Using Design Driven Innovation as a Vehicle of ‘Eco’ Sustainability in Medium Complexity Products
Year: 2011
Editor: Chakrabarti, A.
Author: Chakraborty,Shujoy
Section: Applications in Practice
Page(s): 430-438
Abstract
Using the author’s past research of 1.5 years into design innovation for sustainability in medium complexity devices, this paper tracks the development of medium complexity products towards fulfilling the challenges of sustainability. ‘Sustainable, Green, or Eco’ Design in the product scale could be broadly defined as the philosophy of Designing with environmental or ecological sensitivities in mind. Design has responded to the demands of sustainability at various levels, but this paper concentrates on the adaptation which electro domestic appliances or white goods have undergone in the recent years up until the post-crisis scenario, not only in terms of industrial design but also in the area of interaction design.Devices have evolved from just incorporating material substitutions to innovating completely new product architectures. This development not only changes the manner in which such devices and appliances are conceptualized but also used by the consumer. When standard and accepted product archetypes suddenly change due to ‘disruptive innovations’ associated with design, then the challenge of product-user interaction becomes the central issue, and this holds true for ‘Eco’ Design also [1, 2]
Keywords: Design innovation, Product archetypes, Product —User Interaction, Sustainability.