Design innovation the role of design in combining process and product innovation

Extending beyond existing discussion on product and process innovation, this paper proposes a new role of design in exploring a new dimension of corporate innovation. In spite of decades of growing awareness of innovation, the engineering and management communities continue to either show scant interest in design, or fail to understand how design can positively enhance innovation. This paper aims to discuss how an early design campaign in Taiwan, an IDEO-based innovative design methodology started in 2006, has been successful in combining product and process innovation with design. Some interesting conclusions were drawn from the comparisons between the innovative designs generated by IDEO and the national design innovation campaign as a whole. One main finding is that a better perception of user-oriented design, results in greater anticipation of design innovation from society in general.