Figure A. The Design Innovation Framework Diagram, as presented by Codomo, 2019.
Innovation in design looks at bring something new to a system, service, product or environment that makes it more enjoyable and usable (Spacey, 2017). Building the conditions to support effective design innovation often looks at the design's potential desirability, feasibility and viability as a solution; as shown in Figure A, Codomo (2019) depicts the Design Innovation Framework Diagram, with these three features as pillars which converge to create innovation in design. With the projects in this folio, the conditions for innovative design is prominent in several aspects, as well as supported by the collaborative nature that is unique to each project.
The projects presented here are uniquely structured to support collaboration in several ways. The STEAM Learning Pod project and the Universal Design project incorporates direct co-collaboration within a team of people from different backgrounds; design, architecture and occupational therapy. This collaboration allowed for several aspects to be considered not only for the overall design solution but also during the design's process and its presentation to peers, industry partners and academic advisory staff.
The STEAM Learning Pod provided the team with a way to work together on the process of generating a persona and journey map, which set up expectations and constraints for the rest of the project. It also allowed for the team to be better informed about who they were designing for. In the case of this particular team, roles were generally separated into equal responsibilities; the responsibility of creating the persona was to one half of the group, with its presentation and further details decided on by Nildene as an individual contribution seen here. When looking at this in the light of forming the conditions for innovation in design, this allowed the set up the premise for the project's goals and design drivers that supported idea generation and iterative prototyping. These same steps were replicated to build foundations for the Universal Design project's idea generation, prototyping and solution.
These iterative processes are influenced by the Design Council's Double Diamond innovation framework (as shown in Figure B) and use the framework directly to discover and define the project based on this initial research and foundational components generated. They go on to allow the team to develop solutions and deliver concepts in response to the particular brief.
Figure B. The Double Diamond Framework, as presented by the Design Council (2019).
The over-arching features of the Double Diamond framework also look at promoting collaborative creation and showcasing the importance of putting people first, which allows for the iterations to be continuously developed based on feedback from fellow designers, industry partners and each other within the team. This feedback is critical in ensuring that the project is adhering to the goals of the brief while also meeting the needs of the generated user. It also presented opportunities for co-design factors to come to light, where others who may not have been as involved with the project would give way to other views of the same problem. Future projects would benefit from more external collaboration, to allow for the projects to be better refined and tested with specific users.
This external collaboration, while not in the team projects, was present in the Exploring Opportunities Internship project in partnership with DFM, nandin and the client, BioAir. This collaboration was reflected in the direct partnership with the client, who worked with the designer to ensure a proper context and understanding of the business, its products and its services. This co-collaborative aspect was showcased in the Systems Map, where the client provided direct data and information during a workshop that aimed at habilitating the designer and client to work together to learn, understand and develop the Systems Map. This workshop allowed the Systems Map component to be completed and presented in a clear and aesthetic way, to allow for future expansions and for BioAir to use in multiple ways with different stakeholders.
When looking at the folio and its projects across the last 12 weeks, there have been copious opportunities for collaboration in several forms which have all contributed to the development of each brief and its solutions. The solutions themselves range from physical components and concepts to less tangible effects, but each are providing new and innovative ways to answer the problem. In retrospect, the limited timelines of the projects were likely to contribute to the limitation of how and where the solutions came to; further resources and time may have contiruted to implementing the Next Step components of each of the projects completed as well. This would include user testing and further collaboration with industry partners to provide crucial feedback onthe implementation of solutions in specific situations and in context with the specific target users.
References
Buxton, B., 2010. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. Burlington: Elsevier Science, pp.138-148.
Codomo, 2019. What Is Design Innovation & Why You Need To Know It. [online]. Medium. Available at: <https://medium.com/codomo/what-is-design-innovation-why-you-need-to-know-it>
Codomo, 2019. Design Innovation Framework Diagram. [image]. Available at: <https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*GkwAaHtzueq1xALlCjbZ_g.png>
Codomo, 2019. The Gears of Design Innovation. [image]. Available at: <https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*QdQNMLO_-Nwa6d35SH62Tw.png>
Design Council, 2019. Double Diamond Model. [image] Available at: <https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/asset/document/Double%20Diamond%20Model%202019.pdf>
Design Council, 2019. The Double Diamond: A universally accepted depiction of the design process. [online] Design Council. Available at: <https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/double-diamond-universally-accepted-depiction-design-process>
Design Council, 2022. What is the framework for innovation? Design Council's evolved Double Diamond. [online] Design Council. Available at: <https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/what-framework-innovation-design-councils-evolved-double-diamond>
Greenberg, S., Carpendale, S., Marquardt, N. and Buxton, B., 2011. Sketching user experiences: The Workbook. Waltham, MA: Elsevier, p.10.
Spacey, J., 2017. What is Design Innovation? [online] Simplicable. Available at: <https://simplicable.com/new/design-innovation-definition>