Designing for Ambiguity — Why the Best Brand Experiences Don’t Always Have Clear Endpoints
Designing for Ambiguity — Why the Best Brand Experiences Don’t Always Have Clear Endpoints
In an era of economic instability, technological disruption, and cultural change, one thing is certain: certainty itself is in short supply.
So why do so many brand experiences still pretend otherwise?
Today’s customer journeys are no longer linear. Loyalty is fluid. Attention is fractured. And yet, many brands still build experiences like they’re telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end — neat, contained, and controlled.
At Matthew Fairweather Studio, we’ve found that the most resonant, resilient brand experiences are the ones that design for ambiguity — experiences that allow for choice, evolution, and co-creation over time.
Why Ambiguity is the New Reality
Consumers, students, and employees alike are navigating increasingly complex environments. Their needs shift. Their behaviours adapt. Their expectations evolve quickly, often without warning.
But rather than see ambiguity as a threat, leading organisations are starting to see it as an opportunity — to create experiences that are more human, more adaptable, and more open.
What Does It Mean to Design for Ambiguity?
Build for Exploration, Not Just Conversion
Not every experience needs to be a funnel. Some of the most valuable brand touchpoints create space for curiosity, not just action.Allow Customers to Shape the Journey
In our M&S “Festival of the Future” programme, we created an immersive environment where employees could choose how they explored emerging sustainability trends — making the experience more personal, memorable, and motivating.Embrace Prototyping as a Mindset
Ambiguity favours agility. Rather than building one static journey, co-create evolving experiences through feedback, iteration, and ongoing alignment.
Case Insight: Fluid Design in Higher Education
In our work on student experience strategy, we often found a tension between standardisation and personalisation. By designing flexible experience principles — ones that provided structure but not rigidity — we helped academic and support teams respond more effectively to the diverse, changing needs of students across their lifecycle.
The result? A model that supported both coherence and creativity. Because in real life, no two journeys are the same.
Why This Matters for Your Brand
Designing for ambiguity isn’t about losing control. It’s about creating systems that thrive in uncertainty — where your values stay constant, but your delivery adapts.
It’s about empowering your people and your customers to explore, decide, and participate — not just follow a path you’ve set in stone.
The Takeaway
The strongest brand experiences today don’t offer all the answers. They offer frameworks for exploration, built on trust, clarity, and adaptability.
In a world that’s always shifting, the brands that will win are the ones comfortable saying: “we’re evolving too.”