Defining a product characteristic framework of excellence for meaning-driven radical innovation

Abstract

In recent years, meaning-driven radical innovation has attracted more widespread attention from design researchers than technology-driven radical innovation. This study aimed to better understand the essence of meaning-driven radical innovation. We compared 119 meaning-driven radical products selected from the 100 Great Designs of Modern Times (published by Fortune in 2020) as well as from three international design awards—the International Design Excellence Awards, Red Dot Product Design, and iF Product Design—with similar products during the same period on the market. We defined a product characteristic framework for meaning-driven radical innovation, including five categories: version, function, experience, scope, and architecture. The percentage of each category was analysed using the comments accompanying the winning of the awards. The results showed that meaning-driven radical products had significantly more vision and experience category characteristics than similar products.

Keywords:

• Product characteristics
• meaning-driven
• radical innovation
• design innovation
• design-driven innovation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant number 2021YFF0900600; Open Research Subject of Research Center of Industrial Design under Grant number GYSJ17-019; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number 51675382; New Liberal Arts Research and Reform Practice Project of the Ministry of Education of China under Grant number 2021020014; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant number 22120210243; Post-Funded Project of Ministry of Education Philosophy and Social Sciences Research under Grant number 18JHQ095; and Style of Study Building Grant Scheme Support Project under Grant number XFCC2021ZZ001-B89.

Notes on contributors

Jiang Xu

Jiang Xu is the professor and vice dean of Shanghai International College of Design and the Innovation and College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. His research interests include design strategy and management, design philosophy, design engineering, and design computing.

Han Lu

Han Lu is a PhD student at the College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. His research interests are design management, design cognition, and design methods.

Jingyu Xu

Jingyu Xu is a PhD student at the College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. Her research interests are product design methods and design philosophy.