Research, Industrial Design and Innovation: Reflection around a Doctoral Programme

Since 1990, when it first started, the domains of research investigated by the doctoral activity in industrial design held within the Politecnico of Milano were mainly centred on innovation-related phenomena and theory. Such attention was due to various factors, partly internal to the dynamics of the discipline of industrial design, partly related to the perception of the growing complexity of the innovative process, thus motivating in-depth analysis and new approaches to emerging domains. A relevant number of investigations emphasized the importance of technological change, orienting the direction of conceptual analysis towards systemic, evolutionary, complex approaches. Whatever the motivations for the analysis of technological change and innovation, this field of enquiry highlighted the factors and fundamental ingredients of the process of development and transformation of industrial products, services and systems. Moreover, as a starting point a broad view of innovation was assumed, being a dynamic process related to achieving competitive advantages involving the development or improving of new products, services, technology, processes, institutions, systems, solutions. This view of innovation encompasses not only science and technology, but the range of economic and social activities competing in the marketplace and relevant to design in areas such as communications, corporate organizations, education, institutions. However, this contribute is not intended to explore the nature of innovation as a subject of study of a doctoral programme. Rather, it stylizes some recent theoretical assumptions as a trajectory of ideas which permeates the doctoral programme activity. At the same time it proposes an answer to the very basic question: what is the purpose of design research? (And consequently, what is the role of a Ph.D. in industrial design? The following reflections, simply divided into two sections, try to render the context which oriented research activity and the strategical relevance design research can achieve. Ed. V. Margolin, R. Buchanan, D. Dordan , L. Justice, Proceedings of the International Ohio Conference Doctoral Education in Design, Wexer center of the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio