The Future of Innovation will basically depend on its ingenuity. Senseless innovation is a waste of resources. Companies that do not succeed in finding innovative products (Hardware, Software, Services) to provide an additional or new use in their specific context for their customers will not survive on the long run. Almost every company claims that its products are “Innovations”. Does this mean that these products provide a completely new function? Or an unusual combination of formerly known techniques? Or does the product or its function support a formerly unknown customer advantage? Sometimes the Marketing Idea is regarded to be the “Innovation”, not the product itself.
The word “Innovation” is therefore used in abundance but rarely in the right context. The original meaning of the word describes something completely new without any former example, something that has not been seen or experienced ever before.
Something new needs to be explained. Its Function needs to be perceived at first glance, operations must be easily comprehensible and inner logic has to meet the user’s experience in such a way that people desire to use it.
Normally scientists and engineers encode their ideas extremely, so that normal people have problems to understand them and thus don’t like to use them. This is where the Designers (Industrial or Product Designers) come into play. It is their task to analyze the specific Innovation and come up with an understandable and usable form. To do so they use traditional or unknown formal languages, quote known designs or come up with new archetypes. They provide the key for the decoding of the product by the specific use of Aesthetics, i.e. “Gestaltung”.
More and more Industrial Designers account themselves as the sole Innovators in a company – the only ones that dare to think unconventional ideas and transform them into products.
I am not convinced of that, because true Innovation distinguishes itself primarily by technique and by the useful effect of an idea. First Aesthetics is not important for Innovation, but: it is a strong differentiator and therefore an important success-factor in a saturated market.
Industrial Designers used creative techniques very early to generate innovative ideas. Engineers closely working with Industrial Designers appreciate their approach, their way to query things and to form a “creative climate”. Industrial Designers should support the development of innovative products especially in capital goods industry as integrated part of the development process. Their skills help to develop Innovations to market release just by translating the abstract image of an idea into a format that can be comprehended by all decision makers.
Industrial Designers play a supportive role within the Innovation process. They care for representing the idea in a way that decisions can be taken and that Innovations can be used.
Additionally they are predestined for taking over the role of Brand Management. Each product is a vital and direct contribution to a company’s Brand – more direct and more valuable than any high glossy brochure, any advertisement or any TV-commercial. The Aesthetics of each product contributes directly and long-ranging to the Brand’s account – like function, technique, quality and price.
Innovation has to be perceived as part of the self image of a company that changes its recognition of Industrial Designers. They are no longer the ones that spice the products up. They are the ones that give benefit to Innovations, differentiate products by their Aesthetics and manage the Brand by Product-Aesthetics.
By the way: this is why Brand Management is not to be done by the Marketing department.
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