Design effectiveness: Building customer satisfaction and loyalty through design

The contribution of design is regarded as one of the most crucial factors in business. However, there remains ambiguity about how design affects the building of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, in terms of any business situation, the output of design efforts and investment should arguably be greater than management expect in order to be recognised as a worthy investment. This paper presents a novel combined conceptual framework of the design audit and value typology. By employing design embedded business theories, design value can be both assessed. Taking Freeman's stakeholder theory and conflating this with Holbrook's typology of value, a novel and more inclusive theory emerges upon which to clearly identify the scope of perspectives of value across all stakeholders within a business. Empirical findings through customer survey verify the suitability of the proposed measuring matrix used in this study. Furthermore, this empirical finding from customers can be the corner stone of determining the effectiveness of design in the food and beverage service industry by embedding design perceptions in a business theory of practice

The value of design for customers in the service industry: contributions and measurements

In the contemporary market, quality is no longer the key differentiator for a brand. Among the marketing activities available, design is arguably acknowledged as the most distinctive method for achieving long-term brand recognition. Unlike technology, design emotionally interacts with people, and it is not easy to emulate a compelling design identity that has been effectively established. Despite its well-recognised impact, companies still hesitate to strategically employ design. The main source of the hesitation may be rooted in the ambiguity of measuring design contributions. This is particularly true in the service industry where the impact of technology development is relatively lower. This makes it a suitable industry sector for investigating environments where design has a more significant marketing role. Two major forms of research are performed within this paper: the horizontal/spectrum understanding of value, and embedding design perspectives in the service-profit chain using SERVQUAL (SERVice-QUALity) measurements. This paper proposes a model that can quantify and visualise design contributions from the customer’s perspective within the service industry sector

Knitted fabric effects using two-coloured (marl) yarns

Marl yarn, which is regularly used in knitwear and contributes to the scope of knitted fabrics, is often used in response to the colour effects that this yarn can offer the designer. Whilst there is relatively little understanding of the formation of such colour effects, this paper summarises a study on a marl yarn knitting technique to move the level of understanding forward. In this study, four elements: yarn type, yarn colours, knitting machine gauge, and knitting structure have each been considered within the knitting process. A set of 72 samples were knitted by combining different elements systematically. A new terminology marledness has been defined and is referred to as: two plied or twisted yarns of different colours to form a knitted sample with colour effects that are evenly distributed in a dotted manner. If the yarns are not twisted together before knitting and tension variations occur, then the result can be a barred effect. Based on the criterion of marledness, 10 experts and 10 inexperienced observers were asked to rank the outcomes in order. These results allow for a better understanding on how to prepare the yarns and knitting process to achieve different degrees of marledness