Design and Innovation

Companies like to call their products innovative, because we like to buy innovative things. Who doesn't want the next big innovative gadget? We have, however, come to forget what innovation really is, and we often confuse design with innovation. Good aesthetics, solid construction quality, ease of use -- these are all characteristics of good design, but not necessarily of innovation.

Looking at SCAMPER, innovation is really about making a change in the core functionality of an idea or object or changing the way in which we see and use it for the better. One of the questions we can ask about innovation is "design for what?" which is now becoming "design with what?" Those two versions of the question can blend together when we see that so many of the so-called famous inventions are really those seemingly-small things that change the way in which we innovate. Adhesives, glass, GPS, wrenches, and so forth; these aren't just inventions that make some task in our lives easier. They are tools and enabling technologies which not only have a broad and deep impact on our lives but also change the way in which we can innovate and create even more new technologies. At one point, they were the product of "designing for what," and now they are part of "design with what."

There are a slew of arguments and writings about the innovative culture in the United States, but I argue that part of why we are so innovative is that, in the past, we valued those seemingly-small enabling innovative inventions. Companies would expend resources on R&D in the hopes of benefiting themselves and also the market, realizing that creativity and innovation can pay off in the long run. Some companies are abandoning R&D in hopes of immediate return on brute force research and design, and companies like Hewlett Packard are discovering the hard way that such decisions are economic suicide. In the short run it may work, but a company that cannot innovate and cannot stay ahead of the curve will not survive. This reflects our modern culture that is based around immediate gratification rather than investing in the future and working hard for a payoff.