Francesco Zurlo

Language mining: Analysis of the innovation of dominant product languages in design‐intensive industries

Purpose – The main objective of this article is to propose an interpretive model that attempts to decipher a products values in terms of functionality, usability and meaning. This model can support companies in better integrating these values in their product offering and in defining the most adequate innovation strategies that they can adopt. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an empirical analysis on more than 450 products from the Italian furniture industry. Moreover, using an interpretative model 50 product signs were mapped (materials, surfaces, colours, etc.) for each product. The obtained database was analyzed via the principal component analysis (PCA) statistical technique with the intent to identify dominant product languages. In fact, interpreting a product language as a set of product signs, the article describes an objective process able to identify dominant product languages as combinations of different product signs. Findings – The interpretive model described in this article represents a first result in itself. In addition, by mapping the dynamics of dominant product languages, it has been demonstrated that they evolve differently in relation to several product typologies. In turn, the possibility of “brokering” dominant product languages from one product typology to another and from one industry to another has been verified. Practical implications – First of all, this model can support companies in the identification of emerging trends and, consequently, allows them to develop product semantic forecasts. In addition, the analysis of dominant product languages over time can also allow a company to propose combinations of product signs typical of past periods. Finally, the identification of dominant product languages can also allow companies to analyze the state‐of‐the‐art of the industry and, consequently, identify different ways to propose innovation to the market. Originality/value – Most of conducted researches related to product languages have shown primarily a qualitative‐based approach, in which the observations are made by a restricted set of design experts on a subset of representative products. In contrast with the current literature in this research field, this article describes an objective process that is able to identify dominant product languages.

Design Strategies in Different Narrative Frames

Introduction During its evolution, design—both as a discipline and as a practice—has expanded its sphere of influence and its typical object of intervention, acknowledged until 20 years ago above all as the industrial product. In recent years, because of causes linked to the evolution of organized production systems and social and cultural consumption market dynamics, the design core moved progressively from tangible objects—where design was responsible for the technological aspects of the product to fix the use value—to intangible offerings—where the value for users became a variable of other additional factors. These intangible offerings not only included the use of the product but also aspects linked to the purchase experience, product access dynamics, product availability, and connections with other services and offerings. The productservice system became a consolidated approach in science and project practice, where integration between tangible and intangible components of the offering is becoming an important area for design.1 In designing a product-service system, design includes not only the identification and organization of each component but also the links and connections between the tangible and intangible parts that create value for users.2 The broadening of the design spectrum went beyond the systemic composite concept of offering. Accordingly, design became a thinking form—design thinking3—an approach and a series of tools serving changes in different systems, including economic, social, and environmental systems. For many decades, the discipline of design considered the user to be the primary reference of its action. A rich literature linking user-centered design and ergonomics emphasized user centrality for design action,4 until more recent theories started regarding user involvement in the various design phases.5 The basic concept of the user-centered design paradigm seems to be sound when design creates products and product-service systems for existing markets and known consumers, which take into account, a priori, defined cognitive and cultural patterns and needs, purchase models, logics, and use contexts. However, this favorable condition of 1 Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lush, “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing,” Journal of Marketing 68 (2004): 1–17; Susan M. Goldstein, Robert Johnston, JoAnn Duffy, and Jay Rao, “The Service Concept: The Missing Link in Service Design Research?” Journal of Operations Management 20, no. 2 (2002): 121–34; Ezio Manzini and Carlo Vezzoli, “A Strategic Design Approach to Develop Sustainable Product Service Systems: Examples Taken from the ‘Environmentally Friendly Innovation’ Italian Prize,” Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003): 851–57; Rajkumar Roy and David Baxter, “The Product–Service System,” Journal of Engineering Design 20 (2009): 327–28; Ezio Manzini, Carlo Vezzoli, and Garrette Clark, “Product–Service Systems. Using an Existing Concept as a New Approach to Sustainability,” Journal of Design Research 1 (2001): 12-18. 2 Roy and Baxter, “The Product–Service System,” 327–28; Manzini, Vezzoli, and Clark, “Product-Service Systems;” Francesco Zurlo, Le Strategie del Design. Disegnare il Valore Oltre il Prodotto (Milano: Il Libraccio, 2012). 3 Roger Martin, The Design of Business (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2009); Tim Brown, Change by Design. How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation (New York: Harper Collins, 2009). 4 Donald Norman, “Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful,” Interaction 12 (2005): 14-19; Donald Norman, The Psychology of Everyday Things (New York: Basic Books, 2002); Jodi Forlizzi, John Zimmerman, and Shelley Evenson, “Interaction Design Research in HCI, a Research Through Design Approach,”

New luxury landscapes: trajectories, clusters and design directions

The aim of the present paper is that of identifying the new current luxury descriptors and the new luxury categories and forms to which different design configurations can be associated (that is the different project forms producing and produced by different luxury aspects) through a developmental and a geo-referred analysis on luxury perception. The evolution of consumption in services, in products and in buying models made new luxury concepts emerge: these concepts cannot be included in a single universal category and it is not even possible to fix one model of luxury design because of the many shapes in which it shows itself. For this reason it appears clearly necessary to search for the new luxury descriptors to which different luxury forms can be associated and to structure new varied project configurations on this basis.

Gamification approaches to the early stage of innovation

Despite the growing adoption and acceptance of gamification approaches among firms, the relationship between gamification and the early stage of innovation is confusing and deserves further attention in order to produce added‐value exploratory knowledge. This paper puts forward the idea that gamification approaches can support the early stage of innovation by making a cross‐comparison of published case studies of firms where gamification was used to address innovation challenges, e.g. use of gamification elements and tools that support the generation of ideas for developing new product concepts or entering new markets. In order to understand and clarify the relationship between gamification and the early stage of innovation, the paper proposes an analytical framework that provides a consistent and organized picture of the use of gamification approaches for innovation purposes. Research findings provide a conceptualization of gamification in the context of the early stage of innovation and demonstrate significant outcomes of these types of approaches with regard to the various forms of engagement, team spirit, consensus building, knowledge transfer, creative thinking and productivity.

An Innovative Training Model on Creative Entrepreneurship: Integrating Local Stakeholders with Summer Academies to Enhance Territorial Heritage

Cities are living organisms with their physical infrastructure, habitants and visitors passing by. And intellectual events have a considerable impact on both physical and cultural transformation of these organisms. This does not only relate to the advertisement impact that the event creates, but deeper, is about how the event engages with the society and gives active roles to the local stakeholders. Training of the creative class through the right methodologies of entrepreneurship has a huge impact in co-creation of cultural values, and boosting the communication of the local potential. Goal of this paper is set on presenting a unique model of training for creative entrepreneurship, which also serves as a model for the local valorisation of cultural, creative and territorial resources. Within this framework, CREA summer academy is introduced as a European scale best practice case. Following this, the OSTUNI academy 2016 is unfolded as a symbolic model of site-specific event, which is able to generate entrepreneurship potential to valorise the cultural heritage. Summer Academy events, linking to the intellectual infrastructure of their location, are more beneficial to the territories when they have a strong link to the local stakeholders, as taken for granted by CREA Summer Academy.

E-LEARNING AND DESIGN PRACTICE. Tools and methods for professional learning of strategic design approach

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology in teaching the strategic design approach combining e-learning with practice activities in a unique process of learning experience. Design is moving its domain area close to the management of the innovation and the company strategy. In this new framework strategic design is a mind-set that drives to answer to the social, economic, environmental challenges. Designers can improve their capacity do adopt this mind-set to be able to operate in this complex context also using specific tools and design methods to understand the user experience and to co-design new solutions. These methods are various and can be taught and learned through various education experiences; a wide range of topics in a constantly changing world render designers as lifelong learners. This new professional framework need a continue learning process that designers need to follow to empower skills, competences, knowledge and abilities. Trough a research activity with a pilot experience, a new teaching methodology has been tested in international high training courses and partially in a training program included in a European project.

Design Pilot Project Strategy

This explains the MODU.Lares Project Intervention by describing the development process and the idea of the System-ability as a promoter of sustainable and innovative changes. The chapter presents also a discussion of the elements used as Boundary Objectsduring the research—prototypes , meetings , exhibitions as well as pilot project, in its whole. This action-based project is an important contribution to the local context because it updates the MSEs’ conditions through questionnaires and field research (the most recent official data of the sector regarded 2006). Hence, even though this research represents a small sample in the universe of an estimated 800 MSEs (among formal and informal ones), the experience serves as a base for future works and provides insights on how to create strategies for the sector, involving more MSEs.

Inter-organizational Collaborative Network (ICoN) Model

This chapter presents the conceptual Inter-organizational Collaborative Network (ICoN) model developed within the research to guide the proposition of such a network in the local context of the intervention . The ICoN model was aimed at defining the most important relationships among participants of the network proposed, their roles and their pattern of relations, during a defined long-term project or a planned task. The chapter discusses the theoretical references adopted to build such a model, such as: the Triple Helix concept, aspects of collaboration and innovation within networks through Design, as well as the importance of using the Design management view when managing Pilot projects and, finally, the role of Boundary objects as a bridge to knowledge and innovation .

The Context of Intervention in Brazil

This chapter describes the local context of the intervention—the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais State, Southeast of Brazil, with the specific issues related to previous experiences to improve the furniture sector . The intention of such a content is to provide the visualization of the current scenario—individualist, isolated and little innovative among the Micro and Small Enterprises of the furniture sector, in order to understand the challenges faced to achieve a more sustainable path by building an Inter-organizational Collaborative Network .

The MP Assessment Tool

This chapter describes de Assessment Tool developed within the scope of the research to understand the emerging changes in the context of the intervention, which are possible thanks to the Design Pilot Project implementation, as well as to orient strategies for future interventions. This Tool was developed based on five main indicators—environmental, technological, socio-cultural, economic and organizational indicators, which were further explored, individually, in specific issues, thus by providing quantitative resources to evaluate the results. A Radar map was used as a means to visualize a broad image of the scenario, analyzed in two different moments of the Design Pilot Project.