Media: Design Management Institute summarises User-Focussed Innovation

The Design Management Review has published executive summaries of its edition on "User-Focused Innovation" (Vol. 16, No. 4). This amounts to several mini-articles of some interest on various aspects of user-centred design. 'Creatively interpreting and managing design to address consumer needs can be a source of great business success,' is the mantra here.

But individuals go further than this. "Teaching User-focused Innovation" by James Morley Read kicks off with a reflection on the challenges involved in getting design students signed up: 'Young designers ... are easily misled by an emphasis on trends. "Although trends (fashion, economic, technological, and so on) are relevant issues, they can distract and mislead from the understanding and implementation of goals central to the design process. This is not to suggest that issues of external influence are not central to the context of the design process, but they are not the sole generator of form. Rather, they serve as the climate in which design occurs."'

Associated Link: Design Management Review: Executive Summaries

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Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
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Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
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