A few months back Victor posted about the difficulty of getting approval to do design research in a project. This reminded me of Don Norman’s post last year about realizing that research actually does not belong in design.
Vic is right–Its hard to convince managers to okay research. His commenters though are wrong. Euphemisms […]

I have for a long time believed in the integrated new product development (iNPD) model Jonathan Cagan and Craig Vogel present in “Creating Breakthrough Products.” This model shatters traditional functional silos in favour of a balanced integration between the design, engineering and marketing disciplines. This integration results in products of higher value, and […]

A while back on cph127 Adam Richardson of frog raised the issue of wicked problems. I’m really glad he brought it up because I’ve always felt they are central to design as a professional practice. Curiously though there isn’t much talk in design circles about them.
In “Making Use,” John Carroll offers […]

Part 1: Definitions (10/23)
Part 2: iNPD model (11/06)
Part 3: Innovation Matrix - Categories of Innovation (11/24)
Part 4: Innovation Matrix - Areas of Innovation
Part 5: Innovation Matrix - Overall
Part 6: Process
I see 9 distinct areas companies can innovate in. These 9 areas organize into 2 broad groups I call Customer Experience and Organization Capacity (please […]

Part 1: Definitions (10/23)
Part 2: iNPD model (11/06)
Part 3: Innovation Matrix - Categories of Innovation
Part 4: Innovation Matrix - Areas of Innovation (01/05)
Part 5: Innovation Matrix - Overall
Part 6: Process
Not all innovations are created equal. And likewise not all innovations should be treated equally. So in order to succeed different kinds of innovations […]

This is the first part of what I think will be a 5 part series to build a crude theory of innovation. Ironically, there is nothing terribly novel about any of the individual ideas in I’m presenting here—and perhaps I’m even misusing the word innovation. I do hope however that my integration of […]

A scary but liberating aspect of web 2.0 is that it is going to force designers to start relinquishing control. I like that. The relationship between the designer and the user strikes me as very similar to the relationship between the author and the reader. And it has long been understood in literature that […]

Author of “Breakthrough Products”, former IDSA president, and former design professor of mine Craig Vogel shared his thoughts over email on activity and personas in design.

Part of a discussion I had with Don Norman about his recently published articles on the use of personas and activity-based design.

Attempt to reconcile personas and scenarios as design tools, with Don Norman’s critique in his “HCD Harmful?” articles