Action research on a design-driven social innovation experimental project

The innovation platform based on the Living Lab brings together multiple stakeholders to provide resources for entrepreneurs to carry out project practice and then promote social innovation. As more and more people start their businesses with the help of innovation platforms, innovation platforms can no longer meet the needs of entrepreneurs for project operation and users’ needs for in-depth project participation. How to promote the initiation of entrepreneurs’ projects on the innovation platform and the in-depth involvement of users is an important issue facing the development of the innovation platform. As a problem-solving-oriented discipline, the design focuses on resource integration and demand matching, emphasises visual analysis of problems, and focuses on management capabilities, which plays a vital role in promoting innovation platforms. Therefore, this research focuses on how design can help entrepreneur run projects in innovation platform based on Living Lab. This paper adopts the method of action research. The research analyses the constituent elements of the innovation platform through literature research for understanding the advantages and ways of the innovation platform to promote entrepreneurial projects. The author takes case study methods to know the project initiation: analyse and summarise the project initiation process of “vision establishment - stakeholder community-building - user involvement – experiment implementation – project evaluation”. Based on the above analysis, the following part of this study analyses the material environment resources, social network and project initiation of NICE Commune at the current stage through observation method, questionnaire survey method and interview method. After these, the author thinks how design can help entrepreneurs connect to suitable people and promote the involvement of people is the key to promoting the project. In the project practice of sustainable diet, the author follows the steps of project initiation, links stakeholders to participate, records and reflects on the methods to promote the project. At each stage, the author integrates and matches the resources and needs of the stakeholders and explores ways to encourage stakeholder participation. Finally, based on the project practice, the author summarises the finding for the research question. The accessibility to resource and ease of use of the innovation platform is the key to promote entrepreneurial projects. People with funds, skills, and needs determine the duration time of entrepreneurial projects. Integrating the resources of the innovation platform, using design to facilitate the entrepreneurial projects, and promoting the engagement of stakeholders are the goals and significance of this research