The design dictum "Form follows function" was coined by Louis Sullivan, a US architect (1856-1924). During the last century function began to have a practical or technical meaning best expressed in the work of modernism and began to be associated with 'boring'. This led to Frog Design's dictum "form follows emotion" and later to "form follows fun".
I am thinking that maybe another viable dictum is "form follows communication". What story do we want to tell through the form and function of our new product or service? What opportunity does our new product and/or service offer to the potential consumer... how easy is it for them to create their own stories?
At the weekend I went to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and walked through the exhibition called
The Uncertainty of Identity
The opening poster to the exhibition starts:
The Uncertainty of Identity
The Biographies of Things
Objects are part of our own lives, and also have lives of their own. Like people, objects have biographies. Inspired by the work of the anthropologist, Igor Kopytoff, this exhibition reveals how an object’s identity is not fixed but is shaped by contexts in which it is exchanged, owned and used. Most of the objects here circulated as commodities, with an exchange value before they entered the Gallery’s collection.
However, once removed from the world of commodities, they become 'singularised’ and are valued for their cultural significance rather than their market price. These changes in their lives reveal an uncertainty of identity.
So how do we go about creating a "consumer story" we can share with our innovation team? and how do we design our offer in a way that allows the consumer to narrate their experience of using our goods/services?
One model we used is to take the [strategy]>insights>ideas>concepts>prototypes>
products/services flow described
here. Leaving aside the strategy aspect by assuming (big assumption) that our innovation project aligns with business strategy, then we can draw a diagram of consumer story development and technical solution as:
INSIGHTS
the penetrating understanding from which many ideas can be generated; usually a consumer benefit could be a technology opportunity.
IDEAS
a possible consumer story or a possible technology/business
solution that could become a concept
CONCEPTS (or Schemes)
a plausible consumer story linked to a possible technology/
business solution that could become a product.
PROTOTYPES
a valid and viable consumer story delivered by a
valid technology/business solution. (modified from here to reflect recent experience)
PRODUCTS/SERVICES
a valid and viable consumer story delivered by a
valid and viable technology/business solution.
As the consumer story is interactively developed using Design Fast Action techniques, continually asking "Does it fit with strategy?" versus "Is the consumer motivated?" can help ensure more radical ideas can be supported by the business as they are engaged in the story itself, rather than thinking how different from previous stories this is.
Eventually we set free our creation and the consumer takes over and determines, through their own stories,
"how an object’s identity is not fixed but is shaped by contexts in which it is exchanged, owned and used"
Picture uploaded by matthewsim . Used with thanks under CC.
So maybe
"Form follows communication follows form...."
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