Design is all around us. Design can have a wide variety of different meanings. Design is more than only the way something looks or an aesthetic aid. It is a tool that can be deployed to contribute to a company’s business performance. By getting the deployment of design management right, design can create added value for a company.

In 2002, Masterfoods had consumers choose a new colour for its M&M’s. As many as 10 million people voted on the matter: 41% chose purple, 37% picked light blue, and 19% went for pink. So purple it was. The question now is how consumers respond to having a say in such matters.  Research shows that this generally has a positive effect, but that there are clear limits to its effectiveness.

Seeing as we are confronted with a wide range of advertising every day, advertising people are frantically looking for ways of making their ads stand out amidst the plenitude of ads. The question then is how to give an ad greater stopping power. Dutch and American researchers started answering that question by distinguishing between two ways of standing out, one of which only triggers negative effects, while the other – based on stylising advertisements – only has positive effects.

It is an often made claim in literature on design management that design management boosts the effectiveness of design. But this claim was never founded on scientific proof. New research now shows that design management has a positive effect on the performance of a company, and that investment in design only leads to better business performance when accompanied by design management.

Colour plays a key role in our observations. Red, for example, is often associated with warmth and love, while blue is generally considered the colour of truth and clarity, and green evokes ideas of peace and nature. Psychological processes involving colour are highly interesting for marketing and design managers. Research has shown that red increases alertness, and that blue makes the mind more creative.

Designers often have to deal with questions that are hard to answer in their day-to-day work. Universal Principles of Design is a book that describes as many as 100 principles from different disciplines of design, offering designers a way of better getting to grips with their design. The most consulted entries include the ones on the golden section, figure/background ratios and the fact that equiform elements are more likely to be perceived as a single unit than non-equiform elements.

Obesity is a major health concern in many countries. This is partly down to portions growing in size in recent years. Several companies did their bit to counter this problem by offering smaller packaging. However, research now shows that smaller packaging actually leads to consumers consuming more, and to them paying a higher unit price than when consuming larger portions. Smaller packaging therefore does not seem to offer the required solution.

Consumers turn out to see faces in the fronts of cars, leading them to attribute personality traits to cars. As it turns out, consumers discern faces in the fronts of cars, leading to them attributing personality traits to cars. The Toyota Prius is considered too friendly, and the BMW 5 is experienced as the most aggressive of all.

The word ‘design’ mostly conjures up ideas of people that are good at drawing. But the word design also has another meaning: a plan of action. IDEO’s Tim Brown recently published an article in the Harvard Business Review outlining what the added value of design thinking can be for innovation.

Ask any designer what the colour red means, and he/she will probably answer that this colour stands for arousal and better information processing. Research has now shown that this is only partly true. Psychologists have shown that this colour leads to an avoidance urge, and that people generally perform less well on tasks involving some thinking (such as an IQ test) when seeing the colour red.

In 2007, Caspar van Woensel obtained his doctorate from the University of Leiden with a dissertation entitled ‘Brand, God and Ban’. His dissertation focuses on the liberal use of symbols of a national, cultural-historical and religious nature (such as a national flag, Rembrandt’s Night Watch painting, and the name Mecca). The use of such symbols is not subject to any legal restraint, and they can even be registered with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP).  Van Woensel’s dissertation calls for curtailment of these rights.

As competition in a market hots up due to the entry of more and more competitors, it becomes harder to stand out. Design is often considered as the last differentiator. A relevant question is then what conditions have to be met to ensure ‘design thinking’ will flourish in a company. Does it depend on the presence of different ‘design players’ in the area (such as schools, studios and industry)? Or does it mainly depend on the 'belief' entrepreneurs and managers have in the power of design?

Have you ever found that you use more shampoo when you bought a large-sized bottle? Research has shown that consumers tend to use more of a product when it comes in larger packaging than when it comes in smaller packaging. An obvious explanation could be that consumers are more wary of running out when the product comes in a small quantity. But it could also be that consumers are more ‘generous’ with a product from large-sized packaging because they know the cost price per unit of the product is lower.

In 2006, supermarket chain Tesco introduced square-shaped melons in their outlets in the UK. These melons were in no way genetically modified, but rather grown in square wooden boxes, which is where they got their shape from. The advantage of this square shape is that supermarkets can fit more melons on their shelves, and cut square sections from them.  It remains to be seen which shape consumers will prefer. Researchers at the Harvard Medical School ran an experiment that showed that people generally tend to prefer curved shapes.

Since the year 2000, the Design Council in the UK has been studying the financial and economic importance design has for companies. Research from 2005-2006 showed that fast-growing companies have a greater tendency to consider design an integral part of their operations. This research also showed that every 100 Euros a company spends on design yields a reported increase in turnover of 225 Euros.

Product development is generally split up into a number of stages. Each stage requires a so-called go/no-go decision. Different decision-making models have been developed for that, all intended to minimize the role of subjectivity and emotion in those decisions. But in practice it often turns out that these factors are hard to suppress. New research now provides new solutions.