Innovation by Design: Differentiator in the Digital Age

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Innovation by Design: Differentiator in the Digital Age INNOVATION BY DESIGN: DIFFERENTIATOR IN THE DIGITAL AGE Sara Diamond and Linda Lewis Canada’s poor innovation record has been exacerbated by a reluctance to acknowledge design as a key component of innovation. We have the key ingredients for design to make a difference to Canadian innovation — a strong and varied sector, a base of university and college programs, exemplary firms, and proof that design matters. By including design as part of the innovation paradigm (research and development and design), we could radically transform Canada’s lacklustre innovation record into a leadership position. Le design est un facteur clé d’innovation, et la réticence du Canada à reconnaître son importance ne fait qu’aggraver son maigre bilan en la matière. Nous avons pourtant tout ce qu’il faut pour faire du design un accélérateur d’innovation : un secteur dynamique et varié, des programmes universitaires et collégiaux, des entreprises modèles et des données confirmant son rayonnement. Il suffirait d’intégrer le design au paradigme d’innovation (et donc à la recherche-développement) pour redorer le terne bilan du Canada et en faire un pôle mondial d’innovation. With great power comes great design. Designers allow companies to stay ahead of where cus- Mercedes-Benz commercial for 2012 CLS 550, July 2011 tomers are by anticipating and addressing human needs and behaviours in the context of our complex and chang- anada’s poor innovation record has been exacerbat- ing world. “Hard problems” in research are called “wicked ed by a reluctance to acknowledge design as a key problems” by designers; these challenges require intensive C component of innovation. By including design as collaboration and multilayered solutions. Designers are part of the innovation paradigm (research and development multilingual — that is, they are able to facilitate dialogues and design) we could radically transform Canada’s lacklustre between very diverse disciplines such as business, engi- innovation record into a leadership position. neering and materials science, and between researchers Design is a multidimensional and crossfunctional activ- and investors. Design thinking marries systems analysis ity that addresses the entire system of production and its life with outcomes-oriented problem solving. Design thinking cycle, from ideation through to marketing, offering a criti- is particularly relevant to creating efficiencies in services, cal path for successfully addressing complexity at key points products and business methods. Communication design of the value chain. As Bill Buxton, chief scientist of creates key messages and brand identity to shape demand. Microsoft and formerly of the Canadian high-technology Design redirects and refines existing products to address firm Alias/Wavefront, reminds us, products are the individ- new markets. Simply put, design transforms knowledge ual, social and cultural experiences that they engender and into products, services and processes that consumers want, the value and impact that they have on others — hence need and will pay for. design is about the experience of a product, system or ser- Design has become the differentiator in the digital era, a vice. Design is an interdisciplinary interpretive force that is period when technology and the expression of human needs able to analyze inventions to suggest paths for actual prod- and comfort through excellent design are tightly inter- ucts and services that either meet or create consumer twined. Apple is the ultimate design company, successful at demand, bridging between raw invention and application. every stage along this journey, taking research technology at Design knowledge matches human capacities and needs, in its point of maturation and redesigning it for mass consump- all their variability and complexity, with technologies, lead- tion, creating successful user experience and building a mar- ing to the creation of new value-added products. keting chain and brand aesthetic. Apple designers 60 OPTIONS POLITIQUES SEPTEMBRE 2011 Innovation by design: Differentiator in the digital age strategically developed products that financial sector could and should be report acknowledges the Frascati users want, use and cherish. Apple particularly reliant on design to gain a Manual’s (2002) definition of R&D and understood users’ desire for a seamless competitive edge. These service enter- the Oslo Manual’s (2005) definition of desktop experience, adopted Xerox’s prises depend on their positioning with innovation. It advises that “innovation invention of the GUI (graphic user end users, whether business-to-business is more than research and development interface) and spun it into massive dis- or consumers. Canada’s four key science (R&D) — it is transforming knowledge into products and services Apple is the ultimate design company, successful at every that Canadians and others... stage along this journey, taking research technology at its need, want and will pay for.” point of maturation and redesigning it for mass consumption, Roger Martin, Chair of creating successful user experience and building a marketing Ontario’s Institute for Competitiveness & chain and brand aesthetic. Prosperity, has suggested that tribution. Having already triumphed and technology (S&T) areas — environ- the focus on science and technology as with the iPod — an invention that used mental S&T, clean energy technologies, the key to innovation has created a design to build on earlier Korean appli- information and communication tech- national stranglehold on invention. cations of MP3 audio technology on nologies (ICT) and health research and Upon the release in June 2011 of the mobile devices, Apple analyzed the dis- life sciences — include user-facing Institute’s report Canada’s Innovation intermediation of the music industry, dimensions that could be greatly Imperative, Martin aptly noted that recognized users’ desire to manage enhanced by excellent service as well as “Canadians are among the leaders in their own music or media, tracked the product design. Excellent service design developed economies in work effort, emergence of peer-to-peer download- ensures efficiency and provides power- hours per person, but we are laggards in ing technologies — and created iTunes, ful aesthetics and utility that focus on creating economic value per hour providing ease of downloading and an the end-user experience. Porter Airlines worked” and further that we are not easy price point and reintroducing stands out as a service-oriented compa- leading the world in creating innovative profitability into music distribution. ny that is design savvy and user-centric products, services and processes in our Apple intuited users’ desire to combine with its slogan “Flying Refined.” Design businesses and workplaces. This is the an audio device, multimedia richness, is relevant across the spectrum of very essence of design innovation as it tactility, aggregated communications Canadian firms because it extends into aims to transform inventions into some- functions, personalization through a business process analysis, an approach thing useful, desirable and accessible. wealth of applications and a mobile that is also called transformation design. Our assertions about the efficacy of phone — hence the iPhone was born, RED, a Danish firm, emphasizes the design are evidence-based. The impor- revolutionizing the smartphone mar- interdisciplinary qualities of this tance of design to innovation capacity ket. Apple designers understood the approach — the reliance on participato- and productivity growth is well docu- pent-up demand for light, portable, ry design (where end users are brought mented in a number of international easy-to-use tablet computers, equally into the design process), the goal of reports from Europe, New Zealand, comfortable in the bedroom, the nurs- “building capacity, not dependency,” in Denmark and the United Kingdom as ery or the boardroom, hence the iPad. relation to specific markets and the well as Canadian studies, all measuring We can see from the Apple example encouragement of out-of-the-box think- design intensity and linking it to inno- that the discipline of design requires a ing and solutions with the result being vation growth and capacity building at deep understanding of people, their fundamental change for companies. the regional and national levels. These differences, their desires and their Given that the Canadian economy studies show that design operates as a needs as well as creative skills to imag- remains dominated by SMEs (small and critically important source of economic ine, represent and prototype products medium-sized enterprises), such busi- value, raising firms’ levels of profitabili- and services. As promoters of innova- ness-oriented design approaches and ty and productivity, and contributing to tion, we need to bring design thinking skills are exactly what is needed in order national economic competitiveness and skills to the forefront of every stage to build innovation capacity in and performance. The UK Design of product and process development. Canada’s challenged manufacturing and Council’s Design Index (2009) tracked small service industries. 63 firms that used design as quality he report State of the Nation 2010: We need to redefine and broaden leverage to compete. These firms out- T Canada’s Science, Technology and our understanding of the levers in the performed the London Stock Exchange Innovation System lists critical several innovation process. State of the Nation FTSE Index by
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