We’re all innovators here at eBee. That’s great, assuming we can explain what we mean by using that big word – innovation.
A recent debate we had here (as part of a monthly book club we run) got me thinking about this. I would like to try and define innovation in this entry from a design point of view.
Back in the 60s plastic got big and popular. Earl Tupper was incredibly innovative by designing a container that mimics the improvised solution everyone used till then: fill a bowl with left over dinner, cover with a plate, place in the fridge till you’re hungry again. But his other, less known innovative idea was how he marketed his great new design. Sure, the design was clever and useful, but we could all use a bit of PR at the beginning. Mr. Tupper identified housewives as the target audience he wants to address.
By observing how a typical housewife makes daily decisions, he came up with Tupperware parties, to market the new product. The idea was simple: if he could make his new product trendy and desirable, it would sell. By creating a buzz around his plastic containers and getting the housewives to sell to each other and get each other almost jealous of owning her very own Tupperware, he created an innovative marketing for an innovative product. Anyone who works in social media marketing will know this template is as true today (if not truer) as it was then.
Lets look at another example. Michael Graves’s kettle (1985). The brief was simple: design a kettle that can boil fast, won’t burn your hands when you hold it and can be mass produced, yet feel unique to each owner.Its design follows the classic modernist motto ‘form follows function’. But its true innovative feature is right at its tip. Graves topped-up the natural whistle by adding a small bird on the spout that ‘sings’ when the kettle boils.
The bird lent the kettle a personality, separating it from others on the market. The design turned a simple kettle into the equivalent of an art piece: an object to display proudly to your guests when they visit, a kettle that communicates to others your excellent taste. Two very different examples, both highlighting similar skills: the ability to observe things around us, identifying why we choose to use some things over others, and a drive to fully realise the potential of a product. That innovative touch that can make a plastic box exciting or mass produced kettle feel personal.
A much more recent innovation that reached my inbox lately – http://ifttt.com/wtf, once again got me thinking: ‘That’s true innovation’. This innovation utilise technology, rather than design, but the concept is the same.
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