Design, a catalyst for innovation, but not without limits
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Photo by Skye Studios on Unsplash
At a time when we are trying to rethink our society, to create new products, but also new ways of life, new experiences, the design seems an important industry, if not essential. Innovation also seems to play a key role in this transition to a “new world”, the (climate) situation implying a renewal and not only the improvement of the current situation.
In this context, it seems interesting to question the interactions between these two worlds, innovation, and design. What are the contributions and limits of design in innovation?
Observe and understand to better conceive, the Design
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc.
What is design in the first place? For many, the design remains an “artistic” discipline. While they are two very different jobs, we quickly confuse designer and graphic designer.
Indeed, design is not limited to graphic skills. We can, for example, design service, design the structure of an application, we could even imagine designing a government. Design is finally starting from a problem, observing a situation (a system, the actors, etc.), and from these observations imagining a solution.
For example (imaginary), we start with a problem: How to help students not to fall asleep in class? Observe: Students fall asleep because the chairs are too comfortable. We imagine: we could create electric chairs that would send impulses every minute, or make the chair uncomfortable by adding spikes.
We all know “innovate” but how to define it?
Innovation also seems to be a complicated term to define. Today, we would all agree that an innovation is a startup, a new technology, a new product. But is it only that? Is it enough to create something new to be an innovator?
Probably not, an innovation is not only a technological invention. Innovation is not limited to new technologies. Monet, for example, innovated when he invented impressionism, but nothing technological.
To innovate is therefore to invent in any discipline, but also to make known, in the sense that an innovation is an invention with a societal impact. It is an invention created in a garage: ok; but in a garage with a lot of people in front of it.
“Useful” innovation thanks to design
To innovate is therefore to conceive and to promote, and to design is to conceive, so the link seems to be quickly made. So what does design bring to innovation?
Design is very attentive to observation, we do not create by chance, we observe, we understand, then we think about a solution. In this sense, design allows inventions to be innovations. Why is this? Because we don’t design (or at least we try not to design) anything “useless”. The concept resulting from design is therefore useful to society, or at least to a certain category of people. Even before it exists, design already gives a societal purpose to the invention, making it an invention.
Designing is also about digging deep and taking an interest in all the actors of a system. In the case of a product, we are interested in the users, but also the designers, the sellers, the manufacturers; the whole chain. Thus, design benefits innovation with the idea that it brings together the ideas and knowledge of all around the same issue. Innovation being a constant back and forth between an idea and concept base and a knowledge base, our knowledge base, our science, is incredibly important here. Our ability to innovate is then amplified.
A limit to “disruptive” innovation
Design is therefore very beneficial to innovation, yet it can also act as a limitation.
Indeed, the first step when we start designing is to seize a problem, to seize a situation. However, innovation does not necessarily need to start from a real point.
We discerned here two types of innovations: incremental innovation, which consists in the improvement of some existing things; disruptive innovation, which consists in the creation of some completely new things. Design undoubtedly helps incremental innovation, yet it seems by definition to limit disruptive innovation.
Designing is in a way understanding the expected and designing on it, innovating however maybe designing the unexpected. In this sense, design limits innovation, and would not allow innovation in unknown fields.
Finally, design and innovation seem to be intertwined worlds. Design brings to innovation a capacity to observe the world and to conceive based on these observations. However, it limits the ability to think outside the box, and to imagine the unexpected in unknown fields.