Featured

Tell the Story

The design brief should inspire: tell me a story!

How will you explain to your client that you understand what they have been imagining for their new project?  How do you build the close rapport with the client that is needed to develop an effective and complete brief that will ensure the project succeeds?

I once had a project to develop the brief for the Green Room of a major theatre company. Developed all the numbers, throughputs, staffing, spatials and deliverables etc and presented it to the client. I was expecting to be quizzed on the detail but instead there was a few moments of silence and then she put the report down and said, “it’s pretty boring isn’t it, why don’t you tell me a story?”

And she was right; the numbers told her nothing about the vision or how the facility would be used and by whom. It did not show that we understood the culture and the needs of the client stakeholders or how we would deliver a meaningful user experience.

By starting the process of designing a kitchen or foodservice facility or in fact anything with a story, it can convey the vision without undue influence on the design. This means that during the initial stages of developing the design, the ideation stage, a well-crafted story can convey all the required and desired interactions without unduly limiting the designer’s imagination and even stimulating innovative solutions.

An effective story will provide a framework for the understanding of the conclusion of the project. In many cases you will have to help the client to frame the story and their vision for the conclusion.

To build a story for a successful project you will have to imagine the future: on the day of opening, who are the players, the staff who will make it work; describe them and then imagine who are the audience, the customers: what will they expect: what will make them feel positive about their experience? The story becomes as much an emotional and cultural requirements document as it does a functional brief.

For the designer there are many other benefits to starting the brief with a story. The process of storytelling can identify contradictions. The simple act of clearly defining the users journey through the day forces the author to resolve these contradictions and omissions in the requirements. When hearing the story we can begin to see the missing details that can impact on the physical form of the design. Once the design process has started it can be expensive in time and wasted energy to discover unanticipated factors that can result in expensive redesign.

The story will describe a vision for the future unencumbered by data and technical constraints from the past and in doing so can stimulate new thinking and ideas that may be disruptive and even challenge the client’s previous success. But if your client and their stakeholders understand where you are going they will be able to help you get there and in the long run their buy-in will ensure they make it their own which will be a significant benefit at the handover of the project.

It may even come as a surprise that when you define a project with a narrative you will discover the element of time as a 4th dimension in your design thinking which can stimulate the concept of the flexibility of space utilisation as part of the resolution of the overall design.

As with any story the plot has to be believable and if you, the design consultant, have to suspend your disbelief before you even start on the journey, it is highly probable that you will not be able to satisfy the client’s expectations. The story has to be communicated in such a way that, not only the client stakeholders but every design team member and maybe even a 6 year old can understand and react positively.

Design on Paper First

“Creativity is Contagious – Pass it on” Albert Einstein

Sketching: the quickest path to creativity

The ability to resolve issues and test concepts by sketching before jumping straight to the computer in the future will be what separates the Consultant from those who use a kitchen design CAD package to quickly produce a smart looking drawing in 3D to impress the client and make it easier to cost what will be a formula based design.

The considerable benefit to the consultant of using sketches before taking the design process to the computer during all stages of design and documentation is that it enables the designer to explore and test ideas and frequently save computer reworking time. It is a powerful process to use because it can quickly help to discover the best ideas and solutions to a design problem.

But if this is so, why do so few of our young CAD designers jump straight on to the computer when a quick sketch is a much quicker and easier way to start? Maybe one reason is that they’ve never been shown the benefit as well as the creative satisfaction of using a pencil to sketch an idea.

The initial planning and stage of the design is the most obvious and regularly applied use of sketching because it is difficult to imagine a complex design on a blank piece of paper and even more so, on a blank screen. But often that’s where the sketching input process stops.

As a consequence a CAD designer will be working on a small section of the project on the screen making decisions on details without the benefit of resolving relationship or workflow issues with a sketch or the overall plan. This often results in doors swinging dangerously in the wrong direction or equipment that could have been better placed, which inevitably results in a rework when the flaw is finally discovered.

Thinking on paper with an old fashioned pencil or marker will always be the place to start even when resolving specific details during all stages through the project design and documentation process. Resolving workflows by sketching relationship diagrams followed by tracing flow patterns over an existing layout and sketching the process flow over the final plan layout can all be an essential proofing of the final concept. It has to be far better to have resolved all the design issues through regular quick sketches well before you complete documentation than to discover a major design flaw close to the completion deadline.

On a number of occasions in the past, a client has requested the review of a design that they were unhappy with but didn’t exactly know why. The process used (once during an international flight) was to work over the plan with markers to identify the (flawed) flow and (missing) features and then over a clean original plan layout to reconstruct the design using a contrasting marker to test the resolved possibilities as well as to be able to explain the issues to the client: no keyboard required, just a pencil and marker pen(s).

Whilst it is not necessary to have great drawing skills or even be an artist to be able to crystallise an idea on paper before it is committed to the digital representation, what is required is for the sketch, however loose, to clearly record the image that is in your head. You only have to be able to produce fast and rough sketches, not worry about the aesthetics, to focus on the rapid formulation of the idea. Because sometimes these sketches will resemble a jumble of lines as you work through the process it is a good idea to have the final resolved impressions clearly marked for future reference.

When the use of sketching becomes a regular part of the design process, team members can review their ideas to compare and consolidate the best ideas. In this case all the teams individual sketches can be compared and the feedback brainstormed using post-it notes and other tools to provide comments which can then be collectively reviewed to deliver a truly tested result; again, no computer required.

In all cases, where sketches have been used to resolve a design detail, they should be scanned and kept in the project file as a useful reference in the future for how a particular issue was resolved. This way they can also be used to guide future young designers and encourage their interest in the sketch design process. The tools required for sketching will offer a significant cost benefit to all that provide and use them.

Communication matters and good communicators win

Explaining your design

When you first present your design you need to remember that everyone will see it differently: the owner, the manager, the chef, the architect, the engineer, they are all looking at the same thing, but it doesn’t mean they see what you see or what you want them to see unless you take control.

In the same way that all the stakeholders will be seeing your design differently, when you explain the design, each of them are thinking in a different language so you have to communicate in such a way that connects with them all. This  Foodservice Consultant language will need to be easily translated into all these other languages spoken around the table for you to connect and get the sign-off of the design.

To get maximum benefit from the first presentation requires planning and not just printing off the report or plans in time. Firstly you need to be clear what overall idea you are trying to communicate to get buy-in from all stakeholders.

For all that, the good thing is that all these stakeholders are generally fairly predictable and they will tend to obsess over and about the same thing, so you should be able to ensure that you touch on all the stakeholders concerns in this first presentation. This one is the most important, because it is the only time that you will have all stakeholders undivided attention. To make sure you get maximum benefit, rehearse or practice the presentation before the meeting. This will also have the benefit  of proofing or validating the design and maybe even identifying adjustments that have to be made before the presentation.

After your presentation and in future meetings it is important to let stakeholders talk without interrupting or jumping in to correct what you see as an error. Talking through their thoughts which can enable a non-designer stakeholder clarify their thinking and ideas and understand more clearly. They can even sometimes end up explaining your design without you having to say a word.

Not everything a stakeholder says will be clear. Think about what they are actually saying; often what they say and what they mean can be two different things. They will often use a trade name, for instance a particular brand of combi oven when they actually mean the process or type of equipment. It can also be hard to respond effectively to a “like” comment which is subjective rather than objective. To respond you will need to ask “why” and get them to rephrase it to “works”.

Most people have a “No reflex” when confronted with new or challenging ideas. This works both ways; when a client offers an alternative solution you will have a similar reaction to theirs when you propose an idea that they’ve not thought of. The first answer in both cases should be a positive “Yes”. In fact it is a good idea to lead all responses with a “Yes”: check in your ego at the door! Don’t take yourself too seriously; lighten up and not be too fixated on “getting things done” mode and never say to a stakeholder “you’re wrong”.

“No one ever listened themselves out of a job” Calvin Coolidge

The strength of your design and your presentation of it will be in the data you use to support it and it will be the best way of getting agreement because it is the most scientific way to demonstrate the design will work. Use data to test the design options so that you can better explain how you arrived at the solution. But remember the data has to be good – using bad or manipulated data can be convincing but result in the wrong solution. The goal is for the designer to get the best and most cost effective solution for the client and to skew data to support a particular solution will get found out in the end. Data can be in the form of calculated throughput, capacity or flow diagrams and charts and references that all should be fully documented for the record even if the summaries are used for the presentation.

Getting Agreement

Failure to correctly articulate the design can mean wasted time and extra meetings as well as raising doubt in the clients mind. At some point you are going to need sign-off. If a client is still undecided you will need to be direct and ask the question “Do you agree”? At every meeting so that when the answer is finally yes, you need to have a copy of the current design available with an acceptance signature stamp ready for client signing. When you have the agreement it is important to follow up; confirming and thanking for all the stakeholders efforts etc. In this way there will be a formal closure to this particular stage or point in the project that all stakeholders clearly understand.

Ideas from nearly 50 Years Experience

With the pace of change its sometimes hard to keep up. After years of experience now is the time for me to give back and help others to achieve their plans.

Over the years I have been involved in the design of many interesting facilities from fine dining hotel restaurants to correctional facilities. On my foodservice design journey I have designed kitchen facilities for ships and trains – oil rigs and mining camps – national embassies and parliaments – hotels and restaurants – theatres and museums – food courts and functions – production and finishing kitchens as well as over 50 healthcare facilities from 50 to 22,000 meals a day in Australia, Korea, PRC, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Bahrain and Dubai.

During this time I have also given classes and lectures to tertiary architecture and building students, presented at seminars and given workshops and masterclasses as well as written articles for trade and professional journals on commercial kitchen operating systems and design.

Now is the time that I put all this experience to a practical use with regular postings to my blog which will cover:

  • The approach to design and design thinking
  • Storytelling the brief
  • Space Planning and workflow
  • Environmental and pollution
  • Technology and systems
  • Foodservice and equipment design
  • Food safety and HACCP
  • Ergonomics and design
  • Emergency planning and the Impact of Pandemics
  • The Future (there’se lots more!)

And I invite everyone to get in touch directly or by email to share their experience or talk about a problem or issue that they think that I may be able to assist with. It is useful to remember that you know your business and vision for the future better than anyone else but if you don’t pass that on effectively to project stakeholders, you may not fully realise your plans.