Design Thinking Produces Disruptive Innovations
Be sure to read Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience and Brand Value. It is an edited collection focused on service and experiential design. It offers keen insights and practical tools. Unfortunately, it is lacks the introduction to applied cognitive science for designers that I believe is necessary to really crack the code in service and experiential design efforts.
I especially like the definition they offer of design thinking:
“.. is essentially a human-centered innovation process that emphasizes observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization of ideas, rapid concept prototyping and concurrent business analysis which ultimately influences innovation and business strategy. “
Chapter 20: Will Meaningful Brand Experiences Disrupt Your Market? is of special interest to cognitive designers. The author David Norton shows how firms such as Dyson, Linux and Whole Foods are disrupting their respective industries by delivering powerful customer experiences by clearly standing for something. A good example of how meaning produces significant and sustained economic returns.
As the author states: “The opportunity for design today is to go beyond making things convenient for people and start making experiences people care about.”
And to do that in a systematic and repeatable way we first must understand how their minds work.
