SCAD and Empathy: Logistics is a Human Experience
The internet lacks a sense of physical reality. This has never been more apparent than during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when social isolation made us aware that the Internet cannot meet all of our needs for human interaction.
Seeking a sense of connection, young people began writing letters and shipping each other art, treats, and personal objects. These became the touchpoints they needed to maintain sanity and a sense of humanity.
As the weeks went on, the supply chain began exposing vulnerabilities beyond reliability. Logistics is an industry about innovation and efficiency, but as a system designed by people for people, logistics is more than just the coordination of complex operations. Logistics is a human experience.
A key site where the physical and the digital meet is the world of logistics; what happens to make a button click online become an object at your door. SCADpro spoke with creative business leaders for their insights for the future of logistics. Over the course of ten weeks, ten design students from five countries and six different disciplines collaborated with partners from IBM, Great Dane, Georgia Ports Authority, and the Savannah Economic Development Authority to discuss the future of delivery services. Our findings suggest that delivery connects people and that in the future, it will become increasingly important for the logistics industry to put people — both consumers and employees — at the center of logistics. They offer the following insights:
1. Consumers and employees desire greater communication.
Customers often want their package to arrive quickly, but this is often a matter of uncertainty rather than urgency. Before consumers receive a package, they experience anxiety over its wellbeing and whereabouts. By allowing access to information to consumers and employees, the industry can ease consumer anxiety by delivering both perceived and real reliability.
2. Not all packages are equal.
For many packages, speed is still a top priority. Some consumers prefer features like careful handling, less intensive labor practices, and optimization for reduced environmental impact, even if that means that their package takes a little more time to reach them. These needs vary not by product alone, but by the relationship between a specific product and its specific consumer.
3. Last mile is an opportunity for community.
As last mile delivery — the aspect of logistics that connects a robust global system to individuals around the world — burdens the logistics ecosystem, the industry has been looking to futuristic alternatives such as drones and other on-demand delivery services. Meanwhile, in other industries, such as Slow Fashion and Slow Food, there is an emerging emphasis on slow, local processes. By joining this conversation, logistics can transform its greatest burden into its greatest strength, offering a value proposition that transcends transportation to increasingly purpose-driven consumers.
Takeaway
At its core, logistics is a system that connects people. Contemporary projections for the future of logistics too often remove people from the picture, a fault that may be detrimental to the industry. Logistics currently lacks empathy. The future of delivery logistics may not be greater speed, but greater connection.
About SCADpro
SCADpro is an innovation studio, connecting current and future creative leaders in business to realize what’s next, generating relevant solutions for the world’s most influential brands. Through industry leading design faculty and students from across 40+ design majors and 100+ countries future-proof industry through transformative creators and intentional design.
By Abby Hollis (B.F.A., fibers, 2020)
