Dear Amaltas,
Without addressing all the issues in your interesting query, I can offer a few quick thoughts. Not all design involves innovation — much design involves the operability of slightly new versions of existing artifacts, products, and systems, as well as the interoperability of new parts with older systems.
A great deal of design activity involves generating plans or projects that fulfill design briefs or fit within design programs. Imagine, for example, a corporation that needs tens of thousands of slightly different printed artifacts every year, all within a corporate design program. One example is a company like MacDonalds, with ever-changing coupons, offers, menus, all tailored to slightly different local needs. Even so, the point of these is not to innovate, but rather to project a consistent company profile.
Another example would be an automobile manufacturer that wants to preserve the brand identity across different markets, such as Volvo or Ford.
Another form of design with minimal innovation is any kind of product design of products that fit within an established product program, or sub-parts for a larger assembly where a minor change to the whole requires thousands of small changes to ensure continued operability. The same would be the case of upgrades and changes to software where an overall change to the system requires many hardly noticeable minor changes that are significant because the system will not work without making them.
Designing all the parts of a large building would be another case in point.
In this sense, a great deal of design activity has much to do with function and little to do with innovation.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
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