I don't think there is any one way to answer the question "What is innovative?"
I view it more as a continuum where you have on one side things that are "not innovative". They are traditional, not risky, or they've been done before. On the other side is "innovative", which are things that are new, experimental, risky, or never been done before. When thinking about how innovative your design solutions should be, you need to understand where your design should be in that continuum. By that, I mean what is most likely to be implemented by the client and what will make the product or service the most successful. If it is too innovative and the client can't implement it, it won't be successful. On the other hand though, if it isn't innovative enough, the product or service may not be successful%u2014even if it does get implemented. To complicate it a little more, I think we also need to factor in *what* aspect of the product or service is being innovated. Is it a new interaction design, a new technology, a radical change to the core business model, or all of the above? Each of these will impact implementation in different ways and more importantly, the impact will vary depending on the abilities of the company implementing the design. I'd also like to respond to some of Adrian's questions. He asked, "Innovative in comparison to what?". I agree that you should consider how innovative something is in relationship to your competitors, *but* in the end, if it doesn't get implemented, it's a failure. I would argue that instead, you need to balance what is best versus what can get done. Adrian also asked, "Is it really innovative if it doesn't actually work?" This might sound strange, but I don't think it really matters. What if you create something that is *not* innovative and it doesn't actually work either? It doesn't matter where on the continuum of innovation a design lies%u2014if it was implemented and it doesn't "work" or achieve it's intended goal or solve a real problem%u2014it's a failure. Instead I think we should be asking: What is the *best* design we can create that will *work* (for users as well as business)%u2014that can and *will* be implemented? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44405 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
