When an innovation is inspired by design, it transcends technology and utility. The design delights the user, seamlessly integrating the physical object, a service, and its use into something whole. A design-inspired innovation is so simple that it becomes an extension of the user. It creates meaning and a new language.

Design-Inspired Innovation takes a unique look at the intersection between design and innovation, and explores the novel ways in which designers are contributing to the development of products and services. The book�s scope is international, with emphasis on design activities in Boston, England, Sweden, and Milan. Through a rich variety of cases and cultural prisms, the book extends the traditional design viewpoint and stretches the context of industrial design to question � and answer � what design is really all about. It gives readers tools for inspiration, and shows how design can change language and even create human possibilities.

Contents:

• What Makes Products Great?
• Creating Design Classics
• Integrating Function and Design
• Managing the Design Process
• The Work of Designers
• Design-Inspired Innovation and the Design Discourse
• Broadening Human Possibilities Through Design
• Design � Vision and Visualizing
• Interview Questions for Designers and Design Firms
• From Sketch to Product

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Readership: Faculty and students in art, media, innovation studies in management and engineering; practitioners in design and innovation firms and design centers.

"Successful design has been the least understood dimension of successful innovation. This book, authored by first-rate scholars, makes a major contribution towards closing this gap."

Clayton M Christensen Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School, Boston, MA

"The authors of Design-Inspired Innovation argue well that in this world of increasing complexity, simplicity and elegance in a product or system design greatly empowers the user. Keep this thought in mind, read the book, and you and your teammates will be well served. Utterback and his colleagues have developed a truly useful guide for students, engineers, and executives alike."

Marc H Meyer Matthews Distinguished University Professor, Northeastern University and Author of The Power of Product Platforms (Free Press, 1997) and The FASTPATH to GROWTH (Oxford, 2007)

"Within the AB Traction group of companies, quite a few are design-dependent; in fact, we strive to rely ever more upon design to strengthen our business offers. Thus Design-Inspired Innovation is a welcome book. Its broad international scope and focus on innovation make it all the more useful. The quality that industrial designers always focus on the end user cannot be emphasized enough."

Bengt Stillström Chairman and Founder, AB Traction

"Design is increasingly seen as a competitive tool by businesses. This is based on the growing understanding that companies in the UK and elsewhere in the developed world cannot compete on price, but rather need to differentiate themselves by using design process to add value to their products and services. As a result, management books such as this describing how design can drive and enable innovation will become increasingly important."

Harry Rich Deputy Chief Executive of the Design Council in London

"If you are determined to make a difference in this world you must, somehow, break new ground. This stunning new book reveals how. Design-Inspired Innovation tells us that technology will, at best, put you in the game. But if you want to win it you must understand the power of design � and how it drives innovation. The authors met at the intersection of their different fields and cultures and brought the insights they found there to life. So take a deep breath and see for yourself what they discovered!"

Frans Johansson Entrepreneur and Author of The Medici Effect, Harvard Business School Press

"This book is a must-read, and should be kept close by for any designer. It will also make an outstanding textbook sure to inspire lively discussion."

Professor A Cooper University of Pittsburgh, USA

"Design-Inspired Innovation is an important contribution to better understanding the hidden role that design plays in the innovation process � from the product to the enterprise itself � and the different skills, methodologies, and sensibilities that industrial designers bring to innovation. Of equal importance, this work delves into the organizational culture and management sensibilities enterprises need to develop to become design inspired. With careful reading, the book can unlock new opportunities for senior management in the utilization of design as a primary competency of any organization. Particularly refreshing is the in-depth exploration of different philosophical approaches to design as practiced in Italy, Scandinavia, and North America. The insights are potentially invaluable in stimulating a cross-pollination of ideas and approaches in design-inspired innovation for a global market."