Psychologically based innovation and design development

DE | EN

INNCH | innovation guided by research

As your strategic partner, we support you in developing psychologically grounded innovations, designs and communications that bring you closer to your customers and ensure your success in the market.

We are Monika Heimann and Michael Schütz, an interdisciplinary team of experts in psychology, design and innovation.

We accom­pany you through the entire inno­va­tion pro­cess, from initial explo­ra­tion to mar­ket-ready pro­to­ty­pes. Wit­hout han­do­vers or unneces­sary trans­la­tion los­ses. Always in focus: the deeper needs of your customers.

This not only results in via­ble solu­ti­ons in a short time. Our col­la­bo­ra­tive approach also ensu­res that all rele­vant stake­hol­ders par­ti­ci­pate in the inno­va­tion pro­cess with their heads and hearts and actively help shape it.

The basis for this is InsightArt®—our agile, inter­di­sci­pli­nary rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment con­cept deve­lo­ped over 15 years, which trans­la­tes psy­cho­lo­gi­cal insights directly into con­crete ideas, designs, and imple­men­ta­tion-ori­en­ted solu­ti­ons. To this end, we think and work bey­ond the box: For us, psy­cho­lo­gi­cal-artis­tic rese­arch, stra­te­gic thin­king, and prac­ti­cal crea­tion are part of a holi­stic process.

We accompany you according to your objectives

Design Guide

Design Guide: communication development

We sup­port you in the deve­lo­p­ment of crea­tive and at the same time stra­tegy and tar­get group con­form designs for com­mu­ni­ca­tion, pack­a­ging, pro­duct or store.

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When designs opti­mally ‘dock’ with people’s psy­cho­lo­gi­cal moti­ves and inner visual worlds — their ideas, wis­hes or desi­res — they can achieve the com­mu­ni­ca­tion goals and solve the rele­vant mar­ke­ting tasks. Design-led rese­arch and rese­arch-led crea­tion the­r­e­fore link up right from the start.

In work­shops or indi­vi­dual inter­views with the tar­get group, the rele­vant image motifs, sto­ries, color spaces, key­words, etc. are deter­mi­ned as part of the depth-psy­cho­lo­gi­cal explo­ra­tion, using spe­cial psy­cho­lo­gi­cal-design methods such as co-design or a visual trig­ger ana­ly­sis, sup­ported by the sel­ec­tive use of gene­ra­tive AI. From this, the rele­vant design code and the rele­vant search fields for the desi­red design are deve­lo­ped, if neces­sary sup­ple­men­ted by a design ana­ly­sis of the competition.

An InsightArt®manual in “design lan­guage” con­ta­ins all rele­vant design com­pon­ents as well as pro­to­ty­pi­cal design drafts in addi­tion to the psy­cho­lo­gi­cal basics. It is inspi­ra­tion for the deve­lo­p­ment of the final designs: in col­la­bo­ra­tive InsightArt®teamLabs, in coope­ra­tion with your lead agency, exter­nal crea­ti­ves and desi­gners or directly from us. If requi­red, they can be tes­ted for final optimizations.

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Innovation Guide

Innovation Guide: Product and offer developmen

Tog­e­ther with you, we “des­troy” old thought pat­terns and deve­lop pro­duct and offer ideas that are inno­va­tive and at the same time customer-centric.

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By taking a deep look at people’s moti­ves and using crea­tive inven­tion prin­ci­ples, we con­sciously leave behind old paths. This crea­tes space for inspi­ra­ti­ons and ideas that are novel or even dis­rup­tive and at the same time hit the right nerve with consumers.

InsightArt®research unco­vers the deeper needs ‘behind’ the super­fi­cial desi­res of con­su­mers and pro­vi­des the pivo­tal point for idea deve­lo­p­ment, the “psy­cho­lo­gi­cal code”.

A SWOT ana­ly­sis and con­ver­sa­ti­ons with your employees reve­als poten­ti­als and oppor­tu­ni­ties of your com­pany and your team and con­nects the inter­nal with the exter­nal view.

In an InsightArt®manual we map the pos­si­bi­lity space and show the most pro­mi­sing inno­va­tion directions.

Ideas and pro­to­ty­pes on a high crea­tive level are deve­lo­ped in InsightArt®teamLabs, among others by using pro­fes­sio­nal crea­tive stra­te­gies and gene­ra­tive AI. Pro­to­ty­pes are tes­ted again on con­su­mers if necessary.

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Concept Guide

Concept Guide: Marketing concept development

We sup­port you in the deve­lo­p­ment of mar­ke­ting con­cepts and mock­ups that are cen­te­red on the needs of your customers.

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In ite­ra­tive loops of sys­te­ma­tic mockup crea­tion and cus­to­mer feed­back inclu­ding psy­cho­lo­gi­cal ana­ly­sis, as well as team reviews with all stake­hol­ders, we work with you to deve­lop a cus­to­mer jour­ney, adver­ti­sing mate­rial or online interfaces.

The results are available after approx. 2 weeks of inten­sive, agile and prac­tice-ori­en­ted col­la­bo­ra­tion — in the form of pro­to­ty­pes that can be used directly in mar­ke­ting (with slight adjus­t­ments by Brand if neces­sary). Psy­cho­lo­gi­cally sound, they create more con­ver­sion and enable you to pre­sent them more con­vin­cin­gly to inter­nal interfaces.

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Future Guide

Future Guide: Psychological future scenarios

We make cul­tu­ral trends trans­pa­rent and sup­port you in deve­lo­ping sce­na­rios and future concepts.

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Con­crete oppor­tu­ni­ties and risks can be unco­vered and new busi­ness areas and stra­te­gies for your own com­pany can be deve­lo­ped. Because despite all the uncer­tainty that the future holds, psy­cho­lo­gi­cal needs are a relia­ble constant.

A psy­cho­lo­gi­cal cul­ture study rela­ted to your busi­ness sec­tor is expan­ded with methods such as life­world col­la­ges, cul­ture samples or sci­ence fic­tion nar­ra­ti­ves. Deve­lo­p­ments in the cur­rent world of con­su­mers’ lives and ima­gi­na­ti­ons can be unders­tood in depth in this way. This is sup­ple­men­ted, for exam­ple, by utopias/dystopias or the crea­tion of images of the future.

An InsightArt®manual “Trends” with pro­ba­bi­lity eva­lua­tions for dif­fe­rent future sce­na­rios gives you inspi­ra­tion in addi­tion to more secu­rity for plan­ning. Based on the sce­na­rios, we deve­lop inno­va­tive con­cepts for future busi­ness areas or the reo­ri­en­ta­tion of exis­ting ones for the future tog­e­ther with you in an InsightArt®teamLab.

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The approach is desi­gned indi­vi­du­ally for each inno­va­tion pro­ject and the tools used are adapted – or new ones are inven­ted if necessary.

Our book on design psychology

2nd edi­tion (2025)

MoniMichaBuch

Monika Heimann, Michael Schütz:
Wie Design wirkt. Psy­cho­lo­gi­sche Prin­zi­pien erfolg­rei­cher Gestaltung

Rhein­werk Design 2025

After sel­ling 14,000 copies of the first edi­tion from 2016, it was time for a 2nd, expan­ded and revi­sed edition.

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What’s it about?
It’s about Maluma and Takete, and about Apollo and Dio­ny­sus and the Mona Lisa’s croo­ked smile. It’s about hopes and fears, life and death, light and shadow, sus­pen­seful arcs, gol­den ratios, and for­bidden sym­bols. The new edi­tion also fea­tures ple­nty of atmo­sphere, vibe, and sound, and even more “body” that exists “in the world.” The story turns around wicked attrac­tors and affor­dan­ces and ulti­m­ately even arri­ves at a legen­dary “theory of man­kind”, or at least a bit of “joint atten­tion.” But even that comes only through a lot of swi­ping, scrol­ling, and swi­ping, and with a bit of AI, which, howe­ver, will ulti­m­ately prove bit­terly disappointing.

Who is this book writ­ten for?
For desi­gners, adver­ti­sers, design and mar­ket rese­ar­chers, and pro­fes­sio­nals in mar­ke­ting and UX design. For anyone inte­res­ted in design and psy­cho­logy. For anyone who crea­tes and wants to under­stand and con­nect with peo­ple. For the curious, the ambi­tious, the doers, those who want to under­stand, and for for­ward thinkers.

Where can I buy the book?
It’s best to buy it directly ➔ from Rhein­werk Ver­lag. They ship quickly, and Jeff Bezos alre­ady has enough money.

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InsightArt® Design Guide on video

Project examples (anonymized)

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Innovation Guide

Design Guide

Future Guide

Design Guide

Concept Guide

Innovation Guide