Through meaning to innovation: designing experiences that resonate

Design started long ago when people realized they wanted more than what nature could offer. Our ancient ancestors began to create tools and spaces that matched their needs and wants. This early effort was all about people — using what they had to make life work better for them. Without knowing it, they were practicing a basic form of what we now call “human-centered design.”
In those early days, design came from a simple wish for better and easier ways to live, pushing people to change their surroundings to be more helpful and reliable. Early humans were not only making things; they were finding solutions, changing, and creating new ways to make their world more fitting to their needs and more comfortable.

Now, design is much more complex and reaches into every part of our lives, always looking for new and better ways to solve problems. The continuous search for improvements and the powerful answers it brings aren’t just practical — they change the way we see and interact with the world around us. In this article, we’re going to explore the wide world of design, looking at how using and managing innovative ideas can do more than solve problems — they can spark real, meaningful change. We’ll dive into the ideas and actions that fill the world of design, asking you to join us in looking through a lens that takes in history, innovative management, and future-ready solutions in a world where design doesn’t just solve problems, but continually changes and enriches our interaction with the world.

The Importance of Meaning in Design

Design always originates from meaning; it’s the presence of this meaning that renders design valuable and functional. The initial step for any designer should be rooted in understanding this significance — the ‘meaning’ — and recognizing the context from which this significance emerges.
In design, ‘meaning’ is the core idea or reason behind every creation, and it’s closely connected to what people need and want. It is the message or idea conveyed through an object or concept. The utility and relevance of a design are intrinsically linked to its meaning; devoid of it, the design loses its essence and relevance.
To really understand what ‘meaning’ is in design, we need to know the reasons and specific situations that make us create. Consider, for instance, the scenario of two friends at a bar, where one decides to settle the bill for both, a choice made for the sake of expediency. It’s in situations like these that new ideas, like easy money transfers and online banking, are thought up and made real.
As we delve deeper into the role of meaning in design, it’s crucial to explore the various contexts from which this meaning is derived, shaping the design’s impact and relevance

Meaning and Context

Meaning always comes from context. Our needs are deeply connected to the situations we find ourselves in, and it’s often in these situations that meaning is born. So understanding them is really important. To study them better, we can put contexts into different categories, such as:

• Psychological Context: This is about getting into a person’s head — how they think and what they prefer. It’s super important because it shapes how users see and interact with a design. This is often where the meaning of a design starts to form.
• Social Context: This involves the relationships and communities a person is part of and the social rules they follow. It’s crucial because it shapes what users expect from a design and how they use it.
• Emotional Context: This is about the feelings a person experiences. It’s vital because it influences how users respond to a design emotionally.
• Technological Context: This deals with how much a person knows about and can use technology, impacting how they interact with tech-based designs.
• Geographical Context: This relates to where a person is and the environmental conditions they live in, shaping their needs and behaviors.

And the list goes on. In fact, the number of contexts can be infinite. More importantly, when one context overlaps with another, it gives even more insight into a situation and why it happened. It’s crucial to spot the most powerful contexts, the ones that really shape a situation and the birth of meaning, for which we’ll design a solution.
Understanding and studying all these different contexts help us get the meaning right and understand where our design will be used after we create it. It’s so important it’s led to more research and new methods to study it, emphasizing the role of empathy in designing.
Whether a design works and is popular depends on how well we understood its meaning and which contexts were most impactful. Simply put, people will only use a product if it meets their needs and fits into their lives.
Being good at finding and understanding contexts and meanings gives teams or companies a real advantage and leads to innovations. Roberto Verganti, in his book ‘Design Driven Innovation,’ explains that big innovations often come from reinterpreting the meaning of something familiar.
Consider the story of Swatch. When they stepped into the industry, the market was largely divided between luxurious Swiss watches and practical, reliable Japanese ones. The latter were known for their electronic precision and affordability, representing functionality and utility, while Swiss watches were symbols of elegance, tradition, and exclusivity.
Swatch, through a profound understanding of the diverse consumer contexts and the meanings attached to watches, decided to innovate. They delved deep into societal and cultural contexts, exploring how watches were perceived and used in different settings. They discerned a gap, a space where watches could be more than just practical tools or opulent ornaments.
It was this exploration and understanding of context and meaning that led Swatch to redefine the essence of a watch. They saw an opportunity to introduce a watch that could be both affordable and a fashion statement — a “Second Watch.” A piece that wasn’t confined to the singular role of timekeeping or flaunting affluence but was an expressive accessory, adaptable to various styles and occasions.
Swatch introduced a colorful range of high-quality, yet affordable watches, encouraging the concept of owning multiple watches to suit different moods, outfits, and events. This innovative shift in meaning and approach not only transformed the form and function of watches but also altered consumer behaviors and perceptions on a global scale, positioning Swatch as an innovative leader in the watch industry.

Translating Meaning to Function

Understanding meaning and recognizing the needs and contexts it arises from guides us to the concept of function. In many fields — mathematics, philosophy, sociology — the term ‘function’ has varied interpretations, but a shared essence is present; it’s about the relationship between elements, it’s about serving. In design, function is intricately linked to meaning — it serves and embodies it.
When we talk about function in design, we’re really discussing the properties our design solution should possess, the attributes it needs to fulfill the meaning we’ve uncovered. Here, a well-crafted design task is crucial. It consolidates our understanding of meaning, needs, and contexts, and sometimes, it delineates the potential functions that would meet the demands within the analyzed contexts.
Function brings a level of concreteness to the abstract nature of meaning. It’s like traveling along a continuum from abstract to concrete, watching ideas solidify into tangible solutions.
For example, if we’ve discerned a meaning related to connectivity among people, the function would address how to realize this connectivity. It could be through creating a new social media platform or designing an innovative communication tool — all serving the identified meaning and need.
In conclusion, defining function is about translating the abstract — meaning, derived from understanding context and recognizing needs — into the tangible. It’s a crucial step where we begin to see how our insights can take shape, serving as a foundation for the detailed design process that follows.

Form: Connecting function and meaning

In design, we use the term “form” to describe the final solution. It’s essential to understand that “form” can have various meanings, particularly in the realm of product design. Let’s break it down:
Physical Form: This refers to the tangible characteristics of a design, such as the shape of a button or the layout of a physical product.
Digital Form: In the digital world, form often pertains to the way users interact with interfaces. Think of a news feed, stories, or a map on a website or app — these are different digital forms.
Social Form: This encompasses the expected behaviors and interactions between individuals, whether in the physical or digital domain. Consider how we behave with a doctor, where we describe our issues and await their guidance, versus our interactions with a university professor, where we listen, learn, and demonstrate knowledge.
In the context of the CRAFT methodology, which combines sociology, TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), lateral thinking, and some other theories, there are excellent frameworks that allow, by blending various forms, to obtain fundamentally new and unexpected ones. The methodology itself considers design as the shaping of the form of social relations between a person and the design object.
When designers collaborate with their teams and comprehend the meaning and contexts involved, they start thinking about the most suitable function. They then devise a form to represent that function, effectively designing a solution. For instance, a mobile app and a website are two distinct forms through which users can engage, each offering varying degrees of effectiveness for the same task. Similarly, a chat conversation and a voice assistant represent different forms addressing the same task in distinct ways.
Design scenarios often encompass multiple nested forms. Choosing the right forms and crafting well-designed features ensures that functions are delivered effectively to users across different contexts, similar to the ones we began with.
Form discussions in design inherently revolve around finding solutions. Countless solutions exist, influenced by factors like technological maturity, team expertise, and available resources. To assess whether a solution is good, we must ask: What problem does it solve, and in what context will users employ this solution? In essence, conversations about form must ultimately lead to discussions about meaning and context. This shift in focus helps us gauge the quality of the proposed solution, with the most precise evaluation coming from the end-users themselves. When we accurately understand the contexts and meaning and effectively define the function, the solution is more likely to resonate with users, signifying a job well done by the design team.

Unlocking Meaningful Design

In the world of design, conversations often begin with a focus on visual or tangible aspects, known as ‘form.’ However, to ensure productive discussions and meaningful design, we need to shift our focus from form to meaning.
Picture this: an agency specializing in developing digital services. A client walks in and says they need a mobile app. A mobile app is already a specific form. But for a productive discussion, we must delve deeper.
This shift toward meaning is achieved through the art of asking questions. We move from discussions about form to questions that uncover the meaning and purpose behind the design. Questions like:

• What business challenge will this app address?
• What specific functions should the app include? (We shift from form to function)
• Why these particular functions? (Dive deeper into meaning)
• How will these functions help your users accomplish tasks? (Now in the meaning area)
• In what real-life situations will users actually use this app? (Discussing contexts)

Notice, in just a few questions, we’ve shifted the conversation from discussing form to understanding the meaning and purpose behind the design.
The central question that helps us move from specific to abstract is: Why? This is where the renowned “5 Whys” framework comes into play. If you examine your answers at each new “Why” step, you’ll notice they become progressively more abstract. By the fifth or seventh step, the discussion often touches upon highly abstract concepts like happiness or the meaning of life.
So, whenever a client, product owner, or any other stakeholder approaches you with a statement like, “We need to develop a feature,” your first step should be to start asking questions. This will steer the conversation away from the immediate form and towards understanding the purpose and meaning, delving into the realm of the abstract.
By shifting our focus from form to meaning through thoughtful questions, we unlock new avenues of understanding and create designs that resonate deeply. Asking questions isn’t just a skill for design professionals; it’s a gateway to meaningful design.

Translating objectives into innovation

Effective problem formulation is the cornerstone of any successful design endeavor. It has the power to shape the quality, innovativeness, complexity, feasibility, and various other aspects of the final solution. The ability to articulate clear objectives is a vital skill for a design manager, while clarifying objectives is a crucial skill for a designer.
But what exactly is an objective? Think of an objective as an interface between meaning and form. It should demonstrate a deep understanding of the underlying purpose. An objective is a more compact, comprehensible, and concrete representation of meaning. It serves to reduce the level of abstraction.
Different formulations of objectives can lead to entirely different solutions. Tom and David Kelley, in their book “Creative Confidence,” leverage this property of objectives to boost creativity and solution diversity. They recommend reframing the objective in various ways and observing how it influences the resulting solutions. This approach can help unearth a broader spectrum of ideas, some of which may be truly innovative.
I also advocate for the power of objective reframing. However, I’d like to introduce a more systematic approach to this process. As we discussed earlier, our framework operates along a spectrum from abstract to concrete. Objectives can exist at different points along this spectrum, and it’s crucial to manage their level of abstraction consciously.
Let’s consider a scenario: Imagine that we’re designing the next-generation delivery vehicles for couriers. Our team is responsible for designing the user experience within the vehicle and developing the courier’s mobile app. Now, let’s examine a simple real-life situation: The courier needs to access the vehicle. They approach it, open the door, and get inside. The manager says, “Design a button in the mobile app to open/close the vehicle.”
This objective is quite specific, residing closer to the concrete end of our spectrum. We know precisely what function it should serve, and we’ve even been provided with a potential form — a button within the mobile app. Consequently, the solution to this problem is rather predictable, involving the implementation of a button within the app.
But how can we make the objective more abstract and potentially yield more innovative solutions? This is where the “Job Story” framework comes into play. Let’s reframe the same objective:

Job Story Format:
Context: When I approach the vehicle in the morning,
Desire: I want to effortlessly access it,
Expected Outcome: So I can start my work promptly.

This reframing fundamentally shifts our perspective. It encapsulates the user’s situation and conveys the intended outcome. It moves us toward the realm of meaning. Now, what solutions can we brainstorm?
Understanding the user’s context, we recognize that couriers often search for their vehicles in crowded parking lots. We could propose a solution where the vehicle’s mobile app, with Bluetooth enabled, connects to the car from a distance, activating the headlights and sounding a signal. This would help the courier locate their vehicle faster, particularly among similar-looking cars.
As the courier approaches, the door lock could automatically release within a two-meter radius, triggered by their smartphone’s Bluetooth signal. Simultaneously, the in-car display could show a list of delivery addresses, highlighting the first destination on the route.
By elevating the abstraction level of our objective, we’ve unlocked a more profound solution. Of course, not all situations require such intricate solutions, and different teams operate at varying levels of maturity. Therefore, one of a manager’s essential skills is the ability to identify which objectives demand innovative solutions, to formulate them accordingly, and to navigate seamlessly between the realms of abstraction and concreteness.
In conclusion, the capacity to transition from abstract to concrete, to craft objectives, to interact with stakeholders — these are all pivotal aspects of fostering innovative solutions within a design team.

8 Key Insights and Takeaways

A New Coordinate System for Design Thinking:

• The approach discussed provides a novel coordinate system, allowing designers to navigate through the realms of meaning, context, function, and form.
• Reflexive practice, guided by this system, allows design processes to be dynamically adjusted, ensuring depth and breadth in exploring and addressing design challenges.

Task Formulation and Experimental Adaptation:

• Embracing an experimental mindset, you can reframe and reformulate tasks, exploring how variations in formulation influence design outcomes and solutions
• Such exploratory task formulation enables the discovery of diverse pathways towards solutions, revealing possibilities previously unexplored or unconsidered.

Strategic Management of Innovation:

• Innovations in design thinking can be strategically managed by discerning which tasks necessitate more abstract, innovative solutions versus those that require concrete, straightforward approaches
• Recognizing when and where innovation is imperative allows for judicious allocation of resources and expertise towards crafting truly groundbreaking design solutions.

Delving into Meaning and Context:

• The depth of your process should be gauged with a keen focus on how intricately and authentically it delves into the intertwined realms of meaning and context.
• An intentional, nuanced exploration of meaning and context ensures that design solutions are not merely superficially appealing but are also rooted in genuine user experiences and needs

Dexterous Use of Varied Methodologies:

• Identifying and employing different methodologies at various stages of the design process, based on their suitability and level of abstraction, is crucial.
• Acknowledging that different methodologies operate at different degrees of abstractness, ensures that chosen approaches are aptly matched to the current stage and requirements of the design process.

Balancing Abstraction and Concreteness in Task Objectives:

• Craft objectives with a mindful balance of abstraction and concreteness, ensuring they are guiding yet not restrictively specific.
• Such thoughtfully crafted objectives will steer design processes towards solutions that are innovative, user-centric, and contextually embedded

Embracing the Multi-Faceted Nature of Design Solutions:

• Understand that design solutions often encompass multiple nested forms, each of which needs to be meticulously crafted to ensure effective function delivery across varied contexts
• This comprehensive understanding ensures the creation of solutions that are robustly adaptable and considerate of varied user interactions and contexts.

Continuous Reflexivity and Adaptation:

• Encourage continuous reflexivity and adaptation in design processes, ensuring they remain agile, responsive, and perpetually attuned to emerging insights, challenges, and opportunities
• Such dynamic adaptability ensures that design processes and solutions remain relevant, resonant, and aptly aligned with evolving user needs and contexts.

Stepping into the Future of Design

These takeaways, grounded in a comprehensive, nuanced exploration of meaning, context, function, and form, provide a roadmap for navigating through the multifaceted landscape of design thinking. By adopting these insights, designers and design managers can navigate through the complex, intricately interwoven tapestry of design, ensuring the creation of solutions that are not merely functionally effective but also profoundly meaningful, contextually resonant, and innovatively groundbreaking.