Judging at the D&AD Awards is an opportunity to see great work, be inspired by smart people and learn new stuff. And judging D&AD 2023’s digital design category recently was no exception. Even so, I was surprised by how, when it comes to brand and experience design, many businesses still use an outdated playbook.

My issue is the misplaced fixation that so many marketers and agencies still seem to have on so-called ‘big brand hero moments’ at the cost of something just as critical: the little intent-rich moments when a brand’s customer or employee turns to that brand to act on a need – such as to discover, to do, or to buy.

It seems we still have a legacy attention towards the big shiny things rather than the little things that you bump into or use every day. And the result is attention-grabbing sexy one-offs that all too often trump the useful and meaningful.

A while back, Google coined the phrase ‘micro-moments’ – and when they did, I was excited by what interest in them and reaction to them might inspire.

Just as I was excited again when Apple – with the type of impressive integration of software and hardware it is known for – launched a new way to show notifications and other crucial moments last year.

It seems we still have a legacy attention towards the big shiny things rather than the little things that you bump into or use every day

Thanks to an innovative integration of software functions, a new twist on the iPhone display enables iPhone 14 Pro model users to check alerts and current activity in progress, viewing micro-moments important to them using a new pill-shaped cut-out at the top of the screen called Dynamic Island.

Apple’s Dynamic Island performed well at this year’s D&AD Awards, and rightly so. However, there are few examples of similar thinking elsewhere in the industry. Which in today’s world is a missed opportunity, I believe. And here’s why.

Do you remember when you last stood in line in a bricks and mortar shop, using your phone to do a final spec of price check, to catch up with some work, or a friend, or simply to play a game to pass the time? Little moments such as these are the new battleground where a customer can be hooked and engaged, served or encouraged to act wherever they are, not just when they are online.

Digital has accelerated the importance of all these little moments as more of our lives are hybrid – lived at once both physically and online, or in both places at once. Which makes thinking about the brand experience in the round and through the lens of micro-moments – where the customer (or employee) is often won or lost – now business-critical. Yet much is still designed through a fixed lens and big expression.

Among brand owners, often the dominant desire – in Western markets, at least – is for design that is big and impactful all too often at the cost of the focus, attention and budget needed to join up micro-moments for users and moments for increased brand expression.

On top of which, having different agencies for different kinds of design – one for more traditional craft-based solutions, another for UI – remains commonplace. Despite the fact that all too often, the importance of having a team responsible for stitching it all together and ensuring consistency, and in turn, impact, is overlooked.

It’s what’s driving some clients to take responsibility back in-house, for a holistic view. It’s also one reason why brands and design teams still have too many silos.

Consider how much time we spend deliberating about the right word that best articulates the brand to use in a piece of brand communication. Why don’t we think about – and pay as close attention to – the finer elements of design in the same way?

Instacart’s motion logo is one example of this. Uber’s small car icon, allowing the user to see the location of an approaching car, is another.

Where are all the exciting, detailed discussions around the craft of UI – the kind of forensic analysis you get around typography, and other more traditional crafts?

Consider, too, the care and attention paid by automotive manufacturers when designing a top end car. They don’t just think of the utility: a door that opens. They think about the multi-sensory experience of it: how it looks, how smoothly it moves, the fine stitching on inside the leatherwork (and its smell), how the click sounds.

These brands and their designers know that, as with the ancient rite of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, it is the nuances and the minute details of excellence that make the experience and turn it into an exquisite piece of theatre.

The tyranny of UX has been the ease with which micro-moments have been pigeon-holed as a service layer. Where are all the exciting, detailed discussions around the craft of UI – the kind of forensic analysis you get around typography, and other more traditional crafts?

In today’s world, intent-rich moments have become the battlefield where one can lose or win. And to capitalise on this, brand owners must switch their mindset – from acquisition to retention mode.

For me, ‘brand’ is a thing that lives beyond ‘identity’; stitching together many different things. And I believe brand owners now find themselves at a point when they can no longer focus on brand acquisition and must invest more, instead, on brand retention.

That’s why it’s time to stop viewing brand experience through a functional lens and to start embracing it for what it is and should be: a rich and multi-sensory form of brand expression. Isn’t it time we as an industry embraced this notion, too?

Wayne Deakin is global principal, creative at Wolff Olins; wolffolins.com; Top image: Wolff Olins