In this paper we explore how to enrich
design-driven innovation by considering the dynamic nature of such innovation
as a result of history and evolution. Designdriven innovation takes distance
from users in their current context, but
instead proposes radical new meanings to
users that address new potential needs.
Here we look at how design-driven innovation can be based on a thorough understanding of a
product/ service’s current meanings and lost meanings of its predecessor(s). We investigate this assertion
with an action oriented case study using
a research through design approach.
Within the context of recorded music,
and using script analysis theory to define meaning, we studied the evolution of album covers. As a
result, we were able to come up with two
radical meaning innovations for album
covers. We conclude that the
investigation of the evolution of meaning of a series of products/services –from the past up to the
present– can help designers to depart
from current meanings more radically,
and more purposefully. We thus hope to
inspire design to go beyond studying meanings in temporal isolation, taking into account
meaning as a result of history and
evolution for the purpose of
design-driven innovation.
Design and semantics of form and movement DeSForM 2013
