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 ClassicsIntegrating Function and DesignManaging the Design ProcessThe Work of DesignersDesign-Inspired Innovation and the Design DiscourseBroadening Human Possibilities Through DesignDesign — Vision and VisualizingInterview Questions for Designers and Design FirmsFrom Sketch to ProductReadership: Faculty and students in art, media, innovation studies in management and engineering; practitioners in design and innovation firms and design centers.

Sten Ekman