Towards design-driven innovation: designing for points of view, using intuition through skills

Design-driven innovation aims to release the business potential of a new type of innovation, based on a radical shift of meaning. In order to do that, it is essential to achieve a deep understanding of what meaning is, how it is possible to create (new) meaning and develop transferable methods that empower designers to transfer meaning and to design radical shifts in meaning to leap innovation-wise. In a one-week Master's class, we have approached this exploration from a phenomenological perspective, where meaning is created in interaction. The class trains students to deeply scrutinize the design of meaning. Respecting the phenomenological approach, it implements the integration of different points of view and supports the use of intuition, enabled by designing from one’s own (bodily) skills. We explain by means of an example - the skill of snowboarding - how these different elements concur to enrich a design process and build the basis for a richer result in terms of meaning and therefore innovation. Starting from the design knowledge created during the class, we designed two concepts of design interaction, a knife and a dial mechanism for phones, to show how our method can lead to disruptive shifts in meaning. We illustrate the different ways that the class’ results can be translated into design, to give insight on how to achieve radical innovation, both short term and long term. We conclude by explaining the practical impact of our method for industry.