reach the best possible result and thereby yielding the largest possible return.
Teamwork is the best work
What determines your market success is your company’s ability to align your product offer with consumer needs and expectations. Therefore, it is essential that user research inform design decisions and that valuable user insights are not lost during the different stages of development. To best preserve design intent, Propeller’s engineers work directly alongside our designers in an iterative and seamless process.
From start to finish
You are an expert and so is Propeller, so let’s work together! By channeling our combined know-how, we will push your product past the finishing line, managing every step of the way. From high-quality surfacing to final production drawings, supplier communication and design validation, we will make sure that your vision is realised, and that production is efficient and scalable once your volume increases.
Research
Propeller’s research will identify tangible and intangible goals and targets, place brands and solutions in context and help you to capitalise on findings and insight. Investment in research is money well spent, bringing you closer to your customers, giving you realistic goals, stripping away excess costs and building a foundation for future business decisions. It’s like being given a success map.
