Behavioural Design Matters / July 3, 2023

(Note - This is a newsletter, previously titled 'Experience Matters', for anyone interested in things related to – human / consumer behaviour, customer experience, innovation, design thinking, culture, etc. The links I share below are a collection of links or articles I found inspiring, insightful or thought provoking from these kinds of topics).

1. All the Grand Prix Winners at The Cannes Festival of Creativity 2023 (via Lakshmipathy Bhat )

There were countless bronze, silver and gold awards handed out but the most coveted prize is the Grand Prix, of which 34 were awarded this year. It is these awards that give the strongest sense of where the industry sees itself or where it wants to go in the future.

2. Lakshmi or Lakmé?: 19th Century Fashionable Orientalism (via Tanvi Gupta )

When the TATA group wanted to set up a makeup line in the 1960s, their French collaborators suggested the name Lakmé as an homage to the opera. But what was Lakshmi, also the name of the Hindu goddess of wealth, beauty and prosperity, doing on the 19th-century French stage? Tracing the historicity of this name reveals a fascinating story about orientalist aesthetics and fashion.

3. Storytelling Is Your Secret Superpower: Talk by Shalini Raghunathan at Ishanya at IIT-Guwahati 2022

Juxtaposing Indic mythology on Creativity & Design Practice: As designers, we are storytellers aspiring to tell stories of intent and purpose through the products and experiences we create. How might we tell these stories to strike the right balance between connection and credibility? What new perspectives might we gain from mythology for the challenges of modern-day designers?

4. Engaging Men For Better Family Health Outcomes (via Sanjukta Das )

Family planning and child nutrition indicators show the least improvement of health indicators across India. Historically, programs in these two sectors have focused on women, both as end-users and as providers (e.g. female community health workers).?Evidence shows positive improvements in health, nutrition, and gender outcomes when men’s engagement increases, but falls short of showing lasting behavior change at scale.?To fill this gap, teams from Dalberg and Project Concern International India set out to design programs, answering the question: How might we engage men in nutrition and family planning through innovative and gender transformative programs in rural Bihar? More details on this dedicated website as well.

5. The Fascinating Science of Pleasure Goes Way Beyond Dopamine

Pleasure and happiness are too important for our mental health to be reduced to the single brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine, one of the many, many chemicals (aka neurotransmitters) found in the human brain, where it has many functions. However, if you were to go solely by the context in which dopamine is mentioned in much of modern culture, you’d be forgiven for concluding that it has just one fundamental, very specific, function in the human brain – producing happiness and pleasure.

Thanks,

Param

In case you missed the previous edition of the newsletter, here goes:

Experience Matters / June 4, 2023

1. Brainstorm questions, Not ideas (via and by?Erika Hall)

We vastly overvalue the idea of “ideas” in design. Meaningful additions to the world rest on novel connections among pre-existing concepts, objects and situations, not self-indulgent originality for its own sake. What we glorify as flashes of brilliance are usually astute observations about the world, improved by critical thinking and critique.?And observations often begin from a question.

2.?What working at Figma taught me about customer obsession

VP of Product Sho Kuwamoto on the importance of feel, service, and staying close to customers. Sho was the first product leader at Figma, and for the past seven years, as VP of Product leading the editor experience, has helped shape the special product and culture of Figma.

3. The Costs of Complexity Are Hard to See

Jim Hackett, ex-CEO of Ford Motor Company, talks with HBR about what he calls corporate fitness and how he has applied it at Ford and, previously, at the office furniture company Steelcase.

4. The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma

How our culture, politics and technology became infused with a mysterious social phenomenon that everyone can feel but nobody can explain.

5. Lululemon’s brilliant dupe strategy should be duplicated by every brand

Lululemon fans craved products from the beloved $50 billion athletic apparel company but have been settling for cheap alternatives. Then the company decided to deliver a big surprise.