The role of design is not just about aesthetics or engineering. We position design as the essential interface between creativity and innovation:

• ‘Creativity’ is the generation of new ideas.

• ‘Innovation’ is the successful exploitation of new ideas. It is the process that carries them through to new products, new services, new ways of running the business or even new ways of doing business.

• ‘Design’ is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end”.

In its broader sense design, or the family of design activities, should be considered both as a process and an outcome which have a distinctive and often determining role in innovation.

The literature about design and its role in innovation is extensive. There is a long tradition of theory exploring how design stimulates and enhances innovation, complemented by a growing body of evidence on its economic impact.

There are several common concepts across these theories about the definition of design intensive innovation.

These are:

• Design relies on the ability to create and imagine, to solve problems, to combine knowledge of the existing world with possible versions of future products and services.
• Design is multifaceted – applying design to the innovation process improves the benefits for both the user and the supplier.
• Design enables innovation to be both user and human centric, through designers’ understanding of human behaviour in the use of goods and the customer journey involved in the use of services.
• Design approaches are considered to operate in a distinct fashion, involving convergent and divergent thinking, and iterative and visual approaches. These can include for instance participatory techniques and enable rapid prototyping and development.
• The active use of design is associated with a higher tendency for delivering novel innovations and creating new possibilities for goods and services in the market.
• Design is complementary to other innovation inputs and strategies. Design capabilities strengthen organisations and enhance the capability of the national innovation system level to absorb and use knowledge.

Source:

You can read here the literature review undertaken by RF Associates.

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Based on data from around the world, we can demonstrate that businesses that use design are more profitable that those that don’t. And if design is made part of the innovation process, the return on investment is even greater than if design is just used for styling.

The results can be seen at a national scale. Household names, from LEGO to Velux, have established Denmark’s reputation as a centre for innovation, so it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that 93% of Danish companies use design. And with good reason too: a study by the Danish government found that companies using design achieved additional growth of 250%.

The companies investing in design were also able to sell their products or services far more effectively abroad, with exports representing an average of 34% of their turnover, compared to just 18% in companies that did not use design.

Where design is made integral to a company’s business strategy, it has been shown to consistently yield long-term success. Researchers tracking the performance of the US stock market demonstrated that, over a ten year period, design-driven companies outperformed the rest of the S&P index by 228%.

In many European countries, companies can access mentoring, support and subsidies to invest in design in order to increase turnover and boost exports. For participants in the UK’s Design Council’s Design Leadership programme, for every £1 invested in design, the business can expect over £20 increased revenue and over £5 increased exports.

The greatest overall returns on investment are achieved where design is an integral part of the innovation process – rather than just a way of styling, packaging or branding a product as an afterthought. When it is fully integrated into the innovation process, design can add value at every step of product or service development – this includes idea generation, user and market analysis, concept development, prototyping, production and promotion.

The Design Ladder is a simple tool to assess the level at which companies use design – from styling, to process, to a strategic level where it’s an integral part of company culture.

A study of Swedish businesses showed that when design was only used for styling, the average growth in turnover was 6.5% – whereas in firms where design was used as part of the innovation process, growth was 9%.

There’s nothing in these findings that suggests the effectiveness of design is limited to a particular national setting or even a particular industry sector. But our growing body of evidence demonstrates that companies that use design are more profitable than those that don’t – and where design is used strategically, it produces an even greater return on investment.

Inspired by this evidence, governments across Europe are increasingly supporting businesses to use design, so it’s worth finding out if companies in your region are able to access mentoring, subsidies or tax credits.

By Anna Whicher
Head of Design Policy, PDR Wales

designforeurope.eu/news-opinion/value-design-business

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Exceptional design systems scale design’s impact by allowing product teams to build better products, with limited design resources. Ben Blumenfeldco-Director, Designer Fund

Do you have this problem? Think…

• Are you always happy with the speed of product development?
• Do your interfaces share the same design patterns, colours, typography and other styles?
• Do you always have enough time to deliver a quality product to meet KPIs?
• How much time and money do you spend on redundant design or code tasks?
• How much time and money do you spend cleaning up design or technical debt?

What is a Design System?

A scalable framework of decisions & team behaviours across a product portfolio to converge on a cohesive experience. Nathan Curtis

Why is a Design System important?

• Design systems bring order to chaos. Everyone is kept on the same page, so the entire product remains consistent and polished throughout.
• Design systems improve the user experience through the repeated use of familiar and proven patterns. Designing anything from scratch leaves room for error, so try to use what already works.
• Design systems improve workflow efficiency. Product teams know exactly how components of new features should look and how to implement them.

Is it worth it?

• What shade of blue are we using?
• Can you redline this for me?
• Can you redesign this, we can’t build it?
• Where’s our logo?
• Where are approved stock photos?
• Was this pattern used somewhere else?

Design System ROI for the Design Team: $50 per hour. Team of 20 designers. 2.5h/week * 52 weeks * $50 * 20 designers = $130,000/year UXPin Inc.

Design System return on investment for the Development Team: Design systems also save time and money. Just by eliminating code redundancy, more than 20% of a developer’s time can be regained. For a team of 100 developers, this means around $2 million per year. projekt202 Managing Architect Drew Loomer

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