Increasing profits with user-centred design
Since 2003, research focusing on the Design Ladder has been carried out in several European countries, including Denmark and Great Britain. It aims to demonstrate that business success depends on the level of design maturity within a company, i.e. how close the company is to the user-centred design approach.
The result? There is a positive correlation between a company’s position on the Design Ladder and its financial success. Companies that have succeeded, over time, in climbing up to the higher rungs of the Design Ladder, were generating higher profits and export volumes. According to the Danish study, companies that invest in design activities had succeeded in increasing their net profit by 40% more than those companies whose design activities remained the same or stagnated.