Design and Innovation Framework

Last week I attended a conference and again hearing the topic about ‘design’ with three concerning principles — people, business and technology — reminding me of the three circles innovation diagram from Ideo. But I felt like there is another perspective to think of, the angle of ‘impact’.

I once asked a guest speaker during one of my post-grad class, what is the difference between design and innovation as somehow it seems so similar in the process of creating it and their definition. And the answer was about its ‘impact’ through ‘time’ which arguably making sense. Innovation tends to affect/ impact to something like a ripple effect in time continuum [this sentence triggers me to think of Innovation Diffusion theory]. While Design might trigger the only a point of change without the effect/ impact. Well, that might not be 100% correct. In some sense I do agree with the point that design can change the language of things and define the new meaning of how we value something which impact human perception and behaviour, and that could lasts for quite some time.

Ok. That’s not the point I’m writing this first post. Actually, because of that pop-up idea during listening to the speaker, I drew a quick reflective diagram of what I thought about ‘Innovation’.

To initiate innovation, I think three angles should be considered: objective, how to and impact. Why your business/ people need this thing? How design/ technology can bring you to the goals? And what is the impact/ effect you want to create? Complete all these steps, and I feel that transformation/ change/ innovation can emerge through this non-linear journey.

This is not a solid framework. Only just my one minute thought but I feel like sharing it and will definitely continue to develop :)