24/04-08   -   Press releases

Use designers from the beginning’ says Clive Grinyer of Orange

If designers and business managers work together, companies can be more competitive and reduce cost, says Clive Grinyer, director of product design at Orange.

Grinyer is one of the speakers at Business to Buttons 2008, Europe’s meeting place for interaction designers and business managers, to be held in Malmö on 12 and 13 June.

“Thinking about the customer and using designers right from the start of the process will reduce the risk of over-development. It is common to develop everything that technology can do, rather than what people actually need," says Clive Grinyer.

User knowledge should really be at the heart if of all design activities. Innovation, new ideas and better product evolution all stem from observing and understanding behaviour. "This isn’t quite the same as asking people what they want. It’s important to stimulate, put into context and give a range of options, which is the value of design," he says.

Clive Grinyer has for the last year been designing the next generation of communication services at the ExploCentre innovation centre in Paris. Now back in London, he is creating a range of Orange communication and entertainment products.

"The key to success is in providing really strong brand tools, communicating the values to the local managers, but then giving them freedom to interpret those values in their local markets," says Grinyer.

"It is important to realise that design is happening from the very moment a process starts, but not usually consciously. Thinking about the customer and using designers right from the start will give great benefits. It’s vital that designers and businesses interact as the world is extremely competitive right now. Design is about focusing your business and making the best you can for your customer," says Clive Grinyer.