Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The Business of Design (30 Mar 2005) Design-influenced companies also understand their customers at a profound level and mobilize around that insight. The Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts' detailed study of customers led it to conclude that it could win by offering first-class service, and so it invested enormously in recruitment and training. The chain visualized the desired outcome -- "make people feel great" -- and reinvented itself to deliver an exceptional "user" experience. Organizations that embrace a design-based strategy also employ the practice of rapid prototyping. Whereas conventional companies won't bring a product to market until it's "just right," the design shop is unafraid to move when the product is unfinished but "good enough." Designers learn by doing: They identify weaknesses and make midflight corrections along the way. Article URL: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/93/design.html Read 40 more articles from Fast Company sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: The world is ready for usability. Is usability ready for the world?     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy