Years ago, in one of my other lives as a cognitive psychologist*, at my
first faculty position at harvard University, I learned this wonderful
phrase from the philosopher Jerry Fodor: I refer you to my about to be
written paper on the subject. (Those were the only words from Jerry I ever
thought worthwhile of repeating). (* The field of cognitive psych did not
yet exist and wouldn't until 5 years later.)
So, Rosan, I refer you to my about to be written paper.
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On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 1:12 AM, Rosan Chow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> When locating design(er) in Christensen’s two types of disruptive
> innovation, namely low-end and new-market, Hekkert says that
> “It is the new-market disruptions that appeal to most designers – at least
> those strive to be innovative… designers should not follow a demand from
> the market. Rather they should push new markets by offering new meanings,
> new values in ways that people never imagined would be possible…to drive
> new- market innovations that may turn out to be disruptive”.
>
> I was a bit taken aback by such a view.
>
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Actually, the paper is written. It is right in front of me, awaiting
massive corrections. I will send it to this list when both my co-author
(Roberto Verganti from Milan) and I are finished. We consider two forms of
design and products: radical and incremental. We argue that yes, design
classes and designers love disruptive innovation, which is what radical
innovation leads to. That is what IDEO and Frog and (name your favorite
large design house) pitch to their clients. We argue, that design research
leads only to incremental innovation, which is actually a lot more common
and a lot more successful. Radical innovation comes from many places. I
think it comes from engineers more than anyone else (Roberto disagrees).
Designers seldom produce radical innovation. No designer produced the
automobile, the television, the internet, FaceBook, Google, or even
the electric and the hybrid autos. All from engineering. And none of this
used design research.
But that is for another day.
Don
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group, IDEO Fellow
[log in to unmask] www.jnd.org
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