Fast design, slow innovation

www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk
Digital World Research Centre
August 2016

From print to media
PRINT MEDIA
www.surrey.ac.uk/dwrc/

The case study
“Knowledge-based innovation has the longest lead time of all innovations.
There is, first, a long time span between the emergence of new knowledge
and its becoming applicable to technology. And then there is another long
period before the new technology turns into products, processes or services
in the marketplace” (Drucker 1985, p98).
1995 2004 2015

The long nose of innovation
(Buxton 2008)

Research questions
• Whatever happened to audiophotography?
• How do design ideas spread and evolve?
• What is the relationship between design and innovation?

Plan (Method & book chapters)
• 2004 vision for audiophotography
(Chapters 1-6)
• R & D in HP
(Chapter 7)
• External research
(Chapter 8)
• External development
(Chapter 9)
• Conclusions
(Chapter 10)

2004 vision for audiophotography

Audiocamera

Multi-layered audiophoto

Family of players

R & D in HP

Internal development at HP

Internal research at HP –
closed innovation

Internal research at HP –
open innovation

External research

Citation tree

Branch 1 – Audiophoto messages

Branch 2 – Audiophoto narratives

Branch 3 – Audio context for
photography

Branch 4 – Audio memory

Branch 5 – Audiopaper

Branch 6 – Audio artefacts

External development

Cameras and camcorders
• Very little support, despite photo-
video support and multiple
options for burst stills
• If supported, sound is usually
used for voice commentary on a
photo

Audiocamera apps

Audiophoto narrative apps

Audioprint products

Conclusions

Whatever happened to
audiophotography?
Audiophoto app on a phone
[Com-phone: www.digitaleconomytoolkit.org]

Audiophoto narratives as a video genre
[Com-phone: www.digitaleconomytoolkit.org]
audiophotography?

audiophotography?
A family of screen and paper players (as before)

How do design ideas spread and
evolve?
• Through Research prototypes and Development products
• Distinct research-practice gap in R & D cultures and aims…
• ‘Friendly arms race’. R is collaborative and based on regular
sharing and citation of work. Also highly social, with rapid
exchange of ideas and staff. Faster and more novel?
• ‘Unfriendly arms race. D is competitive and more secretive,
leading to redundancy in product offerings. Exceptions along the
value chain of companies cooperating on the product/service.
• ‘Open innovation’ begins to close this gap.

What is the relationship between
design and innovation?
• Design and innovation operate over radically different timescales
(1-2 years versus 15-20 years) - the long nose of innovation
• Designs evolve and ‘hunt’ for a better solution
• Innovation requires a fit to other designs and practices in an
ecosystem.
• Different segments of a market may use old and new designs
• Need better attention to the dynamics of design evolution… through
design rationale, annotated portfolios, patent mapping, design
collections & interaction criticism

Personal recommendations to
designers and inventors
• Be persistent and don’t give up on a good idea
• Be smart and don’t hold onto an idea which doesn’t work
• Treat failure as a learning exercise and advance in design
• Treat success as a short term victory
• Engage with the scientific community in your area to benefit from
and contribute to research activity
• Engage with the commercial community in your area to benefit
from and contribute to development activity
Enjoy the sociability, serendipity and
unpredictability of innovation in all its forms!

Further information
http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319219387
https://vimeo.com/album/3548546

For innovation –
Original business opportunity space

For innovation –
Expanded business opportunity space

For innovation –
Slow design
• Like slow food – applied to preparation (design) and
consumption (use of designs)
• Aspiration for fewer design cycles and obsolescence, and better
designs for slowing us down
• Non sequitur in this argument:
Faster design =/= faster innovation
Innovation is already slow
• Conscious design evolution, by re-purposing existing designs.
Harnessing a natural process (c.f. Focusgroup+)

For innovation –
Fast innovation
• Agile software development applied to company development
(Reis 2011)
• Evolutionary approach to product design: from Minimum Viable
Product (MPV)
• Collapses distinctions between prototype and product, R & D
• Helps with knowledge transfer and may speed up product design
iterations
• But it won’t speed up innovation, which still depends on the
broader socio-technical ecosystem and appropriation.

Fast design, slow innovation

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