Iris Publishers_Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology (JTSFT)

Strategic Design and UX Design Approaches in the Development of Fashion Design Systems-Products

Abstract

This paper aims the study and systematization of the projectual approaches of the Strategic Design and UX Design through its correlation with Fashion Design, in order to propose a systemically model that helps the creation of a Fashion Brand and the nutrition of its development cycle of product, services and communication.

Keywords: System-product; Strategic design; UX sesign

Introduction

Our study characterizes and introduces the Strategic Design and UX Design tools and establishes them as resources usable in the fashion creative chain, especially on their design thinking, the pursuit of innovation and the construction of a self-nourishing brand-building cycle.

To connect each of these points and achieve these goals, it is necessary to highlight the relationship between these different fields of design, as well as the importance of the designer and user in this process.

Strategic Design and UX Design

It is through reflection on Transdisciplinarity and its role that we can understand the strategic function of design in a business, and this has a lot to do with increasing the value of brand image and its founding pillars. The key to this consideration begins with understanding what design is and how it branches into other areas. A first understanding can be taken from the thermogravimetric analysis, that derived from the Latin designare (design) which, according Krippendorff K [1] is composed of (preposition linking two nouns) and signum (sign, signal, image, etc. ), which may be equivalent to drawing and projecting. However, design is much deeper than that, once allows the creation of something and its significance, creating meaning from a semiotic relationship.

Subcultures can be defined through concepts such as DIY and homology. The first leads us to the new meanings that subcultures attribute to objects, while the second relates to the connection, the homology between the symbolic dimension and the material dimension of subcultures. In other words, the objects associated with a given subculture acquire their own meaning for its members, reflecting or expressing its explicit and implicit values [19]. Considering the punk subculture, Hebdige, et al. [4] explores its dimension of refusal and revolt against the socio-economic conditions in which working-class youth lived, stressing out that it was largely asserted by the style that functioned metaphorically as a weapon against the ruling class, as well as the fact that no subculture has managed to further break with dress norms and no subculture has so actively caused social disapproval to fall upon itself as punk did. It should be noted that wearing or using a garment is not, by itself, synonymous with style. There is the need for a stylization process, a conscious organization of objects, a repositioning and recontextualization, which removes them from their original context and thus enables new readings and resistances. It is precisely through this process of stylization that subcultures communicate their forbidden messages and meanings, as well as their collective identity [20].

Also in this sense, Moraes [2] states that the design has become a major player when it comes to contemporary projectual disciplines and that this is due to its transversal and multidisciplinary nature, which makes it able to deliver quick answers through “products , images and new forms of interaction” [2].

We also highlight the thought of Flusser that design is the place where “art and technique (and, consequently, value and scientific thoughts) go together, with equivalent weights, making a new form of culture possible ”, when related to other design disciplines such as architecture, fashion and engineering, it is understood as a design culture [3] and presents itself as a set that articulates knowledge of different competences, which develops from practical of reflection in action.

Thus, there is the project culture, a field that deals with and highlights the importance of building an inter and transdisciplinary approach to knowledge, constituting new ways of thinking and design. At the same time, the project culture develops also from the connection between the areas that constitute a company - design, administration, marketing, production, etc. - providing the integration of the project activity and aligning the same visions to a same goal , so that one area can contribute to another as an organism working strategically to develop results and innovation for the entire system-product-service of the organization.

Since design is a multidisciplinary and cross-sectional discipline, which has specialized and joined some specific areas, such as Strategic Design and UX Design, we will deepen the study of each of these specialties, pointing out why their choice and how they influence the development of a fashion-driven design culture. Thus, by Strategic Design we have: [...] the project activity co-opted in the formulation and development of an organization’s strategies; Its goal is to shape the strategy that is primarily a product system, that is, an organic and coherent set of the various means (product, service, communication) with which the company builds its own identity, positions itself in the market, defines the meaning of its mission in society [4].

Another way to understand what strategic design is by analyzing the term strategy. Minstzberg et al. [5], explain that the word can be interpreted as plane and pattern, positions and perspective and trick. The first two definitions being the most widespread, understanding them as the principle that indicates paths and routes designed to achieve some goal, which arises from an analysis of some current or past consistent behavior. As for position and perspective, strategy can be understood as something that analyzes external factors - cultural, behavioral and market patterns - and absorbs from its directions that will define the characteristics of the organization. Finally, strategy as a trick can be understood as using trickery and reaction maneuvers for potential threats.

As part of its system, Strategic Design demands a practice known as pre-project or meta-project, which, according to Moraes [2] configures into something: [...] that goes beyond the project, because it transcends the project act. This is a preliminary critical and reflective thinking about the project itself from a scenario assumption on which stand the productive factors, technological, marketing, materials, environmental, socio-cultural and aestheticformal, with the analyzes based and reflections previously performed prior to the project phase, through prior and strategic data collection.

The author also points out that the metaproject has a comprehensive character that aims to explore the potential of design through the non-production of a single model and pre-established techniques, being fluid and dynamic and acting as a transformative agent of the human, social and technological context [6]. Another important point to note is that the metaproject considers different processes, especially regarding research in terms of behavior, changing scenarios, culture, technologies, expertise, competition, among others. That is, “the metaproject considers the product far beyond the product design, but also as a linguistic character and its emotional implications during use [2].

We can define the metaprojetual phase as a problematic stage (or briefing), reflection, analysis and interpretation, experimentation and definition on the approaches to be adopted to solve this problem, which requires a qualitative approach which helps to identify the main points of briefing the be explored. The selection of signs and references that contribute to the search for possible answers to be developed in the project, the stimulation of creativity and the interpretation of possibilities are perspectives contemplated in the metaprojectual phase.

In this process of exploring possibilities, the meta-project also suggests the construction of scenarios that help to foresee the future. This tool serves as a creative input to design not to shape the future but to precede the reality and environment in which the organization may operate by creating a narrative that is based on current facts. As a result, scenario designing enables the identification of possible behaviours, risks, uncertainties, suggestions, stimuli, causes, effects and realities, in order to contribute to the orientation of the project activity and to provide creative insights that help in the construction of macro trends analysis [2].

Thus, the design culture of Strategic Design is based on the orientation of creative techniques that transcend just designing a product, that is, plans that contemplate the interaction between all the constituents of a company (designers, services, consumers, etc.) for proposing an innovative value-based product-service system.

Turning now to the understanding of UX Design, we can draw on Kujala et al. [7], which places UX Design as the area of study that highlights the user, the context and the system, working on the emotional side and all usability and interaction aspects of this relationship, since UX is an acronym derived from it. English User experience, i.e. user experience [8].

Its main objective is to communicate with purpose and deliver real and effective results by recognizing the main motivations, needs and purpose of its users, aligning them with the company’s objectives. In the process of project execution by UX arrays, the designer collects a wealth of valuable information about consumers, their habits, and other elements that need to be better developed. The intent of this procedure is to reach a wider audience and meet the needs of not only current but also future consumers [9].

We can say that UX can be deepened in various fields of study, always seeking to communicate consistently, working the particularities of its audience and crossing their points of contact with the company. Garret defends such an argument when he treats UX as the way to experience a product or service in the real world, saying that this experience is imbued with meaning only when they interact with a person - or a group of them - in a way. match and link meanings to your needs.

Another important element to note is that UX seeks to identify touchpoints and narrow differences in order to make it easier to understand a system so that it is fluid, intuitive and as adaptable as possible among a group of users. To ensure that this happens, the designer needs to think about each point of contact, ensuring that every detail aligns the purpose and needs of the brand with what its consumers expect.

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