The Awatoru Design Approach

Design itself is multi-disciplinary and collaborative. Design is user-focussed and necessitates wide
engagement to produce quality results.

The design approach developed and promoted by the Awatoru Model and Programme is not the
‘default' approach of the design sector.

The design sector tends to work on a strict consultant to client relationship where creative control is often
retained by the designer and where the designer often works in isolation to develop their response to the
clients brief and then presents the outcome in a ‘sales pitch' to the client.

The Awatoru approach by comparison is kanohi ki kanohi - pakahiwi ki pakahiwi i.e. face to face and
shoulder to shoulder - and promotes a more transparent and integrative approach where the client and
designer co-design business.

The Awatoru approach requires a depth of ‘client' engagement beyond sector norms. The Awatoru
Designer needs to really come to grips with the ‘clients' business in order to develop a high level of
understanding of its vision, culture, values, stakeholders, operations and commercial realties.

The Awatoru designer views design as integral to and synonymous with business.

The Awatoru designers needs to understand enterprise and business development and management
conventions and practices and to reflect this in their approach - ensuring enduring results.

The Awatoru Designer has to develop a finely tuned affinity with the business in order to respond to it
appropriately.

The Awatoru approach views design as:

• catalytic - design can function as a business intervention that acts as a catalyst for change.
• strategic - design by definition can describe a plan, intent or strategy.
• transformative - a process to develop and articulate vision and to translate this into reality
• integrative - it is a broad process that integrates often disparate dimensions of a business.
• research oriented - design is an iterative investigative process that explore all dimensions.
• differentiator - design is able to create distinction and articulate uniqueness
• interpretive - it is able to express and communicate ideas, messages, philosophies, stories etc.
• user focussed -design is ‘user focussed' and embraces the social, cultural, ergnomic, emotiona and psychological needs of the end user, beneficiary or consumer.
• innovation - as a creative process it stimulates ‘fresh' thinking and new propositions.
• value adding - good design does not necessarily increase cost of production or delivery (it can reduce cost) - but it does increase the quality and more importantly desirability .