Strategic design: in focus

Being strategic about design and its role in driving successful business has become a central part of many design firms core philosophy. It is realized in many ways…through our design methodologies, how we act and think, how we continually innovate how we work, how we engage the end-user in our work, and how we show business the value of design as measured by a concrete return on investment.

Here are a few recent stories, viewpoints, examples, and more from people who advance the strategic role of design in how they go about their work and how they communicate that work to others. 

BOX— A nice piece in the New York Times on being able to get outside the box in order to think outside the box

Innovative Minds Don’t Think Alike

IT’S a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.

GREEN— “Inhabitat.com is a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.”

It’s worth a visit to check out their top 10 green design stories of 2007 at

FLOW— A piece on the concept of designing for flow…Flow as in that first proposed by Csikszentmihalyi in “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”.

The article starts as follows…In web design, when we think about flow we usually think about “task flows” or “flow charts” but there’s another type of flow that we should keep in mind. It’s that feeling of complete absorption when you’re engaged in something you love to do without being disrupted by anxiety or boredom caused by tasks that are confusing, repetitive or overly taxing.

Read on at Alistapart.

CAR— The car industry competes on innovation. Foxbusiness carries a story on Johnson Controls, a key player in many of the small innovations that you see every year in new models. Here they showcase a range of vehicle innovations in Detroit…“In the global auto industry, demand for systems and products that reflect innovation, ingenuity and smart design has never been greater than it is today,” said Jeff Williams, group vice president and general manager, North America for the Automotive Experience business of Johnson Controls. “With a commitment to ‘Creating Smart Environments,’ we acknowledge the importance of delivering products with features, functions and performance that are intelligently-crafted and well-integrated,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to provide innovative products and technology to our customers that enrich the experience of automotive consumers.”