Design The Future Together

Think Richly holds the branding, experience, and innovation freelance services of Rich Williams, but occasionally some projects require more than a one-man band, and so I’m also part of a flexible, remote team of other adaptable design thinkers and designers. 

With a fresh, forward-thinking approach to design this network of design thinkers come together to solve problems and develop both concepts and workable solutions for your projects requirements. 

Clients come to us for all kinds of design-centered problems from visual communication branding needs, UX experience requirements, and more recently for the growing need of solving social and ethical impact challenges that take businesses or ideas forward towards what we call the ‘value-economy’ approach.

Most have heard about the ‘attention economy’ but that is old thinking as far as we are concerned. Of course a business wants attention, but the idea behind the ‘value-economy’ is to focus on ensuring we are building sustainable solutions that aren’t just what people want, but are what humanity need today and in the future. 

We deliver this through design thinking and lean UX processes that aim to both solve wicked problems and create richer experiences. 

I’ve also worked hard on developing Richly Wills, the educational side of Think Richly which helps people open up their creative problem-solving minds, and where we can develop design thinkers of tomorrow and develop adaptable, pragmatic, and innovative Changemakers who can challenge problems from a new direction and come up with original initiatives collaboratively. 

Future-thinking may not seem to matter to local businesses at first but if you were to simply follow today’s trends you will soon get left behind as trends quickly change. 

The rules have changed. Our world is fast-changing and we need to ensure that businesses can also adapt to such an environmental and behavioral shifts (to this design 3.0 thinking), otherwise local businesses and startups may not have business tomorrow. 

If you only focus on experience but not on innovation then you might fall short in only seeing wants in feedback, and not in the intentional design needs that could be uncovered and help deliver better services of the future. 

You may think it’s wise to funnel your budget into marketing and advertising, but when you apply (3.0) design thinking to problems and their brand values then you see just how much time, energy and resources can be saved and placed in more desired areas.

You may be wondering what Design Thinking 3.0. 2.0 and 1.0 mean, and why Think Richly focuses on all?!

When we talk about Design 3.0, Design 2.0 and Design 1.0 we are really talking about the evolved process of ‘design thinking’ over time, from when design was simply about aesthetics and visual communication, to how our thinking evolved to see design as a central part of creating a better experience, and to how our design thinking is evolving further to recognize and innovate the ‘wicked problems’ humanity needs to (sustainably) solve today onwards.

Design thinking is defined as a human-centered approach to challenging a problem from a new direction beyond current constraints, into a solution that is viable, desirable, and feasible. 

It brings about an iterative process that aims to find the right problem to solve through first considering a wide range of potential solutions, and by emphasizing with both the surrounding conditions and human needs of today, as well as the future challenges that might develop. 

Whilst Think Richly covers all 3 evolutionary states of design, we are particularly focused on Design 3.0 and refer to design thinking in that context. 

Take the bike for an example. It’s not about making a bike prettier or well-branded (that is Design 1.0), or even a more comfortable experience to ride or rent via an app (that’s Design 2.0), but thinking about how bikes could be redesigned to tackle social problems, such as making people use bikes locked away in garages by fixing the problems that keep them in garages, like making tires easier to fix, bikes foldable to carry on transport, or developing a community spirit to ride bikes again (Design 3.0). 

All three elements are important towards a well-designed and curated design solution, but often companies only focus on 1.0 and 2.0, when design is more like a triangle that should encompass the more forward-thinking element of Design 3.0 too. 

In the example above, Design 3.0 is concepting new possibilities and solving problems first in order to reframe what bikes could be for people, and developing a toolkit for users that make it easy to navigate problems should they arrive. 

This then leads through to 2.0 (creating a better user experience) and 1.0 (UI and branding aesthetic visual communication), as it all comes together using user-centered design and  design thinking processes. 

Learn more about Design Thinking here 

Of course, every business needs to operate to make money but this certainly doesn’t mean you forego thinking about your customers needs to make a quick buck. It actually means the opposite today. You deliver what your customers need and create value through the experience and service you offer them.

There’s a worry amongst businesses that becoming so focused on human needs over profits and adopting this more ‘altruistic’ circular economy approach to business will see their profits decrease, but studies have shown that the opposite is true.

Your business ends up making more money because of the time and energy saved on wasteful marketing practices (before knowing what’s needed), plus less material cost and waste is created by thinking about problems and solutions sustainably.

Think Richly has helped a variety of different business needs from startups, SME’s, non-profits and individual projects, through Design 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 services. 

We work with all industry types looking to take their business towards the needs of their consumers both today and tomorrow, but we understand that certain industries are more standard and traditional than others, and therefore they may require more incremental (rather than radical change) at first. 

We have a lot of experience as dedicated design thinkers who can scope out the problems and the forward-thinking solutions that can help your local business or startup not only deliver better products / services / brand and experiences to your clients or customers, but help you think about the ahead-of-the-curve potential of your business in terms of forward-thinking solutions that will help you stand out from your competition for delivering better value (not just experience). 

For non-profits looking to develop social innovation impact then we also have can also help. 

This is the ‘how long is a piece of string’ question. 

Each project and clients needs vary in so many factors from timeframe, depth, and cross-platform solutions.

Often our prospective clients know they want to develop a better experience for their product or service, or want a certain design package, but have little idea in the best approach for their needs or how all the elements fit together, which is why we also help with sprint facilitation to help them target and define the right focus and touchpoints for their project.

We encourage you to either email or call us with your requirements and we can help find the best route forward for your goals.

We are only a small in-house team, but we are a growing network of remote design thinkers, so we can find the right expert to fit the design thinking requirements for your project. 

Envisionary Design started out as the graphic design freelancing entity of Rich Williams (see Rich’s experience and journey)

Rich gained experience working in design agencies for 5 years following university, before moving to freelancing full time 10 years ago (2011-12). 

Over time Envisionary Design (under a different previous name) emerged as a small group of designers merged and outsourced work to each other’s expertise, which gradually found more of a specialism within helping local SME’s and startups develop their web presence through good visual communication and user experience. 

Over the past 5 years the emphasis on Envisionary Design has shaped around more ethical and future-minded projects where design thinking has become a central part in how it operates and innovates concepts and solutions through solving problems first. 

Over the last 2 years Envisionary Design has been expanding (into The Envisionary) to become a central education hub for helping people and businesses develop more adaptable, creative and innovative thinking (that helps them visualise better ideas and solutions). 

The Envisionary is now an active education site in helping people embrace daily mindset shifts to become changemakers and ethical design thinkers who can challenge problems from a new direction.