In a recent blog post, Hugh Beyer raised an interesting concept. He said, "Innovation is easy...the hard part is actually acting on the innovation." http://incontextdesign.com/blog/innovation-is-easy/
I work with Hugh at InContext Design, and based on my experience working with many design teams, I think he's right. After reading his post, it got me thinking about how this impacts our work as designers. At InContext, it affects how we run our design projects and the design solutions we recommend. For every project, we adjust the *scope* of the design and the *degree of innovation* to match our client's capabilities and business goals. We've learned that even though the Contextual Design process makes it fairly easy to generate innovative solutions, they aren't always the *best* solutions. Just because you *can* innovate, doesn't mean that you *should*. Some companies don't *need* to innovate, they should improve the products or services they already offer. Other companies *can't* successfully innovate because they don't have the capabilities or resources (as Hugh pointed out in his blog post). As designers, we need to recognize when our clients *don't* need innovation, when they *do*, and *how much* they can handle. Yes, that means we sometimes have to pull back on the design throttle and deliver something that isn't innovative and cool. Designers naturally want to create the ideal, "best" designs they can, but that isn't always what's "best" for the client. In the end, if the client doesn't *implement* the design—how *successful* is it? Do you think innovation is easy? How do you gauge a clients ability or need to innovate? Have you ever delivered an innovative design that wasn't implemented? Have you ever tried to convince a client not to innovate? Or are you frustrated by clients who won't let you innovate? -dave David B. Rondeau Design Chair InContext Design ( http://www.incontextdesign.com ) http://twitter.com/dbrondeau
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