Innovation in design is to make the project technically feasible, economically viable, merchandising interesting and emotionally engaging.

KeywordsInnovation, Design, R&D, Design Paradigm, Research, Design History

In the last month, September 2013, the European Commission published a Staff Working Document ‘Implementing an Action Plan for Design Driven Innovation‘.

After giving it a careful reading I came across with several points of view that I have been facing and defending in my professional career.

This publication follows the notion that design is increasingly an important tool that fosters economic growth as well as creative goals. Ferreting out all of these premises, we can consider an introspectively Design analysis and conclude that its paradigm as changed.

Taking a step back in Design past, long before Bauhaus, we can return to two shifts in Design thinking model history. The first and more spoken in Design history documentations is the Arts & Crafts movement, how officially broke apart the Design from Art. The second one is arranged by the artist and architect Le Corbusier.

Are you asking why he was so important?

Well, after Morris detached Design from the concept of major arts, Le Corbusier was the next big thinker in Design history. He has been so significant for the reason that he actually changed design thinking model towards the same values of science, which was a great achievement in his time. Even today, in some areas of activity and business models, seeing Design as a science is almost unthinkable.All his works, as an artist as well as a designer, were based on objectivity, rationality and Man – the father of Ergonomics.

Thanks to Le Corbusier this new context in the current design paradigm provides an exciting and challenging model for cross-disciplinary teams, including areas such as engineering, science and design; converging into an effective field of innovation and creativity.

design driven innovation

Design is increasingly recognized as a key discipline

and activity to bring ideas to the market, transforming

them into user-friendly and appealing products or services. Though still

often associated solely with aesthetics, the application of

design is much broader.(European Commission, 2013)

reflection on design history

FIGURE Le Corbusier — the thinker

With the changing of the design paradigm, theorists have tried to understand the intrinsic value of products and services. In other words, they have turned the focus towards the human experience, in order to investigate what makes a product or service useful, usable and/or desirable. In a strictly abstract sense, design is everything that man creates in response to a need, regardless of time, equipment or technology.

According to the European Commission publication, “Design provides a series of methodologies, tools and techniques that can be used at different stages of the innovation process to boost the value of new products and services.” Thus, I assume that the design history is marked by the diversity of thought within the profession. Today it is a tool for development, innovation and productivity.

According to Buchanan (1992, p.19) “The history of design is not merely a history of objects. It is a history of the changing views of subject matter held by designers and the concrete objects conceived, planned, and produced as expressions of those views.”

Design is no longer restricted to the aesthetic and functional qualities, it is devoted to the development and conceptualization of experiences, services and environments.

new design paradigm

Design Driven Innovation by Joana Cerejo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://creativityissues.com

Since my entrance into labor market, and especially when I started to work at an Engineering Faculty, I have been debating and appealing to grow the awareness of design potential. Public and non-public organizations need to change their perception about the role of design and its potential contributions.

I have been defending that it is especially important at the early stages of a research project that organizations adopt the additional perspective from the design mindset.

I believe that if companies, business models and R&D accept the potential that design has in boosting growth, in a long term, they will be aware of the added value of having designers.

As we debated earlier, by changing the design paradigm, there was:

A more systematic use of design as a tool for user-

centred and market-driven innovation in all sectors of economy, complementary

to R&D, would improve European competitiveness.

(European Commission, 2013)

Design Driven Innovation by Joana Cerejo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://creativityissues.com

Thus, I was searching for a practical example for all these theoretical foundations and I came across with Puma.[Video available at YouTube Puma channel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-31DSVqLNXU]

Jahnke (2009, p.226) defends that engineers, scientists and designers have their own productivity perspectives. However, designers take advantage of their holistic perspective, focused on the user’s point of view. When describing the creative process, designers employ an “exploratory process” which is often compared to C.S. Pierce’s concept of abductive reasoning. For Jahnke, a large number of research projects that embrace R&D innovation, have their foundation in social and human needs rather than technological opportunities. By sharing the same vision of the author, it is shown that engineers and scientists can benefit from the designers experience perspective. Design can provide an assortment of tools to challenge R&D efforts, promoting the emergence of new ideas.

According to Kolko (2011, p.XV), “These principles and methods are teachable, repeatable, and understandable. They are creative activities that actively generate intellectual value and that are unique to the discipline of design.” Reflecting on this topic, the author suggests that researching new methods of design provides a new overview of design tools that R&D researchers can use to improve their research methodologies.

In conclusion, the introduction of the design paradigms of thought associated with the R&D management processes are an opportunity to maximize the transfer of knowledge and technology to various industries, in particular the creative industries.

references Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked Problems In Design Thinking. Design Issues, Vol. 8, No. 2, Pages 5 – 21, Spring 1992.

Jahnke, M. (2009). Design Thinking As Enabler Of Innovation In Engineering Organizations. 8Th European Academy Of Design Conferences, Robert Gardon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Kolko, J. (2011). Exposing The Magic Of Design. A Practitioner’s Guide To The Methods And Theory Of Synthesis. Oxford University Press Inc. New York. Isbn 13: 9780199744336

references