Ziba is a human-centered design and innovation consultancy working closely with clients across every industry and region of the world.

New models of engagement are emerging in response to the shifting nature of our world.

Consumers take advantage of learning platforms as everyday tools to live better, more connected lives with less and less effort. The next generation of multi-tiered platforms will displace stale economic models, activating the vibrant economies of the future. Brands that identify and leverage their role in these new platform ecosystems in the decade ahead will play their part in moving the world beyond a fragmented marketplace to a more interconnected and thriving future.

Consumers living in an interconnected and modern world expect effortless access and resent anything that makes them feel restricted or ignored. Eager to feel uplifted, they are willing to try new things that restore the sense of being special and adored.

Smart brands engage consumers in new love stories through platform ecosystems that know and connect them. Learning Platforms build loyalty and sustain engagement through easy access to an ecosystem and to a layered structure of offerings that makes it easier to get things done, find what you want, and customize the right tool for the job.

Smart brands actively step into the role that they chose to play in the platform economy, asking, “Are we an orchestrator, partner, contributor or something entirely new?” And since synergy is the power of the platform, the choice of who to stand against and who to stand with may be a brand’s most critical move.

These platform-enabled ecosystems will continue to evolve markets and transform value chains over the next decade and will blur traditional sector boundaries as they drive new levels of consumer delight.

Future of Platforms

There’s no question that tomorrow’s new normal will be abnormal. 

COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect of life. We’re unsettled and uncertain. But there’s an upside to the crisis, too: a future full of possibilities. At Ziba, we’re asking ourselves and our clients… How might we harness today’s hardships as catalysts for new and better experiences tomorrow? What experiences will hold meaning? What will it mean to thrive?

How will travel change? Will the gate agent test us for COVID-19 before we board? Will our server bring our date night dinner out to the curb while we dine in the car? Will Zoom offer subscribers free anti-glare glasses? Will there be a Zoom at all?

Turn the Great Pause into your brand’s Great Pivot: Three Steps to Conquer COVID-19

Dominant brands will convert today’s Great Pause into the Great Pivot, recalibrating today to design breakthroughs and meaningful customer experiences for tomorrow. Under immense pressure to reopen, respond appropriately, and reboot quickly, brands are thinking beyond the immediate next steps. What might the path forward be for the post-pandemic experiences that brands deliver? What stays, what goes, what evolves, and what is reinvented?

 process frames actions you can take in the new post-pandemic normal:

As anxious consumers emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, their need to reestablish a sense of safety, security, and control will affect what they value. Robert Iger, Disney’s executive chairman, recently stated, “To return to some semblance of normal, people will have to feel comfortable that they’re safe.”

 to mitigate risk and temper anxiety will be highly valued by consumers and employees.

 To alleviate consumer fears, remain relevant, and get business back on line, brands need to:

Focus on the rapid roll-out of reassuring offerings that mitigate fear and augment a sense of safety

Embrace the possibility of prolonged social-distancing by supporting social distancing preferences including contactless delivery/pick-up and virtual/digital services

And mobilize for re-engagement with reassuring communication/packaging, adjusted staffing roles/models, new hygiene behavior protocols, and by reassessing/redesigning campaigns and calendars

Though a fear-based self-preservation mentality will persist, consumers will increasingly respond to brands that also surprise and delight them. Successful organizations will 

 to evolve their brands, products, and service experiences in anticipation of these behavior shifts — this return to the value of convenience, the insistence on competitive prices, the need to indulge, and a desire to belong.

 To leverage insights around emerging behaviors, desires, and expectations, brands need to:

Shift from ‘reacting’ to ‘understanding’

Reassess the competitive landscape to understand how things have shifted by taking a fresh read on how a brand is perceived in a post COVID-19 world

Take advantage of the post-pandemic landscape by rebuilding for the new normal and charting a path within it: identify white space, explore and test new features/offerings/experiences, adapt strategies for the mid to long term

As the new normal takes root, responsive brands will 

 in the post-pandemic consumer landscape, leaning into white space and scaling accordingly. Pre-COVID-19 behaviors and trends will re-emerge and hyper-accelerate. Be ready, start experimenting. As social-distancing disappears and our bubbles expand to their pre-COVID-19 forms, we will long for a sense of connection and belonging, and begin to aspire to higher-order desires around freedom, self-transcendence and self-actualization.

 To leverage the new normal, brands need to:

Seize white space and create demand by experimenting with emerging consumer needs, desires and behaviors

Stand up then scale new offerings and interactions identified in 

 that pivot your experiences beyond the functional

And revisit pre-pandemic visions and strategies, and embracing, incorporating, and modifying them to meet consumers’ higher order desires and expectations

 to leverage Post-COVID-19 opportunities will 

Delivering Post-Pandemic Brand Experiences: Three Steps to Conquer COVID-19’s New Normal

Understanding Gen Z is imperative for any future-looking design efforts. 

This young generation (about 5–20 years old) has remarkably different views on themselves, society, products and services than any past generation including the close-in-age Millennials. As Gen Z comes of age over the next 10 years they’ll expect their values to be well-reflected in the designed experiences that surround them. Are we ready? Let’s explore how their new notions of identity, specifically, can inspire us to design for a world where Gen Z leads the way.

Gen Z Will Break Existing Consumer Models

First of all, Generation Z likely doesn’t have just 

 ethnic, work, gender or family identity–so demographic consumer segmentation won’t work with them. And psychographic consumer segmentation may not either, because Gen Z is embracing multiple attitudes, interests and lifestyles wholeheartedly, whether it be 90’s hip-hop 

What consumer model comes next to suit Gen Z is not a question I can answer–at least not yet. What I can say is that the mere fact that it’s up for grabs points to how much Gen Z is shifting the concept of identity. And I believe their behaviors and beliefs will likely influence mainstream culture–people beyond the 

–and soon. So we designers and businesspeople need to be prepared.

If Multiplicity Is the Norm, Fluidity Becomes Highly Valuable

Here are a few staggering facts about U.S. Generation Z and their shifting concepts of identity: Gen Z is comprised of 47% ethnic minorities, making them the most ethnically diverse generation in US history. 100–300% more Gen Zers identify as multiracial than the previous Millennial Generation. More than two-thirds believe that gender does not define a person as it once did. Over 75% negotiate multiple online identities with ease. An increasing percentage of Gen Zers are being raised in nontraditional households (same-sex parents, working moms, stay-at-home dads, etc) with nontraditional children roles (resident IT expert, fill-in-the-blank activist, family cook, etc). And, lastly, Gen Z (also known as the 

) often identifies multiple, varied interests or career intentions (artist/runner/cook, etc).

For this Generation, identity-multiplicity on several fronts–ethnic, gender, family, online and career–is the new normal. And so the ability to fluidly cross identities on a moment-to-moment, daily, weekly, or yearly basis with ease and grace becomes a highly prized value and skill. Which makes me wonder–how can we, as designers, help empower people to achieve fluidity?

Fluidity-aware Brands Will Take an Extreme Position

Branded products used to be about expressing your identity to the world. Think back on Fubu or Tommy Hilfiger… these brands were actually acting as signals to help customers solidify their own identities, which were, on average, tied to singular, curated lifestyles: urban hip-hop or country club prep, for example.

More recently, branded products have started to succeed in supporting customers to ‘self-create’ their own identities or personal brands. Products and services can be seen more as tools for differentiation in an era that values creativity and diversity. Think of Android, Instagram, NikeID, YouTube and many, many more.

In the future, I expect the focus to shift from self-creation-type identities to fluid identities. This means successful branded products and services will be found in two important new areas: 

 brands will maintain a simple, broad appeal and be valued for their stability and versatility while allowing individuals’ identities to remain fluid. For instance, as Gen Z approaches young adulthood around 2025, they won’t want their car to express one specific identity to others as they change contexts throughout the day. Instead, they’ll love a simple, unbranded car that they can drive to a rock concert as a masculine performer one night and a business meeting as a feminine panel-member the next day, still feeling like themselves all the while.

 brands will offer new ways for people to augment their diversity in a growing sea of fluid, overlapping identities. These future Gen Zers won’t see race or gender lines as clearly as we do now, so they’ll draw new, more meaningful lines to distinguish themselves, based on skills, capabilities or style perspectives. They’ll look to technology and service for instance, to help enhance inherent skills and interests, like a sharp eye for photographic composition with a smart eyepiece, or strong community values with a farm-to-table service-brand patch on their jacket sleeve.

So the questions I leave for you are: Will you meet Gen Z’s fluid-identity expectations by the time they come of age (rough majority by 2025)? Do you know who you are as a brand, where you should be positioned for fluidity and why?

Designing for the Identity-Fluid Gen Z

The trends impacting businesses today: Ziba's Quantum Clarity website

Quantum Clarity website

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) is the leading commercial truck manufacturer in the US, and they never stop improving. As DTNA’s vehicles become smarter and more autonomous, they also produce torrents of data, that could be leveraged to improve efficiency and expand offerings.

Challenge

In the space of just a few months, Ziba designed, prototyped, and launched a user-centered digital platform for optimizing and displaying data in real time. Using this platform, called Detroit Connect, DTNA customers can monitor vehicle location, movement, and status, helping them improve vehicle safety, performance, and uptime, and reduce fuel and operating expenses. 

Solution

Detroit Connect is now installed on over 30,000 vehicles, operated by 35 of the largest freight hauling companies in North America. With detailed readouts, analytics, and leaderboards, it’s transforming the way professional drivers and fleet managers do their jobs.

Impact

Streaming vehicle data can revolutionize your business. But first, it needs to make sense to humans.

Ziba is helping Daimler articulate and understand the needs of our customers, and acting as an extension of the telematics group, translating ideas into products.

A digital platform gives customers the visibility they need to optimize performance. 

Trucks can talk. But what are they saying?

Through the design of the Ziba World Headquarters, we set out to create a place that fosters the cross pollination of ideas in a company defined by its multidisciplinary experimentation and excellence. A testament to inspiring, problem-solving design, the new headquarters create an elegant and efficient environment that supports Ziba's creative endeavors.

Ziba Design has been an anchor and a champion to Portland’s design industry for over 35 years. And the city has returned the favor, providing a welcoming home base that makes it easy to attract talent from around the globe. By the early 2000s, our offices in Portland’s Pearl District were bursting with over 100 designers, researchers, anthropologists, engineers and developers. We’d outgrown our space, both physically and organizationally.

On a brisk December afternoon in 2008, the whole team gathered to break ground on a long, narrow industrial lot a few blocks from our old office, wedged between galleries and cafes on one side, and a railyard on the other. Together with Portland-based Holst Architecture, we set out to create an office building that would serve our work and our clients, as well as the local community where we’d laid down our roots.

From the outset, we knew we had a great partner in Holst, and they helped us refine our vision of a dramatic but serene workspace, that actively encourages the chance interactions that drive creative inspiration. The project rooms, workshops, and communal spaces that make up the three-story space are full of deliberate intent and passion. But especially, it’s the details that show this is a place by and for designers: from faucets and door handles to sightlines inside and out, everything’s considered, no matter how complex or mundane.

Ziba prides itself on the concept of “co-creation” with their clients, flipping the traditional designer-client relationship inside out. In that way, the new structure is as much a new home for their clients, representatives from major brands who are working on everything from design strategy to industrial design. The project rooms are made open and accessible to clients, who are made to feel at home as well.

Ziba’s founder, Sohrab Vossoughi, is a big believer in local community, and the need to staying connected to it. So the building reflects local values of sustainability and efficiency, with reclaimed wood and a LEED Gold rating. And the building’s auditorium invites hundreds of participants every year to exchange ideas and solutions.

For too long the company has occupied a Pearl District storefront with reflective windows and not even a sign in front. If Portland is going to become the international design capital that its leadership is seeking, we need top local design companies like Ziba sitting out on their front porch, so to speak, instead of staying inside with all the shades drawn. Both literally and metaphorically, that has now changed, and Ziba is basking in light.

Though Covid-19 may have altered the way we worked together in 2020, after a long quarantine we’ve reopened the studio again under new health guidelines. Our building tells a story, and we’d love for you to hear it. So please 

 anytime and come over, whether to share ideas on Post-its or craft beer on tap.

The more co-mingling, the better. Welcome to Ziba World HQ.

Recent News & Updates

If you want to go to the moon, call NASA. If you want to go to the heart of your brand, call Ziba.

A private equity investment firm had acquired New Seasons, a beloved local grocery chain with a fervent following. They were eager to build on that success, but also aware of the potential pitfalls. Enter Ziba’s research, branding, and environments teams. It was our job to “nail” the essence of the New Seasons brand and codify its values, so they could scale up efficiently, with 100% brand fidelity.

The New Seasons shopping experience is local, artisanal, but also welcoming and a bit irreverent—just as its Pacific Northwest customers expected. Ziba went to work capturing that spirit in a revamped house brand, including visual identity, Partner Brand products, wayfinding, and dozens more elements. We also developed a complete strategy and story, to help new stores understand the local sourcing partnerships, the personality and the humor that define the brand.

New Seasons’s “Partner Brand” launched successfully in 2017, and within a year the entire chain was experiencing double digit sales growth. They’ve since added 7 new locations, with every store quickly becoming a local favorite.

After a round of new investment, New Seasons Market was getting ready for a period of sustained growth. To protect their investment, they needed to make sure expansion didn't lead the brand astray. Luckily, customers loved them just the way they were.

Ziba was able to provide the strategic resources, creativity and the strong discipline needed to help New Seasons distill and define our brand essence and platform. We worked collaboratively with Ziba throughout the process and they have been great partners to us.

Tell an authentic story, deliver on what you promise, and keep customers engaged.

Can a local favorite scale up without losing what makes it special?

Introducing the New Seasons "Partner Brand"

Because "private label" and "house brand" don't do justice to the intimate relationships they've built with local producers.

Luxottica is one of the world’s leading eyewear brands, but that didn’t make it immune to competition from cheap online alternatives. Faced with declining market share, they needed to grow foot traffic, sales, and brand loyalty. But first they needed to understand what a “uniquely Luxottica retail experience” was…and what it could be.

Ziba worked with Luxottica’s brand team to clarify their unique brand promise, which informed a complete new retail experience strategy. Physical stores became ‘service centers’, and a dizzying 18-stage customer journey was simplified to just three service touchpoints. We took cues from theater and educational theory, to guide customers through the streamlined experience. Then we prototyped and refined it at full scale, until it was intuitive and satisfying in a way no online retailer could match. Environmental and communication design—from story and imagery to digital touchpoints—reinforced the brand’s superior quality, value, and fashion. 

The pilot OPSM ‘service center’ launched in central Sydney in 2015, and within a year had shown sales growth of 6.8%—despite growing competition from online upstarts. The concept has gone on to inform redesigns in nearly 80 stores throughout Australia.

The line between eyecare and eyewear was getting in the way of a great customer experience. So we decided to get rid of it. 

The retail store, reimagined as an elevated service experience.

What kind of in-store experience does it take to fight online upstarts?

At that time digital commerce was really nascent, especially in Australia. We predicted the impact e-comm would have on retail and while our retailers were focused on an assortment arms war we reimagined the role of the store as a 'service center'. We reimagined the OPSM store from the ground up to amplifying engagement, unleashing expertise of team members and celebrating an elevated service experience. As covid accelerates adoption of e-commerce, the role of the store will need to be reconsidered in its entirety. And who knows, when the dust settles and people venture outside again, maybe that role will be the service center!

Organic, artisanal, small-batch, exotic, local—the market for America’s favorite condiment was getting more fragmented and more competitive. And one of the world’s most iconic brands was in danger of losing its place at the top. To rebuild brand equity, and reduce packaging costs, Heinz needed to understand what made its brand so beloved, and redesign accordingly.

Ziba’s field research revealed a simple concept that held the answer to Heinz’s competitive threats: love. Other brands were exciting, affordable, unique…but only Heinz held had a place in consumers’ hearts. So Ziba doubled down that love, by simplifying the product line and emphasizing what made the brand so special: its thickness and richness, and its unmistakable visual elements. An updated cap and bottle design captured those elements, making them instantly recognizable, and instantly lovable.

Ziba’s redesign celebrated Heinz’s heritage among loyalists, putting classic elements like the scalloped bottle shape, the keystone-shaped label, and the raised “57” front and center. The new bottle and cap design also saved over $10M per year in packaging costs.

Heinz is one of the few brands out there that evokes genuine love. Ziba leaned into the neglected qualities that made it unique, to restoke the fires among the faithful.

Bringing a beloved brand into the modern era demands a thoughtful redesign—and a deep understanding of why loyalists love it.

How do you update an icon in a field full of pretenders?

Keystone-shaped label—referencing Heinz’s roots in Pennsylvania, the Keystone State

Best Buy is still the biggest brick-and-mortar electronics retailer in the US, but online shopping is practically made for electronics. The practice of browsing prodcuts at Best Buy then buying them on Amazon was so common it had a name: showrooming. Part of the reason was cost, but just as important was the feeling of getting exactly what you want. And that gave Best Buy, and the Ziba team who worked with them, an idea. 

After diving deep into consumer expectations and opportunities for in-store delight, the Ziba team focused on mobile accessories: cables, cases, speakers, headphones. And specifically, on the sense of freedom you get when presented with a range of choices that lets you have just what you want, like a kid in a candy shop. So we designed a candy shop. The Modal line of mobile accessories features simple shapes, straightforward functionality, a range of bright, fun colors—and it’s only available in-store.

The Modal line was a hit, handing Best Buy 11% growth in domestic revenue, and driving enough in-store shopping that online competition ceased to be an issue. By value engineering both the products and the packaging, the Ziba team was able to reduce waste, too, by 20% compared with Best Buy’s previous line.

Don’t assume—ask. Consumers may like shopping online, but they also want the custom experience that only in-person can offer.

An ecosystem of house branded accessories beats e-commerce with flexibility and customization.

What gets digital consumers excited about in-store shopping?

Ziba Labs originally developed Citifyd as an app for event parking. And while it worked beautifully, the model put a hard ceiling on adoption growth. It needed a redesign in order to be relevant for everyday use in addition to special events.

The Ziba team developed an intuitive new front end user experience, and used AI and machine learning models to create a cutting-edge backend transaction system, that connects Citifyd with users, parking space owners, and mobility providers. The result is a fully integrated, seamless, end-to-end ecosystem that works for both commuters and special occasion trips.

Since its launch in 2016, Citifyd has been adopted in cities around the world, now serving as the official parking platform for several major event venues. Pasadena, California, has made it the official platform for parking throughout the city. The service’s modular structure also makes it customizable, able to work with other services and applications, adding unprecedented value for partners.

Citifyd is an effortless mobility ecosystem that makes finding parking as easy as pulling into your driveway. Or you could just keep circling the block.

A fully integrated seamless end-to-end parking ecosystem offers effortless mobility.

Could the right app mean never having to hunt for parking again? 

Citifyd launched in 2016 and has already been adopted globally.

With 73,000 active users, it is the official parking platform for eight major event venues, and several parking management companies.

Ziba is a human-centered design and innovation consultancy working closely with clients across every industry and region of the world.

Recent Work

15K+

Recent News & Updates

Trends

Perspectives

Perspectives

Quantum Clarity website

Daimler Trucks North America

Work in Progress