Books by Leon Cruickshank
With the reaction to the death of Jacques Derrida receding, the time seems right to re-evaluate h... more With the reaction to the death of Jacques Derrida receding, the time seems right to re-evaluate his impact on design and in particular to examine how the concept of deconstruction, propagated in his name and coming from his work building on the ideas of Martin Heidegger were misrepresented when related to design by many people including the explicitly deconstructive architects, including even Derrida. This paper will argue for deconstruction as a stimulating provocation with utility for designers, but it will argue against many of the actions, practices and ideas historically associated with deconstruction in design and the wider theory. This will be achieved through an exploration of the collaborative project undertaken by the architect Peter Eisenman and Jacques Derrida -Choral Works and the theoretical micro-landscape on which the project sits.
Chapter The Augmenting Textual Conversation with User Created Icons’
Chapter Applied Imagination - Designing Innovative Knowledge Transfer Approache
Papers by Leon Cruickshank
The aim of the Brief Encounters Research Network was to explore the potential for new and emergin... more The aim of the Brief Encounters Research Network was to explore the potential for new and emerging technologies to enable interdisciplinary collaborative design practices at distance. This research Network proposal was developed in response to current trends in industry, where design is becoming an increasingly international activity undertaken with partners in geographically distributed locations. As a result design development team members are working 'at distance' in virtual cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional teams, interacting through the use of ICTs, such as Web 2.0.
To achieve the aim of this Research Network project the following objectives were established:
• To create a working network of international collaborators with a wide range of research and design backgrounds
• To conduct workshops with both physical and online participants using web 2.0 technologies
• To assign the participants a 'live' brief which may result in further project developments
• To publicise the project activities and outcomes via: the project website, social networking sites, professional publications, conferences and the workshops.
• To prepare and propose future research projects as a result of this work
To achieve these objectives a multidisciplinary consortium of research collaborators was established including national and international representatives with diverse disciplinary and organizational backgrounds which actively contributed to the network workshop activities.
In this paper we describe our research and its application to the design of knowledge exchange (K... more In this paper we describe our research and its application to the design of knowledge exchange (KE) involving over 200 companies, ranging from micro businesses up to large multinationals, such as the BBC, Arup, and IBM. We discuss KE process design as a form of interaction design and go on to propose a new 'second order' approach to KE design, enabling others to design their own KE approaches based on a framework of tools and methods. This is explored through the idea of a KE design toolkit that provides resources and support for designing KE processes. The design of toolkits is as a KE problem itself requiring that users of the toolkit engage with the KE problems they are trying to solve. This has implications for company innovation and the role of design and design thinking in innovation processes, particularly in the areas of open design and innovation. We also draw out some important implications for the design profession as a whole.
In this paper we present key issues that contribute to enhancing the debate on the relationship b... more In this paper we present key issues that contribute to enhancing the debate on the relationship between design and SMEs. We compare the situation in Italy and the UK both considering an historical background and by understanding how governments are currently supporting companies in using design -especially focusing on SMEs, that is the main industrial population in both countries.
Challenging Traditional KT: Co-designing innovative Approaches to Knowledge Exchange
The fluidity of the 'magic circle': using playful interventions in the design process
5th DiGRA: Think Design …, Jan 1, 2011
Wood, Richard Tempest and Coulton, Paul and Cruickshank, Leon (2011) The fluidity of the &amp... more Wood, Richard Tempest and Coulton, Paul and Cruickshank, Leon (2011) The fluidity of the 'magic circle' : using playful interventions in the design process. In: 5th DiGRA : Think Design Play, 2011-09-14 - 2011-09-17, Utrecht. ... Lancaster EPrints is powered by EPrints 3 ...
The relationship between society and design is in a period of transition. We are observing a move... more The relationship between society and design is in a period of transition. We are observing a move from the ‘object’ to ‘service’, and from problem solving, to problem finding, to design strategy. In this paper we explore how a ‘toolkit approach’ allows us to both contribute to democratic innovation activity but also build a deeper understanding of the potential contribution design can have in this emerging area.
This work was conducted in the prototyping stages of the Homesense initiative, a project run by Tinker London and Électricité de France. Homesense aims to facilitate user led innovation in smart home development through provision of toolkits and expert support. Through engagement with the
Homesense project we identify areas and mechanisms for intervention in Democratic Innovation (DI) and discuss methodologies for future potential for a wider professional design engagement in DI.
The term “innovation” has become increasingly prominent in debates in government policy through t... more The term “innovation” has become increasingly prominent in debates in government policy through the establishment of the new UK government department, Department for Innovation, Universities, and Skills (DIUS) and through reports such as “Innovation Nation.”1 National funding bodies, such as research councils and the Leverhulme Trust, are emphasizing innovation through the “digital economy” and a corresponding prioritization in the design establishment through the activities and publications of the Design Council.
These converging activities have highlighted the complex, overlapping, inconsistent, and incompletely understood relationship of innovation as used in design and innovation in the broader literature of innovation studies. Concentrating on the UK, this paper provides an indicative review of these fields and aims to achieve three goals: 1) Describe the wider academic field of innovation and relate this to a design perspective, 2) examine the connections, tensions, and synergies that emerge as these fields converge, and 3) propose active areas for contributions between fields.
Many disciplines are active in innovation research, including management studies, economics, entrepreneurship, psychology, sociology, and, starting to emerge in broader innovation studies, design. The velocity of research, especially in the area of design and innovation, is increasing, driven by the developing needs of the digital or knowledge economy. Specifically, the UK government has committed to spending £3.5bn on innovation through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
These initiatives were shaped in the UK by a series of policy papers, including: Competing in the Global Economy -The Innovation Challenge,2 Creativity, Design, and Business Performance,3 Innovation in the UK: Indicators and Insights,4 The Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on the UK’s Strengths,5 The Race to the Top: A Review of Government’s Science and Innovation Policies,6 Innovation Nation,7 and Creative Britain - New Talents for the New Economy.8
In a European context an engagement with innovation is seen in an ongoing manner through the activities of Euro-Innova,9 the EU’S innovation portal. This portal sponsors an ongoing series of activities, from conferences to innovation panels, that look at sector-specific innovation issues ranging from textiles to space to gazelles (fast-growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs)). There has also been a long-standing commitment to investigating innovation through the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), a Europe-wide survey to measure and analyze innovation activity in companies. This survey has been completed every four years since 1993, with the last CIS including responses from more than 140,000 companies.
-1-
Beyond Europe there is broader international interest in innovation, seen in the activities of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). This group of 30 industrialized nations has developed a widely accepted and implemented international standard for the measure and analysis of innovation, known as the Oslo Manual.10 This standard allows for the direct comparison of national innovation surveys, and the EU has facilitated this comparison through the ongoing funding of projects, from the 1990s onward, that analyze CIS data.11
To date there has been relatively little direct discussion of innovation in design, although this is changing partly because it is stimulated by government funding and policy that concentrate on innovation. There has been a degree of surprise and skepticism in design journalism that innovation has come to such prominence, questioning any substantive difference between innovation and design. (See Poynors, “Down with Innovation.”12) George Cox takes the view that “design is what links creativity and innovation,”13 although throughout his report innovation and design are usually used together (design innovation) in a way that compresses this distinction. There is evidence to support the assertion that the creative sector is more innovative than other firms. The UK National Innovation Survey of 2005 shows that in a measure of key innovation indicators, the creative industries are 12 percent more likely to demonstrate these indicators than other firms.14 However, this statistic also demonstrates that innovation is by no means dominated by the creative industries.
Although it is possible to read reports such as Innovation Nation15 from a design perspective and to see design as explicitly core to the development of competitiveness through innovation in the UK, looking a little closer the picture is more complex. Innovation Nation describes the key skills for innovation to be developing science and technology, management, and creativity, as well as softer skills “for things such as open-innovation,” but the white paper recognizes the creative industries as a component of a subsidiary “hidden innovation,” placing design outside the mainstream of innovation activity. In academic studies of innovation, design is often not represented at all. For example, the 650-page Oxford Handbook of Innovation16 does not include any references to design, and in a recent review of the top 50 innovation journals, no design journals were represented.17
This evidence is presented here not to dislocate innovation from design. As James Utterback argues, product design is more of a force in innovation now than 20 years ago.18 This higher profile for design in innovation studies is reflected in the latest amendments to the Oslo Manual, adding the marketing category to make it easier for design activity to be counted as an indicator of innovation. What is clear is that the relationship between design and innovation is not straightforward or well established.
Objectives: This paper addresses social network theory from the perspective of design research to... more Objectives: This paper addresses social network theory from the perspective of design research to propose a new conceptual approach to understanding and developing social networks. These ideas are embodied in a new strategic tool to help companies appreciate and proactively develop and exploit their social networks through visualisation.
Prior work: Social networks are receiveing increasing attention both in academic literature and in the field of policy, focusing on the structure of networks, the types of ties and the kinds of resources that are accessible through them (Granovetter, 1973; Håkansson and Snehota, 2006; Hoang and Antoncic, 2002; Jack, Rose and Johnston, 2009; Uhlaner, 2002).
Social networks are fundamental to Innovation. As innovation is increasingly seen as a systemic process that needs more than traditional collaboration mechanisms (Fagerberg, 2005; Ming-Huei Chen and Hung, 2008; Pavitt, 2005; Powell and Gordal, 2005). Concepts such as communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and networks of innovation (Brown and Duguid, 2001) and of course Open Innovation (Chesbrough, 2003) underline the importance of the transfer of knowledge. Key to these subjects is an understanding of networking.
We have looked at networking using the approaches and perspective of design research, analysing the subject through its specific cognitive tools. One of the foundations of this approach is an engagement with visualisation in problem-solving. This is strongly supported by writers such as Rittel (1987) and Lawson (1998, 2006), and it can bring a new perspective to understanding social network theory.
Approach: In this paper, we illustrate how design-inspired cognitive tools can transform the understanding of social networks through a practical tool to foster innovation and transformation in, and between firms. This was developed through an action-research process and tested with 22 companies.
Results: We argue that entrepreneurs benefit from their network by activating the nodes that are most useful to solve a problem. Conceptually a sub-group of contacts exists that are activated at different times with different roles and to extract different resources. We call this a NET. This reflects the operational nature of the concept: nets are highly functional, they catch things. By visualising specific parts of a network while looking at a number of dimensions within this, we have successfully demonstrated a tool that helps the exploration of a wide variety of ties and their relationships to build a strategy for innovation.
Implications: The Net concept represents a tool for facilitating Open Innovation by helping entrepreneurs understand and effectively exploit their networks. This opens a new potential to understand and promote Open Innovation, theoretically and practically.
This also contributes to the highly debated field of social networks by introducing new activities and mechanisms for engagement and analysis crossing the academic/outreach divide. This is an exciting area for further investigation.
Objectives
The purpose of this case study is to explore and review the collaborative processes an... more Objectives
The purpose of this case study is to explore and review the collaborative processes and outcomes involved in the setting up of a network and partnership of three universities, namely, Lancaster University Management School (together with ImaginationLancaster), University of Liverpool Management School and Manchester Business School.
The aim of IDEAS (Innovation Design Entrepreneurship and Science) is to establish and enhance the performance of firms and organisations at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and those in the wider North West and UK business community. Essentially to put ‘new ideas into practice’ through research and knowledge transfer activity centred on innovation, competitive performance and economic development.
Approach
This case study explores the opportunities, barriers and drivers encountered in establishing the IDEAS network and partnership. We review the importance of stakeholder support, strategic alignment of the goals of the partner institutions, the importance of ‘neutral’ space and explore motivations and the experience of the individuals involved.
Findings
The case study reveals the difficulties and successes, the achievements and outcomes of this collaboration so far, including, an analysis of the processes involved in the formation of IDEAS, including which aspects of this particular collaboration have been successful and why?
Implications
IDEAS has been identified by policy makers and research councils as a potentially powerful model for work that combines innovative approaches to research and knowledge transfer that may offer itself to replication.
Value
The case study highlights the issues, complexities and outcomes from a collaborative approach to knowledge transfer and research activity centred on innovation, competitive performance and economic development at large scale science facilities.
"Purpose: This paper addresses social network theory from the perspective of design research. We ... more "Purpose: This paper addresses social network theory from the perspective of design research. We propose a new conceptual approach to understanding and developing social networks. These ideas are embodied in a new strategic tool to help companies appreciate, proactively develop and exploit their
social networks through visualisation.
Approach: We illustrate how design-inspired approaches can transform the understanding of social networks through a practical tool to foster innovation and transformation in and between firms. This was developed through an action-research process and tested with 22 high-tech SMEs.
Findings: Entrepreneurs benefit from their network by activating the most useful nodes to solve a problem. Conceptually a sub-group of contacts exists that are activated at different times to extract different resources, that is nodes operate depending on the use they are put to. We call these NETS, highly functional portions of networks that catch things. By visualising parts of a network while looking at a number of dimensions, we have successfully demonstrated a tool that helps the exploration of a wide variety of relationships to build a strategy for innovation.
Implications: The NETS concept represents a tool for facilitating Innovation by helping entrepreneurs understand and exploit their social network. It fills the gap between theoretical findings in social network literature and successful application of such ideas.
Value: This paper contributes to the highly debated field of social networks by introducing new activities for engagement and analysis crossing the academic/outreach divide. It opens up a new interface between social networks and design research."
This paper documents implications and opportunities for the design profession offered by the rise... more This paper documents implications and opportunities for the design profession offered by the rise of the knowledge society and digital economies. Within this we show the value of applied design thinking in the creation and delivery of business development and facilitation. Two case studies document
the design and delivery of contrasting consultancy projects where the design of problem-solving frameworks (rather than conventional facilitation of events) resulted in new understanding and business development. These approaches were underpinned by a common conceptual model that describes our
philosophical underpinning for the application of design thinking across disciplines both within and beyond traditional areas of professional design engagement.
Finally, we discuss the implication for design practice of using
design thinking as a mode of interdisciplinary interaction and co creation of problem-solving approaches between designers and others (rather than an activity just for designers) which represents a step beyond conventional participatory design approaches.
International Journal of …, Jan 1, 2005
This paper presents the results of fast user trial of multimedia services that are enabled when a... more This paper presents the results of fast user trial of multimedia services that are enabled when a mobile terminal has access to converged services over digital broadcast and mobile telecommunications networks. It first describes the motivations behind developing this system and describes the service scenarios that benefit most from it. It then provides an overview of the service components of the test case scenario. Finally, it presents the results of fast user trials on end users of the services that were developed. This work was conducted as part of the EU-funded CISMUNDUS project. Keywords: rapid prototype; fast user trial; broadcast and cellular service.
An Adaptive 'Iconotextual" Approach to Textual Communication on the Internet
User-Led Interactive Television, Identifying and Addressing Some of the Barriers to Accessible Interactive TV.,
Rapid Prototyping Interactive TV Services to Address the Issues Identified in a User Led Examination of the Barriers to Entry for Digital TV
Consumers are changing the way in which they create, experience and consume media. User Generated... more Consumers are changing the way in which they create, experience and consume media. User Generated Content (UGC) marks a shift in the way in which ordinary people are now able to contribute to the creation of media. They have become active citizens in what is now a two way conversation.
The advent of UGC has created new challenges for communication designers who now need to take on the role of a facilitator in this process. The challenge for communication design is not only to identify appropriate methods for communication, but to understand how best to facilitate connections between users such that they create structures that they can inhabit.
This paper explores the changing role of design in UGC rich media communication and presents a Decision Making Framework (DMF) that engages designers in the consideration of the user in the development process. In-depth interviews with leading industry proponents ensure currency of the insights gained.
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Books by Leon Cruickshank
Papers by Leon Cruickshank
To achieve the aim of this Research Network project the following objectives were established:
• To create a working network of international collaborators with a wide range of research and design backgrounds
• To conduct workshops with both physical and online participants using web 2.0 technologies
• To assign the participants a 'live' brief which may result in further project developments
• To publicise the project activities and outcomes via: the project website, social networking sites, professional publications, conferences and the workshops.
• To prepare and propose future research projects as a result of this work
To achieve these objectives a multidisciplinary consortium of research collaborators was established including national and international representatives with diverse disciplinary and organizational backgrounds which actively contributed to the network workshop activities.
This work was conducted in the prototyping stages of the Homesense initiative, a project run by Tinker London and Électricité de France. Homesense aims to facilitate user led innovation in smart home development through provision of toolkits and expert support. Through engagement with the
Homesense project we identify areas and mechanisms for intervention in Democratic Innovation (DI) and discuss methodologies for future potential for a wider professional design engagement in DI.
These converging activities have highlighted the complex, overlapping, inconsistent, and incompletely understood relationship of innovation as used in design and innovation in the broader literature of innovation studies. Concentrating on the UK, this paper provides an indicative review of these fields and aims to achieve three goals: 1) Describe the wider academic field of innovation and relate this to a design perspective, 2) examine the connections, tensions, and synergies that emerge as these fields converge, and 3) propose active areas for contributions between fields.
Many disciplines are active in innovation research, including management studies, economics, entrepreneurship, psychology, sociology, and, starting to emerge in broader innovation studies, design. The velocity of research, especially in the area of design and innovation, is increasing, driven by the developing needs of the digital or knowledge economy. Specifically, the UK government has committed to spending £3.5bn on innovation through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
These initiatives were shaped in the UK by a series of policy papers, including: Competing in the Global Economy -The Innovation Challenge,2 Creativity, Design, and Business Performance,3 Innovation in the UK: Indicators and Insights,4 The Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on the UK’s Strengths,5 The Race to the Top: A Review of Government’s Science and Innovation Policies,6 Innovation Nation,7 and Creative Britain - New Talents for the New Economy.8
In a European context an engagement with innovation is seen in an ongoing manner through the activities of Euro-Innova,9 the EU’S innovation portal. This portal sponsors an ongoing series of activities, from conferences to innovation panels, that look at sector-specific innovation issues ranging from textiles to space to gazelles (fast-growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs)). There has also been a long-standing commitment to investigating innovation through the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), a Europe-wide survey to measure and analyze innovation activity in companies. This survey has been completed every four years since 1993, with the last CIS including responses from more than 140,000 companies.
-1-
Beyond Europe there is broader international interest in innovation, seen in the activities of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). This group of 30 industrialized nations has developed a widely accepted and implemented international standard for the measure and analysis of innovation, known as the Oslo Manual.10 This standard allows for the direct comparison of national innovation surveys, and the EU has facilitated this comparison through the ongoing funding of projects, from the 1990s onward, that analyze CIS data.11
To date there has been relatively little direct discussion of innovation in design, although this is changing partly because it is stimulated by government funding and policy that concentrate on innovation. There has been a degree of surprise and skepticism in design journalism that innovation has come to such prominence, questioning any substantive difference between innovation and design. (See Poynors, “Down with Innovation.”12) George Cox takes the view that “design is what links creativity and innovation,”13 although throughout his report innovation and design are usually used together (design innovation) in a way that compresses this distinction. There is evidence to support the assertion that the creative sector is more innovative than other firms. The UK National Innovation Survey of 2005 shows that in a measure of key innovation indicators, the creative industries are 12 percent more likely to demonstrate these indicators than other firms.14 However, this statistic also demonstrates that innovation is by no means dominated by the creative industries.
Although it is possible to read reports such as Innovation Nation15 from a design perspective and to see design as explicitly core to the development of competitiveness through innovation in the UK, looking a little closer the picture is more complex. Innovation Nation describes the key skills for innovation to be developing science and technology, management, and creativity, as well as softer skills “for things such as open-innovation,” but the white paper recognizes the creative industries as a component of a subsidiary “hidden innovation,” placing design outside the mainstream of innovation activity. In academic studies of innovation, design is often not represented at all. For example, the 650-page Oxford Handbook of Innovation16 does not include any references to design, and in a recent review of the top 50 innovation journals, no design journals were represented.17
This evidence is presented here not to dislocate innovation from design. As James Utterback argues, product design is more of a force in innovation now than 20 years ago.18 This higher profile for design in innovation studies is reflected in the latest amendments to the Oslo Manual, adding the marketing category to make it easier for design activity to be counted as an indicator of innovation. What is clear is that the relationship between design and innovation is not straightforward or well established.
Prior work: Social networks are receiveing increasing attention both in academic literature and in the field of policy, focusing on the structure of networks, the types of ties and the kinds of resources that are accessible through them (Granovetter, 1973; Håkansson and Snehota, 2006; Hoang and Antoncic, 2002; Jack, Rose and Johnston, 2009; Uhlaner, 2002).
Social networks are fundamental to Innovation. As innovation is increasingly seen as a systemic process that needs more than traditional collaboration mechanisms (Fagerberg, 2005; Ming-Huei Chen and Hung, 2008; Pavitt, 2005; Powell and Gordal, 2005). Concepts such as communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and networks of innovation (Brown and Duguid, 2001) and of course Open Innovation (Chesbrough, 2003) underline the importance of the transfer of knowledge. Key to these subjects is an understanding of networking.
We have looked at networking using the approaches and perspective of design research, analysing the subject through its specific cognitive tools. One of the foundations of this approach is an engagement with visualisation in problem-solving. This is strongly supported by writers such as Rittel (1987) and Lawson (1998, 2006), and it can bring a new perspective to understanding social network theory.
Approach: In this paper, we illustrate how design-inspired cognitive tools can transform the understanding of social networks through a practical tool to foster innovation and transformation in, and between firms. This was developed through an action-research process and tested with 22 companies.
Results: We argue that entrepreneurs benefit from their network by activating the nodes that are most useful to solve a problem. Conceptually a sub-group of contacts exists that are activated at different times with different roles and to extract different resources. We call this a NET. This reflects the operational nature of the concept: nets are highly functional, they catch things. By visualising specific parts of a network while looking at a number of dimensions within this, we have successfully demonstrated a tool that helps the exploration of a wide variety of ties and their relationships to build a strategy for innovation.
Implications: The Net concept represents a tool for facilitating Open Innovation by helping entrepreneurs understand and effectively exploit their networks. This opens a new potential to understand and promote Open Innovation, theoretically and practically.
This also contributes to the highly debated field of social networks by introducing new activities and mechanisms for engagement and analysis crossing the academic/outreach divide. This is an exciting area for further investigation.
The purpose of this case study is to explore and review the collaborative processes and outcomes involved in the setting up of a network and partnership of three universities, namely, Lancaster University Management School (together with ImaginationLancaster), University of Liverpool Management School and Manchester Business School.
The aim of IDEAS (Innovation Design Entrepreneurship and Science) is to establish and enhance the performance of firms and organisations at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and those in the wider North West and UK business community. Essentially to put ‘new ideas into practice’ through research and knowledge transfer activity centred on innovation, competitive performance and economic development.
Approach
This case study explores the opportunities, barriers and drivers encountered in establishing the IDEAS network and partnership. We review the importance of stakeholder support, strategic alignment of the goals of the partner institutions, the importance of ‘neutral’ space and explore motivations and the experience of the individuals involved.
Findings
The case study reveals the difficulties and successes, the achievements and outcomes of this collaboration so far, including, an analysis of the processes involved in the formation of IDEAS, including which aspects of this particular collaboration have been successful and why?
Implications
IDEAS has been identified by policy makers and research councils as a potentially powerful model for work that combines innovative approaches to research and knowledge transfer that may offer itself to replication.
Value
The case study highlights the issues, complexities and outcomes from a collaborative approach to knowledge transfer and research activity centred on innovation, competitive performance and economic development at large scale science facilities.
social networks through visualisation.
Approach: We illustrate how design-inspired approaches can transform the understanding of social networks through a practical tool to foster innovation and transformation in and between firms. This was developed through an action-research process and tested with 22 high-tech SMEs.
Findings: Entrepreneurs benefit from their network by activating the most useful nodes to solve a problem. Conceptually a sub-group of contacts exists that are activated at different times to extract different resources, that is nodes operate depending on the use they are put to. We call these NETS, highly functional portions of networks that catch things. By visualising parts of a network while looking at a number of dimensions, we have successfully demonstrated a tool that helps the exploration of a wide variety of relationships to build a strategy for innovation.
Implications: The NETS concept represents a tool for facilitating Innovation by helping entrepreneurs understand and exploit their social network. It fills the gap between theoretical findings in social network literature and successful application of such ideas.
Value: This paper contributes to the highly debated field of social networks by introducing new activities for engagement and analysis crossing the academic/outreach divide. It opens up a new interface between social networks and design research."
the design and delivery of contrasting consultancy projects where the design of problem-solving frameworks (rather than conventional facilitation of events) resulted in new understanding and business development. These approaches were underpinned by a common conceptual model that describes our
philosophical underpinning for the application of design thinking across disciplines both within and beyond traditional areas of professional design engagement.
Finally, we discuss the implication for design practice of using
design thinking as a mode of interdisciplinary interaction and co creation of problem-solving approaches between designers and others (rather than an activity just for designers) which represents a step beyond conventional participatory design approaches.
The advent of UGC has created new challenges for communication designers who now need to take on the role of a facilitator in this process. The challenge for communication design is not only to identify appropriate methods for communication, but to understand how best to facilitate connections between users such that they create structures that they can inhabit.
This paper explores the changing role of design in UGC rich media communication and presents a Decision Making Framework (DMF) that engages designers in the consideration of the user in the development process. In-depth interviews with leading industry proponents ensure currency of the insights gained.
To achieve the aim of this Research Network project the following objectives were established:
• To create a working network of international collaborators with a wide range of research and design backgrounds
• To conduct workshops with both physical and online participants using web 2.0 technologies
• To assign the participants a 'live' brief which may result in further project developments
• To publicise the project activities and outcomes via: the project website, social networking sites, professional publications, conferences and the workshops.
• To prepare and propose future research projects as a result of this work
To achieve these objectives a multidisciplinary consortium of research collaborators was established including national and international representatives with diverse disciplinary and organizational backgrounds which actively contributed to the network workshop activities.
This work was conducted in the prototyping stages of the Homesense initiative, a project run by Tinker London and Électricité de France. Homesense aims to facilitate user led innovation in smart home development through provision of toolkits and expert support. Through engagement with the
Homesense project we identify areas and mechanisms for intervention in Democratic Innovation (DI) and discuss methodologies for future potential for a wider professional design engagement in DI.
These converging activities have highlighted the complex, overlapping, inconsistent, and incompletely understood relationship of innovation as used in design and innovation in the broader literature of innovation studies. Concentrating on the UK, this paper provides an indicative review of these fields and aims to achieve three goals: 1) Describe the wider academic field of innovation and relate this to a design perspective, 2) examine the connections, tensions, and synergies that emerge as these fields converge, and 3) propose active areas for contributions between fields.
Many disciplines are active in innovation research, including management studies, economics, entrepreneurship, psychology, sociology, and, starting to emerge in broader innovation studies, design. The velocity of research, especially in the area of design and innovation, is increasing, driven by the developing needs of the digital or knowledge economy. Specifically, the UK government has committed to spending £3.5bn on innovation through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
These initiatives were shaped in the UK by a series of policy papers, including: Competing in the Global Economy -The Innovation Challenge,2 Creativity, Design, and Business Performance,3 Innovation in the UK: Indicators and Insights,4 The Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on the UK’s Strengths,5 The Race to the Top: A Review of Government’s Science and Innovation Policies,6 Innovation Nation,7 and Creative Britain - New Talents for the New Economy.8
In a European context an engagement with innovation is seen in an ongoing manner through the activities of Euro-Innova,9 the EU’S innovation portal. This portal sponsors an ongoing series of activities, from conferences to innovation panels, that look at sector-specific innovation issues ranging from textiles to space to gazelles (fast-growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs)). There has also been a long-standing commitment to investigating innovation through the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), a Europe-wide survey to measure and analyze innovation activity in companies. This survey has been completed every four years since 1993, with the last CIS including responses from more than 140,000 companies.
-1-
Beyond Europe there is broader international interest in innovation, seen in the activities of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). This group of 30 industrialized nations has developed a widely accepted and implemented international standard for the measure and analysis of innovation, known as the Oslo Manual.10 This standard allows for the direct comparison of national innovation surveys, and the EU has facilitated this comparison through the ongoing funding of projects, from the 1990s onward, that analyze CIS data.11
To date there has been relatively little direct discussion of innovation in design, although this is changing partly because it is stimulated by government funding and policy that concentrate on innovation. There has been a degree of surprise and skepticism in design journalism that innovation has come to such prominence, questioning any substantive difference between innovation and design. (See Poynors, “Down with Innovation.”12) George Cox takes the view that “design is what links creativity and innovation,”13 although throughout his report innovation and design are usually used together (design innovation) in a way that compresses this distinction. There is evidence to support the assertion that the creative sector is more innovative than other firms. The UK National Innovation Survey of 2005 shows that in a measure of key innovation indicators, the creative industries are 12 percent more likely to demonstrate these indicators than other firms.14 However, this statistic also demonstrates that innovation is by no means dominated by the creative industries.
Although it is possible to read reports such as Innovation Nation15 from a design perspective and to see design as explicitly core to the development of competitiveness through innovation in the UK, looking a little closer the picture is more complex. Innovation Nation describes the key skills for innovation to be developing science and technology, management, and creativity, as well as softer skills “for things such as open-innovation,” but the white paper recognizes the creative industries as a component of a subsidiary “hidden innovation,” placing design outside the mainstream of innovation activity. In academic studies of innovation, design is often not represented at all. For example, the 650-page Oxford Handbook of Innovation16 does not include any references to design, and in a recent review of the top 50 innovation journals, no design journals were represented.17
This evidence is presented here not to dislocate innovation from design. As James Utterback argues, product design is more of a force in innovation now than 20 years ago.18 This higher profile for design in innovation studies is reflected in the latest amendments to the Oslo Manual, adding the marketing category to make it easier for design activity to be counted as an indicator of innovation. What is clear is that the relationship between design and innovation is not straightforward or well established.
Prior work: Social networks are receiveing increasing attention both in academic literature and in the field of policy, focusing on the structure of networks, the types of ties and the kinds of resources that are accessible through them (Granovetter, 1973; Håkansson and Snehota, 2006; Hoang and Antoncic, 2002; Jack, Rose and Johnston, 2009; Uhlaner, 2002).
Social networks are fundamental to Innovation. As innovation is increasingly seen as a systemic process that needs more than traditional collaboration mechanisms (Fagerberg, 2005; Ming-Huei Chen and Hung, 2008; Pavitt, 2005; Powell and Gordal, 2005). Concepts such as communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and networks of innovation (Brown and Duguid, 2001) and of course Open Innovation (Chesbrough, 2003) underline the importance of the transfer of knowledge. Key to these subjects is an understanding of networking.
We have looked at networking using the approaches and perspective of design research, analysing the subject through its specific cognitive tools. One of the foundations of this approach is an engagement with visualisation in problem-solving. This is strongly supported by writers such as Rittel (1987) and Lawson (1998, 2006), and it can bring a new perspective to understanding social network theory.
Approach: In this paper, we illustrate how design-inspired cognitive tools can transform the understanding of social networks through a practical tool to foster innovation and transformation in, and between firms. This was developed through an action-research process and tested with 22 companies.
Results: We argue that entrepreneurs benefit from their network by activating the nodes that are most useful to solve a problem. Conceptually a sub-group of contacts exists that are activated at different times with different roles and to extract different resources. We call this a NET. This reflects the operational nature of the concept: nets are highly functional, they catch things. By visualising specific parts of a network while looking at a number of dimensions within this, we have successfully demonstrated a tool that helps the exploration of a wide variety of ties and their relationships to build a strategy for innovation.
Implications: The Net concept represents a tool for facilitating Open Innovation by helping entrepreneurs understand and effectively exploit their networks. This opens a new potential to understand and promote Open Innovation, theoretically and practically.
This also contributes to the highly debated field of social networks by introducing new activities and mechanisms for engagement and analysis crossing the academic/outreach divide. This is an exciting area for further investigation.
The purpose of this case study is to explore and review the collaborative processes and outcomes involved in the setting up of a network and partnership of three universities, namely, Lancaster University Management School (together with ImaginationLancaster), University of Liverpool Management School and Manchester Business School.
The aim of IDEAS (Innovation Design Entrepreneurship and Science) is to establish and enhance the performance of firms and organisations at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and those in the wider North West and UK business community. Essentially to put ‘new ideas into practice’ through research and knowledge transfer activity centred on innovation, competitive performance and economic development.
Approach
This case study explores the opportunities, barriers and drivers encountered in establishing the IDEAS network and partnership. We review the importance of stakeholder support, strategic alignment of the goals of the partner institutions, the importance of ‘neutral’ space and explore motivations and the experience of the individuals involved.
Findings
The case study reveals the difficulties and successes, the achievements and outcomes of this collaboration so far, including, an analysis of the processes involved in the formation of IDEAS, including which aspects of this particular collaboration have been successful and why?
Implications
IDEAS has been identified by policy makers and research councils as a potentially powerful model for work that combines innovative approaches to research and knowledge transfer that may offer itself to replication.
Value
The case study highlights the issues, complexities and outcomes from a collaborative approach to knowledge transfer and research activity centred on innovation, competitive performance and economic development at large scale science facilities.
social networks through visualisation.
Approach: We illustrate how design-inspired approaches can transform the understanding of social networks through a practical tool to foster innovation and transformation in and between firms. This was developed through an action-research process and tested with 22 high-tech SMEs.
Findings: Entrepreneurs benefit from their network by activating the most useful nodes to solve a problem. Conceptually a sub-group of contacts exists that are activated at different times to extract different resources, that is nodes operate depending on the use they are put to. We call these NETS, highly functional portions of networks that catch things. By visualising parts of a network while looking at a number of dimensions, we have successfully demonstrated a tool that helps the exploration of a wide variety of relationships to build a strategy for innovation.
Implications: The NETS concept represents a tool for facilitating Innovation by helping entrepreneurs understand and exploit their social network. It fills the gap between theoretical findings in social network literature and successful application of such ideas.
Value: This paper contributes to the highly debated field of social networks by introducing new activities for engagement and analysis crossing the academic/outreach divide. It opens up a new interface between social networks and design research."
the design and delivery of contrasting consultancy projects where the design of problem-solving frameworks (rather than conventional facilitation of events) resulted in new understanding and business development. These approaches were underpinned by a common conceptual model that describes our
philosophical underpinning for the application of design thinking across disciplines both within and beyond traditional areas of professional design engagement.
Finally, we discuss the implication for design practice of using
design thinking as a mode of interdisciplinary interaction and co creation of problem-solving approaches between designers and others (rather than an activity just for designers) which represents a step beyond conventional participatory design approaches.
The advent of UGC has created new challenges for communication designers who now need to take on the role of a facilitator in this process. The challenge for communication design is not only to identify appropriate methods for communication, but to understand how best to facilitate connections between users such that they create structures that they can inhabit.
This paper explores the changing role of design in UGC rich media communication and presents a Decision Making Framework (DMF) that engages designers in the consideration of the user in the development process. In-depth interviews with leading industry proponents ensure currency of the insights gained.
Introduction
Design methodology is often regarded as an abstract area of research that is not always seen as directly applicable to design practice. While there are examples of the application of methodological theory directly in design education (Roberts 2005, Joost 2000, Kent 2005, Oxman 2005 also systems such as TRIZ) these approaches are aimed at the identifying or promotion of appropriate methodologies. This paper develops a position that offers an alternative to current methodological positions and discusses the relationship this has theoretically, practically and pragmatically with design education. The development of this line of thinking has resulted in a series of workshops with undergraduate students in a number of different design disciplines over the past five years.
Design methodology is not often formally addressed in either the education of designers or by practicing designers. There is a danger that design methodology separates from and becomes irrelevant to design practice, a danger amplified by a move towards either design science or a full acceptance of the implications of a hermetical / rhiosomic interpretation of design methods. This paper argues that rather than promoting a true, accurate or even desirable design methodology, the debate can be redrawn and that design method and methodology can be separated and considered in different frames of reference. I argue that design methodology is essentially an unknowable, individual component and that design methods are thinking tools that can be explainable, modifiable and are portable between designers. These assertions have been applied to a series of workshops across a broad range of subjects and abilities with over 400 students in total. This provocative process results very quickly in animated discussions with students about method and methodology. It offers an approach that accelerates the normal implicit communication of design methods now under threat with the pressure being placed on traditional studio education.