When design meets tech to create desire

“Technology cannot create desire, it can only facilitate it,” said Mahesh Shinde, Founder of Flowchart Retail Consultancy, while presenting on the theme, ‘Where experiential tech meets beauty' at the DDX Asia Business conference 2025, building a strong case for the role of design in a tech-driven customer experience interface.

In an engaging presentation, Mahesh drove home why it’s important to blend technology with the human touch to deliver a great consumer experience. “Beauty is not about the pixels on a screen or the precision of an algorithm, but the feeling that a consumer takes back home,” as he rightly pointed out . This is where design comes into play, fusing tech enabled interfaces with customer convenience - in a manner that leads to the joy of discovery.

Mahesh then went on to break down the entire process of design into what it delivers in terms of the end customer - Joy, trust, experience, engagement, confidence, memories, interaction, excitement, etc. -all essential factors in the context of beauty shopping. Mapping the consumer’s in-store journey, Mahesh then went on to highlight how technology tools needed to be layered up with experiential add-ons to make it special and memorable for the customer. This, as he pointed out, could be done in multiple ways - engaging the customer in playful ways with gamification and sensorial add-ons, and thus resonating with the customers in ways that make it an unforgettable.

In this context, Mahesh summed up the role of design aptly, “Design dictates how technology breathes within its surroundings — whether it blends, contrasts, or commands attention. It’s about orchestrating an ambience where tech isn’t just functional but is seamlessly integrated within its environment, elevating both purpose[Text Wrapping Break]and presence.”

Mahesh then highlighted the importance of being cued into the minds and needs of the Gen-Z customer for a beauty brand to really crack it, supporting it with some stats - 50% of Gen- Z gamers, make in-game purchases. A brand’s in-store experience obviously needs to reflect this to achieve customer stickiness - calling for a seamless fusion of technology and design. He then took the audience through some key trends in the beauty segment, throwing light on the growing preference for clean/ethical beauty products and the role of well designed experiential touchpoints in highlighting that.

Mahesh summed up his presentation with a thought-provoking question: “We stand at the intersection of technology and beauty, but the real question is: Are we just advancing, or are we truly innovating?”