Design-driven innovation through blended meaning: Cases in IKEA hacking

Abstract

From words, and gestures to our everyday products, we are living surrounded by meanings. The significance of meaning extends profoundly into the realm of design, which is a meaning-making activity that communicates and conveys meanings to users through physical artifacts. Interestingly, the significance of meaning extends beyond design to encompass innovation, with Verganti (2003) introducing the concept of design-driven innovation. Through the analysis of successful products from companies such as Sony, Alessi, and Kartell, Verganti identified that radical transformations in design meaning drive substantial changes in user experience and product typology. Consequently, meaning change has emerged as a primary driver of design innovation.

Despite their importance and promise, the mechanisms of understanding meaning remain elusive and inexplicable. This often leads to a gap between designers' intended meanings and users' interpretations. From there, my Ph.D. project aims to address this gap in communicating meanings between designers and users by elucidating the meaning construction in design transformation.

Interestingly, there is a theory that explains such cognitive operations of understanding new meanings by combining two or more existing concepts from cognitive linguistics, and it is called Conceptual Blending theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 1998). To address the gap, this research adopts conceptual blending as a theoretical framework to understand how we identify and evaluate the meaning in design transformation. This study extends conceptual blending's relevance beyond linguistics, providing a theoretical framework to understand how transformations in design elements convey new meanings. Supported by empirical validation, this research contributes to design practice by exploring the applicability of conceptual blending theory to design transformation, which might link to design-driven innovation.

Design transformation is wide-ranging, so my research focuses on IKEA product hacking, which repurposes existing designs into new uses through transformations in form and function. Around the transformative nature, which is commonly shared by product hacking, conceptual blending, and design innovation, IKEA hacking is utilized as a design resource, transformative activity, and design implementation of meaning change in this research. Adopting a Research through Design approach, the study aims to enhance conceptual blending's utility in evaluating and generating design meanings, addressing the semantic gap between designers and users.

The exploration is conducted through three studies: 1) Study A (Chapter 4) examines the applicability of conceptual blending theory to assess existing IKEA hacking cases, focusing on meaning change through everyday design transformation. This study derives meaning innovation scoring questions based on CB theory and measures the degree of meaning change, then compares theory-based scores with user semantic evaluations. 2) Study B (Chapter 5) investigates the design transformation process within the context of IKEA hacking in an experimental workshop setting. We observe the design process based on conceptual blending closely to identify moments and factors triggering meaning changes in design. 3) Study C (Chapter 6) focuses on how users identify and evaluate new meanings in design transformation controlled through conceptual blending. I conduct an IKEA hacking design exhibition to gather users' semantic responses on-site, showcasing controlled blending degrees in the designs.

These studies collectively offer a comprehensive exploration of meaning change in design transformation through conceptual blending theory. Empirical results suggest conceptual blending's utility in identifying and evaluating meaning transformation within the dynamic landscape of design. Utilizing conceptual blending theory as a theoretical tool for design could offer enhanced understanding and control of meaning construction in design transformation.

However, conceptual blending theory is not without limitations when applied to design. Rooted in linguistics, it does not always align with design's multifaceted and dynamic nature. This project identifies three key areas for adaptation: delicate manipulation of blending degree in the design process, consideration of utilitarian functionality and usability in meaning transformation, and consideration of prior experience related to product archetypes and brand products.

By identifying these critical areas for design implications, conceptual blending theory can be leveraged to underpin design-driven innovation, elucidating and understanding meaning in design transformation. The blending design approach conducted in this research might also be utilized in design practice fields as a way to communicate abstract meaning with designers and get insights into generating meaning- change designs. By doing so, this thesis tries to mitigate the gap between theoretical findings and empirical validation.

Finally, this research advances the field of design-driven innovation in meaning by demonstrating the applicability and limitations of conceptual blending theory in design contexts, offering a refined model for understanding and applying meaning transformation in design. Keywords Conceptual Blending; Design Cognition; Design Transformation; Design-driven Innovation; Meaning Change; Product Design; Product Meaning.