As industries and technologies advance, a new approach to design has emerged that considers the entire system rather than its individual components. This approach, known as holistic design, transcends traditional design boundaries and fosters seamless integration, collaboration, and innovation.
At Arounda Agency, we often find inspiration and new approaches to the development process while analyzing the best practices. In this article, we investigate holistic design meaning, key rules, examples, and how it affects the designer's role.
Table of Contents
What is a Holistic Approach?
In a holistic approach, professionals relate to the whole system instead of just its part. It is used in design, as well as in medicine, business, education, and other areas.
Holistic design definition refers to an all-encompassing approach that considers every aspect of a product's design, development, and user journey. It focuses on creating seamless, engaging, and user-centered experiences by taking into account the interplay of visual elements, functionality, content, and context.
Holistic design aims to address the needs and expectations of users. At the same time, it considers the larger ecosystem in which the product exists, such as its compatibility with other devices, platforms, or services. By integrating aspects like usability, accessibility, consistency, and adaptability, holistic design ensures that digital products deliver a cohesive and meaningful experience. The latter resonates with users and fosters long-term satisfaction and loyalty.
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Holistic Design Examples
Let’s consider several examples of holistic design in the digital sphere.
Google's Material Design is a comprehensive design system that unifies the user experience across all their products and platforms. By focusing on responsive animations, smooth transitions, and consistent visual elements, Material Design creates a familiar and intuitive experience for users, making it easier for them to interact with Google's diverse range of digital services.
Spotify
Spotify's holistic design approach is centered around personalization and seamless integration across devices. The platform uses algorithms to suggest music based on user preferences and listening habits. Additionally, the intuitive interface and seamless device synchronization make it easy for users to enjoy their favorite tunes on various devices without interruptions.
Slack
Slack's holistic design revolves around facilitating communication and collaboration among team members. The platform incorporates features like channels, direct messaging, file sharing, and app integrations to create a seamless experience that caters to various team needs. The user-friendly interface, customization options, and attention to detail contribute to Slack's success as a digital workspace.
Netflix
Netflix offers another excellent holistic design example in UX. It focuses on personalized content recommendations, a consistent interface across devices, and an adaptive streaming technology that adjusts video quality based on the user's internet connection. This approach ensures that users have a smooth, engaging, and tailored viewing experience, whether they're watching on a smartphone, tablet, or television.
Duolingo
Duolingo language learning app employs a holistic design approach by combining gamification, personalization, and social elements. The app's user-friendly interface, colorful visuals, and bite-sized lessons encourage users to practice daily, while features like streaks, leaderboards, and in-app rewards foster motivation and a sense of progress.
Seven Rules of the Holistic Design Approach
When implementing a holistic design approach, it's essential to follow certain guiding principles that will help ensure a successful outcome. Here are some key rules to consider:
Understand your users. Place the user at the center of your design process. Research their needs, preferences, and pain points.
Emphasize usability and accessibility. Ensure your digital product is easy to use, navigate, and understand. Focus on creating intuitive interfaces, clear visual hierarchies, and straightforward navigation. Additionally, consider the needs of users with disabilities to make your product accessible to a broader audience.
Create consistency across touchpoints. Maintain a consistent design language, including typography, color schemes, and user interface elements, Provide a familiar and cohesive experience for users across different devices and platforms.
Foster seamless integration. Ensure your digital product integrates well with other platforms, devices, and services. This will allow the users to enjoy the benefits of a connected ecosystem.
Encourage collaboration and cross-functional teams. Promote collaboration among different team members, such as designers, developers, and marketers, to bring diverse perspectives and skills to the table. This approach will help create more innovative and well-rounded digital products.
Prioritize performance and responsiveness. Optimize your digital product for various devices, screen sizes, and internet connection speeds. Ensure that your product loads quickly, responds to user interactions efficiently, and adapts to different conditions.
Continuously iterate and improve. Adopt a mindset of continuous improvement and be open to feedback from users and team members. Regularly evaluate the performance of your product, identify areas for improvement, and make necessary adjustments.
Expanding the Designer's Role
When you decide to adopt a holistic design approach in your company, note that the role of a designer will transform. These are several skills such a specialist will have to learn.
Seeing the bigger picture
Leslie Jensen-Inman, a co-CEO at the Center Centre, UIE consulting and UX school, says that a holistic designer has to think about all the parties involved, such as clients, team members, and people up and down the supply chain. That’s why they teach students to see the bigger picture and mechanisms to improve it.
Being a part of an ecosystem
Holistic design binds all the coworkers in one ecosystem, where people share the same values, such as continuous improvement, attention to detail, active position, and respect for each other. The shift to more open-minded and free communication may also change the look of the office since team members will discuss work issues regularly and spontaneously.
Going beyond visual
The very definition of holistic design means that professionals go beyond visual design. Team members of different profiles, such as engineers, testers, and marketers, need to cooperate, share tasks, and constantly learn from each other.
Conclusion
The holistic design approach is a powerful and forward-thinking strategy that truly resonates with users. Embracing this approach leads to more innovative and effective digital products and fosters a collaborative environment among team members.
The holistic design philosophy permeates our work. At Arounda agency, we use various research tools while creating websites, mobile apps, and SaaS products for our clients. Market analysis and user investigations let us look at the problem from a birds-eye perspective and find better solutions.
If you need assistance in creating an original and sustainable product, just drop us a line.
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Frequently asked questions
- What is an example of a holistic design?
In a broader sense, such companies as Apple, Airbnb, Tesla, IKEA, or Starbucks provide vivid examples of the holistic design approach. When it comes to the tech companies, Google, Netflix, Slack, and Spotify are good at holistic design. They aim to provide seamless and engaging user experiences across various touchpoints.
- What does holistic mean in UX?
A holistic approach in UX means that designers take into account all aspects of the experience, such as the type of device, the moment of interaction, the cultural environment, users' motivations, triggers, etc.
- What is a holistic approach in business?
In a holistic company, all the departments are connected, so they can work in teams. Employees understand how their work benefits the organization as a whole, take part in decisions, and act together to achieve the common goal. Read about the holistic organization model, a relatively new approach to the organizational structure, in our blog post.
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