The Design Imperative by Steven Chen

Author:Steven Chen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

DDI

While conducting user research is important, consumers do not always provide useful feedback that lead to innovation (Christensen and Bower 1996). Additionally, firms occasionally need to take design one notch higher. DDI is a design approach that has one eye on functionality and the other eye on radical form factors that “push their vision about possible breakthrough meanings and product languages that could emerge in the future” (Verganti 2008, p. 438). In other words, rather than focusing on end users’ needs, DDI calls for radical innovations of product meanings through the manipulation of form and semantic dimensions. Through radical product aesthetics, firms can achieve differentiation and gain a competitive advantage over competitors (Acklin 2010).

An example of DDI implementation in product design is the Bookworm bookcase developed by the Italian furniture company, Kartell (Dell’Era et al. 2010). Designed for professional offices, the Bookworm features a distinctive, winding form factor and is described as being as much sculpture as it is a bookcase. The early focus of designers was finding a particular material to accommodate the curving design, as opposed to discovering end-user needs. Product development took place between the lead designer and the R&D team, with no user research.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.