Shocking changes and unexpected liquidations have hit the UK retail industry in recent times. Are you giving thought to why would the financial capital of the world be at the centre of the loss of the best of its retail brand? Change? Wondering what has inspired this change, some will say it’s technology. I say it’s human behaviour. To be sustainable in business, it is the responsibility of business leaders to find the relationship between technology, cultural shift and human behaviour, to stay ahead of the game.

Therefore, to be at the forefront of innovation and to remain competitive, businesses must adopt human-focused solutions, desirable enough by their user group, that is technologically achievable and provide economic gain. That means, utilising Design Thinking, a human-centred method to foster the delivery of innovative solutions. Tim Brown, the former CEO, and Executive Chair at IDEO, a global design company; an advocate for Design Thinking, described it as a type of mindset that harmonises the needs of the users, with technical know-how and potential gains from the solution using the appropriate methods from varied options.

Design thinking and the Home furnishing retail Industry

The UK home furnishing industry is still lagging in innovation solutions compared with its counterparts in the US, and some parts of Asia. 

A recent report from Houzz UK found that as the luxury interior design market is gradually caving in, more consumers within the space are opting for do-it-yourself options regardless of their income threshold. Even Millennials are redefining the future of the interior design and entering the home furnishing market which has calls for the retailers within the industry to take advantage of this shift and respond to consumer’s changing demands. Retail Insider produces an annual report that contains the top fifty UK and Ireland retail innovations. In 2017, the only companies representing the home furnishing market included collaborations between Made.com/Hullabalook for a sofa-sizer solution, allowing customers to select the right furniture based on their space measurements. t. Their trial period of the solution involved two million users and recorded a higher conversion rate of 79% and an increase in orders by 83%. In 2018, however, Retail Insider did not report any innovations in the home furnishing space.

To prevent the continuous decline experienced within the home furnishing industry, it is imperative that the home furnishing market and retail industry, to begin to adopt research-based solutions. High street shops are fast losing their hold, and the question retailers should be asking is where is the market heading and how can we stay ahead of the new trends and keep up to date with consumer behaviour changes and reduce the risk of home furnishing businesses of phasing out.

So much has been said in recent times about the use of user-centred solutions; however, many industries still fall behind adopting these methods to effectively design solutions that meet the needs and expectations of their user group. Design thinking, an approach of developing a solution that puts the users, and other related stakeholders at the forefront of the design process, factors in what is achievable and how the solution can foster commercial/business gain.

In other words, to consistently deliver value to customers, businesses must strive to be innovative; an easy way to help evaluate the innovativeness of a product is to assess them from the perspective of the users.

I carried out a recent study using Design Thinking to explore the home furnishing market in the UK from the perspectives of the user. My findings and insights showed a disconnect between the user group expectation and the existing solutions within the market. My study found that there was little or no focus on research-based solutions within the industry. 

How Design Thinking Works within a Product Development Process

The Design Thinking five-stage process has successfully helped designers arrive at innovative products for their customers.

Step 1: Empathise

The nonlinear design thinking approach helps creative designers evaluate the innovativeness of their ideas and solutions as well as used to design innovative solutions. The process starts with designers getting to know whom they are solving the problem for and their pain point; by building user empathy. So the saying, you can’t solve a challenge you don’t understand is vital in Design Thinking methodology

Step 2: Define

Once a designer can connect with the user’s pain point, they are in a better place to define or reframe the problem. 

Step 3: Ideate

Find inspiration and select the best and most appropriate solution. 

Step 4: Prototype

Make a simulation of the proposed solution for testing

Step 5: Test

Test, in design thinking, involves the user trying the prototype.

Within a digital product development process, usability tests, concept tests, guerrilla tests, pilot tests are all used to evaluate the usability of the prototype, identify the strengths and limitations and identify potential areas for refinement for improvement. The feedback from the users in these tests forms a basis for developing innovation strategies that feed into the product development process. 

Based on findings and sights from the test sessions; in most cases, iterations and refinement take place here until users are happy with the solution.

Attributes of the Design Thinking Process

The design thinking process is characterised by its collaborative nature involving various internal and external stakeholders, in the home furnishing space, for example, the stakeholders include the DIYers, home furnishing retailers, online retailers and even interior design enthusiasts. The internal stakeholders are the design and product development team. 

The design thinking process is characterised by its collaborative nature which involves diverse stakeholders for the successful delivery of a new, useful and desirable product. The process, described as non-linear; it can begin at any point of the design process.  For example, prototype,  the fourth stage of the process was the starting point of my design research as I had a conceptual prototype, that is Version.1.0 at the start of the design thinking process; working back to stage one to build empathy. Empathy was developed by carrying out interviews with participants that met the attributes of our user group. The process is experimental, allowing designers to fail fast and learn quickly; it also fosters integrative thinking.

With the process, I identified the perception of users (limitations and advantages) on existing digital solutions within the home furnishing retail space. This provided me with a hands-on guide on the pitfalls we could capitalise on to develop a unique selling point for our design solution. 

As a result of undergoing this process, I am a firm believer in design thinking as a particularly beneficial process to adopt for all entrepreneurs who are developing a digital solution. It will reduce the early-stage risk associated with developing a Proof of Concept because it is an affordable way of knowing if your idea is worth pursuing or not. It applies to most industries, for both digital and non-digital solutions.