設(shè)計創(chuàng)新驅(qū)動變革

文/ Vijay Kumar（伊利諾伊理工大學(xué))

感謝主辦方的邀請，感謝江南大學(xué)的各位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和設(shè)計學(xué)院的各位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的邀請，我很高興能夠來到無錫，非常開心能夠有這樣的機會。

今天我想先給大家做一個簡單的自我介紹，講講我個人一路的發(fā)展。今天我們的主題是設(shè)計與轉(zhuǎn)型，或者說設(shè)計與變化，而對我個人來講，我也在一生當中經(jīng)歷了很多變化，所以我想給大家講一講這當中的一些重要的事件，這些事件讓我的人生發(fā)生了很多變化。我就出生在印度，包括我早期求學(xué)的階段都是在印度。這是1976年的一張照片，在當中留大胡子的那個人就是我，當時我和在座各位一樣，是一個設(shè)計學(xué)院的學(xué)生，我當時也在學(xué)習(xí)設(shè)計。這可以說是我理解設(shè)計的一個起點，一個開始。我右邊這個人是Charles Eames，他是當時最有名最著名的設(shè)計師之一，我非常榮幸能夠和他一起工作。從這份工作經(jīng)歷當中學(xué)到了很多關(guān)于設(shè)計的基本知識，以及如何處理復(fù)雜的設(shè)計問題。從那時候起，我開始懂得，設(shè)計不僅僅是設(shè)計一個物品，更是意味著解決復(fù)雜的問題。

1986年，當我在進行著設(shè)計創(chuàng)新實踐時，電腦剛剛開始進入我們的生活---最開始是麥金塔電腦。電腦的出現(xiàn)讓設(shè)計師有了更有力的工具來進行出版、平面設(shè)計等工作，比如可以使用Photoshop來完成以前無法完成的工作。但是當時計算機太貴了，我其實也沒有辦法接觸到，所以我就試圖尋找可以一個讓我學(xué)習(xí)計算機技術(shù)的地方。后來我找到了芝加哥的伊利諾伊理工，當時那里的教授已經(jīng)在使用最先進的方法，使用計算機來做設(shè)計。大家看到圖中右邊這個小設(shè)備，這就是打字機。當時我用這個打字機寫信，然后郵寄出去。三周后我收到了那邊教授的回信，他邀請我去伊利諾伊理工，說我在那邊可以學(xué)到很多關(guān)于計算機輔助設(shè)計的知識。于是我就去了。那是一段非常有趣的經(jīng)歷，我花了很多時間與Jay Doblin待在一起，他是一個非常好的設(shè)計師，也是我這輩子遇見的最有名的老師。他和同伴在芝加哥成立了“Doblin Group”公司，專注于設(shè)計戰(zhàn)略，而我在那工作了十二年。

這段工作經(jīng)歷使我有機會與各種公司合作，比如Apple，Texas Instruments,SAS airlines。借助設(shè)計的方法與技術(shù)，我進行了各種探索以及實驗。同時我也管理了許多有趣的設(shè)計項目。通過在這里的咨詢工作，我學(xué)到了很多。之后，我打算平衡一下我的工作，開始接受更多的項目---符合我自己興趣的項目，比如像教學(xué)、分享、出書、設(shè)計等等。在2002年的時候，我去了芝加哥的設(shè)計學(xué)院，那是在全世界領(lǐng)先的設(shè)計學(xué)院，引領(lǐng)著前沿的設(shè)計潮流，所以我非常高興能夠成為其中的一員。也是在那時，我有機會能夠?qū)懽骱统霭嫖业倪@些知識，比如《企業(yè)創(chuàng)新101設(shè)計法》。這本書被翻譯成了繁體中文、簡體中文，同時也有印度尼西亞語、泰語、日語等多種語言。這本書現(xiàn)在被全世界的創(chuàng)新者所使用。

當然，我和許多公司合作，來幫助他們解決一些設(shè)計問題，同時告訴他們?nèi)绾问褂盟麄兊脑O(shè)計來影響全世界。當下的世界讓我們充分享受到了技術(shù)帶來的好處---我們使用電腦、軟件，比如微信和email，讓我覺得生活非常美好。技術(shù)已經(jīng)成為了我們工作和生活不可或缺的一部分，與我們的日常生活緊密地結(jié)合在一起了。

我們已經(jīng)改變了我們看待世界的方式，這張截圖就來自于谷歌地圖。從每天早上我起床的那一刻開始，就有各種公司在影響著我的每日生活，包括像微信、阿里巴巴、臉書、谷歌等等。各種各樣的公司都在影響著我的生活，改變著我們共同生活的這個世界。我們在谷歌地圖上再把地球轉(zhuǎn)一轉(zhuǎn)，這時候我們看到的只有水---這是太平洋。也就是當我們換個角度看這個世界的時候，會發(fā)現(xiàn)這個世界不僅只有技術(shù)，還有各種影響我的公司，等等。還有我的行為，我的經(jīng)歷。比如我在旅行途中拍照，可以通過微信或者臉書，來與朋友分享，也能把故事同家庭和朋友分享。這是我們正在做的事情，如果我們想要建立一個可持續(xù)的世界---張教授之前提到了社會角色---我們都是世界的一部分，我們需要做一些事情來讓這個世界更加美好，這是我們需要考慮的。同時我們一直關(guān)注這些詞，比如“開放創(chuàng)新”、綠色、回收再循環(huán)的能源保護等等。對于我們的每一個項目，我們都必須考慮是否對社會和環(huán)境有益，這是非常重要的。

對于設(shè)計師而言，最大的問題是如何在這個變化的世界進行設(shè)計，如何在變革的環(huán)境中進行創(chuàng)新。我們所有人需要自問：作為設(shè)計師，我如何通過我的工作影響和改變世界？在我的《企業(yè)創(chuàng)新101設(shè)計法》這本書中，我跟大家分享了一些我的想法。

而在接下來的演講當中，我將要跟大家來分享六個主要的原則。我們所有人都應(yīng)該來嘗試使用的六個原則。事實上，在我的工作中，我一直在應(yīng)用這些原則，或直接或間接。這些原則對于創(chuàng)新來說非常重要。我們一個一個來看一下。

第一個就是全盤考慮各方的利益相關(guān)者，也就是要有考慮所有人的大局觀。你需要全盤考慮各方面進而找到解決問題的方法。所以我們在講到創(chuàng)新的時候，我們可以使用這個原則（模型）。比如說，當我們把技術(shù)應(yīng)用到創(chuàng)新中來的時候，這項技術(shù)的開發(fā)者就要在創(chuàng)新的過程中扮演非常重要的角色。此外，商界和市場要素也要整合進來。我們還要關(guān)注我們設(shè)計的對象以及他們的體驗。心理學(xué)家、行為學(xué)家、人類學(xué)家，都能很好地理解人的行為，研究他們的經(jīng)歷以及他們的行為會產(chǎn)生的結(jié)果。最后是社會以及環(huán)境的影響。我們所做的設(shè)計創(chuàng)新能夠?qū)ι鐣铜h(huán)境帶來什么新的改變。

按照這個原則，應(yīng)該把那些科學(xué)家、社會工作者，那些正在密切專注社會環(huán)境的、環(huán)境學(xué)家等等，所有這些人都包含到創(chuàng)新的過程中來。創(chuàng)新是中心，能夠把所有的這些都鏈接在一起。這是非常重要的。

作為設(shè)計師，我們有時候太關(guān)注自己面前的這些問題，從而可能忘掉其他的方面，這一點需要提高。我們要有全局觀，必須保持開放的態(tài)度，傾聽像研究者、商業(yè)分析師或者經(jīng)濟學(xué)專家的意見。這是我們每天日常都要做的。我們叫做“帶來靈感的合作”。當我們做項目的時候，所有的人精誠合作---提供資金的人、公司執(zhí)行官、或者是設(shè)計師等等---所有利益相關(guān)者一起合作。如果你是公司的財務(wù)官，也歡迎加入，幫助我們的創(chuàng)新能夠成功。這是我們每天都要做的。

然后很重要的一點，我們需要一些工具來重建我們的思維模式，能夠重塑或者重建我們思考的工具。我們剛剛僅僅談到了技術(shù)的變化，但是更重要的是我們經(jīng)歷的變化。什么叫做重建？重建就是改變問題的解決方式。比如說蘋果，當他們推出ipod時，他們并不是做了更好的MP3播放器，而是完全提升了人們聽音樂的體驗。他們通過iPhone、iPad以及其他一系列的產(chǎn)品，重塑了體驗。類似的產(chǎn)品也還有很多。比如亞馬遜使用無人機來送貨，就是重塑了快遞的概念，我相信未來也會在中國使用。他們完全改變了送貨的概念，如果你在阿里巴巴上訂了什么東西，他們不讓快遞員送了，而是直接讓無人機來送。亞馬遜現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)在使用這個技術(shù)，他們是在重建這個世界。

這是一張人口數(shù)量變化的圖，藍色的線代表農(nóng)村人口，紅色的線代表城市人口?？梢钥吹?，農(nóng)村的人口不斷在下降，城市的人口不斷在上升。到2050年，城市人口會翻倍，而農(nóng)村人口會越來越少。到2050年，超過60億的人會居住在城市，這會對我們的環(huán)境和社會產(chǎn)生深刻的影響。所以我們要建立智慧城市。我們?nèi)绾文軌蛑亟ㄎ覀兊某鞘?，來容納這么多的且不斷上升的人口？我們借助各種技術(shù)在這樣的智慧城市里所做的事情，就是一個重建的例子。

比如在每天出行的時候，人們利用各種技術(shù)、設(shè)備來輔助出行，讓城市更加的智能。在未來我們會建造智能的系統(tǒng)。在美國，我們會使用更多的自我學(xué)習(xí)、自我意識，反饋式的、預(yù)測性的、自動化的技術(shù)，來重建一個智慧的城市。

第三個原則就是我們所做的創(chuàng)新要能讓用戶開心。對于給人們使用的產(chǎn)品，我們要以人為中心進行設(shè)計。我們要思考，如果她是我的客戶，我要如何讓她開心。我需要進入她的大腦，了解她的渴望、她的需求。如果我能真的知道她的需求，那么作為一個設(shè)計者，我們就能夠為她設(shè)計他想要的東西。iPod就是一個很好的例子，當時它重塑了音樂播放器---不僅僅是帶來一個更好的產(chǎn)品，而是帶來更好的音樂體驗。我非常喜歡iPod Touch，它有兩個最主要的點，一個是“工程的”，意味著硬件，另一個是“趣味”，為了最大化的愉悅、快樂，這兩點非常重要。注重產(chǎn)品的體驗，也是為什么iPod能夠這么成功的原因。許多其他的產(chǎn)品也是一樣的，比如說iPhone，我們在使用的時候也會收獲很多的樂趣。

我們手機和平板電腦中各種各樣的應(yīng)用，比如無論去哪里都要用到的導(dǎo)航，比如各種各樣的游戲，所有這些應(yīng)用都給我們帶來了愉悅。同樣的，像apple watch的系統(tǒng)，以及蘋果的車載操作系統(tǒng)（Apple Carplay），都極大地提升了我們的駕車體驗。

蘋果現(xiàn)在也在生產(chǎn)智能汽車，希望能夠重塑汽車領(lǐng)域的概念，讓人們開車能夠更加的愉悅。他們正在秘密的進行這方面的工作，我們也很期待最后的結(jié)果是怎樣的。

接下來講的原則是同理心，也就是你能感同身受，感受到別人的感覺。你是不是能夠站在終端用戶的角度去體會、體驗到他們想要的東西，這其實是需要很多的技巧的。這種技巧可能來自心理學(xué)、行為科學(xué)這些知識。只有這樣才能夠讓我們有一個同理心，讓我們真的能夠知道別人的腦子里在想什么。如果我們能做到這一點，那么對我們的設(shè)計也顯然是會有更好的幫助的。

下面還有另外三個原則。一個是通過創(chuàng)新的文化來激勵行動。我們需要幫助組織和機構(gòu)里的其他人，讓他們也變得更加的創(chuàng)新。我們要去培養(yǎng)一種創(chuàng)新的文化氛圍。那要如何做到這一點？對我來說，這意味著成為一個領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。事實上很多人在領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這方面都做得非常好，他們憑借自己的力量把整個的公司變成了一個非常創(chuàng)新的企業(yè)。另一個方法就是成為團隊當中的團隊之星，然后通過團隊合作慢慢的改變整個機構(gòu)的文化。當然其實是非常有難度的，尤其是對于大的企業(yè)來說，因為他們的企業(yè)文化相對穩(wěn)定，更加難以改變。

我們還可以借助其他的技巧，來使企業(yè)里的人變得更有創(chuàng)新性。比如設(shè)計一些創(chuàng)意實驗室，以及物理的或虛擬的實驗室。所有人都可以參與到這個模擬的工作空間中來，這樣就能幫助公司重塑他們的創(chuàng)新文化。此外，開放創(chuàng)新也是一個非常重要的概念，也就是人人都可以參與，都可以進行創(chuàng)新。比如說有一家非常有名的醫(yī)療公司，它們有開源設(shè)計，進行開放創(chuàng)新，一旦某個產(chǎn)品最后成功了，公司只會獲得一部分的利潤，而另一部分的版權(quán)是要給開放創(chuàng)新過程中做出貢獻的人的。未來他們肯定會有更多這樣的開放創(chuàng)新。

第五個原則是要拓展創(chuàng)新的含義。就是說我們不僅僅只是關(guān)注產(chǎn)品本身，而是要知道與這個產(chǎn)品相關(guān)的所有能帶來價值的東西。包括這個產(chǎn)品會涉及到怎樣的法律法規(guī)，這方面的內(nèi)容其實就很多。以大家經(jīng)常使用的產(chǎn)品為例，比如說出租車系統(tǒng)，就不僅僅是坐車、付錢，像優(yōu)步、滴滴---他們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)合并了---他們其實是提供了一個服務(wù)系統(tǒng)，從而改善了人們的乘車出行的體驗，這不僅僅是一個簡單的系統(tǒng)，而是為整個的士行業(yè)帶來變革的系統(tǒng)。

還有包括今天雙十一，單身節(jié)這些，也是類似的。上次我聽說雙十一的營業(yè)額達到了140億。阿里巴巴其實做了非常好的商業(yè)創(chuàng)新，并不僅僅是零售，而是技術(shù)與體驗的整合創(chuàng)新。包括阿里也革新了支付體系，其實把所有的這些都整合到了一起，提供了一個完全不同的消費體驗。

還有一些其他的成功例子，比如說谷歌操作系統(tǒng)、微信以及美國用的臉書，這些平臺也都是非常寬的系統(tǒng)層面的概念，是針對大的系統(tǒng)情境去設(shè)計的，而不僅僅針對某個特點產(chǎn)品。

最后一個原則是針對如下問題的：“我要如何進行創(chuàng)新”以及“我要如何開始真正的實踐”。在我的書當中我提出了這個模型，也是我課堂上會教的一個模型。在這個模型當中有四個維度，都是設(shè)計當中非常重要的。它們是：研究，分析，整合，實踐。在這些維度中還有很多需要遵守的步驟，我會很快的展示一下這些步驟。

首先就是要知道你的設(shè)計意圖是什么。就是在設(shè)計的過程當中，要知道你真正想要設(shè)計什么，你的問題是什么。要知道問題在哪里，是不是一個新的問題。我們必須要盡早認識這個問題。這就是我說的對于意圖的第一感受。這個過程和沖浪很相似，（這里有一張沖浪運動員站在海邊準備沖浪的圖片），在準備要沖浪的時候，他往往會拿著沖浪板在岸邊站很久，而不會直接下水。他為什么在岸邊站那么久？他在干什么？他其實在思考，在觀察，觀察海浪的情況是否適合下水，思考風(fēng)向、風(fēng)的強度是否適合下水。這就是下水之前的早期思考，而不是冒冒然就下水。設(shè)計也是這樣，我們要先退一步，先想想我要設(shè)計的是什么，它到底是怎樣的。

接下來第二步，我們要了解問題的背景。如果我們要給城市街道進行一個設(shè)計，我們需要先了解真實的背景，比如這張照片是我從芝加哥的辦公室拍的，一個街景圖?？梢钥吹竭@個背景當中有各種各樣的事物，有過馬路的行人、飛馳的車、停著的車、街燈、橋梁、路標等等。所有這些相關(guān)要素組成了整個系統(tǒng)，成為這個系統(tǒng)當中的不同部分。因此首先我們就要了解這些背景信息，然后去知道如何綜合考慮所有的部分來形成一種和諧的整合。

下一步是要了解人，像我剛才講到，比如這個人是你的用戶，屬于你產(chǎn)品的目標用戶群，那么你就需要知道這樣一個人在做什么，想什么。一旦你了解到了這些之后，你就需要進行到下一步---去洞察，形成你的洞見。這是什么意思？就是說，當你通過前面兩步收集了大量的信息之后，就需要從一個更高的角度去看待這些信息，去獲得更多的洞察---這可能要花很多天，甚至很多周，才能找到一些范式，一些規(guī)律，指導(dǎo)我們下一步該怎么做。一旦我們有了比較好的洞見，我們就可以探索各種各樣的想法和概念了。

大家知道這張圖是哪個電影里的場景嗎？能認出來嗎？它是18年前湯姆·克魯斯拍的《少數(shù)派報告》，是一部關(guān)于未來技術(shù)的電影。這部電影的拍攝過程中找了一個設(shè)計團隊，來對未來進行暢想，從而幫助電影腳本的制作。在這個暢想的過程當中，他們想出了各種各樣的關(guān)于未來技術(shù)應(yīng)用的概念。并在這個電影當中，應(yīng)用了他們想到的很多概念，比如說懸在空中的可以使用手勢控制來進行人機交互的屏幕。事實上在18年以后，這當中的很多技術(shù)已經(jīng)成為了現(xiàn)實，比如無人駕駛車、虹膜識別、蜘蛛機器人。所以說，我們可以想出在未來可能實現(xiàn)的解決方案，這是非常有趣的，而這也是設(shè)計中有挑戰(zhàn)的部分。

你可能通過頭腦風(fēng)暴想出很多的概念，但是僅僅擁有概念是不夠的，，因為它還沒有被實施，沒有真的被付諸實踐。所以我們要做最后一步，也就是實踐解決方案，也就是最終提供給客戶的東西。當我們有了一個概念，一個抽象的解決方案時，要回到現(xiàn)實來實現(xiàn)它。在設(shè)計的過程中，我們都學(xué)了如何制作小模型，或者是產(chǎn)品原型。在做原型的時候，我們不僅要考慮到概念，還要考慮到企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略，市場，定價等等。這里就有一個例子， TOMS SHOES品牌，如果你買一雙鞋，就會有一雙鞋就會直接捐到一些發(fā)展中國家，比如說印度、非洲。這個想法其實是非常好的。最初的時候很多人對這個概念有些質(zhì)疑，你這樣還賺錢嗎？但是現(xiàn)在很多企業(yè)都在做，因為這個想法不僅對世界有益，也有助于商業(yè)成功。

上述的這個過程并不是完全線性的，有些過程是非線性的。在遵循這些步驟時，你必須非常小心，要知道某些步驟可能是亂序的。當你在做一個設(shè)計項目時，不要期望它是一個線形的過程。這些步驟也是需要迭代的。比如有些早期的原型，你設(shè)計完了之后，可能需要三到四個原型的迭代才能真正進入生產(chǎn)階段。

我希望大家能使用我剛剛跟大家分享的這七條原則。

接下來我會給大家播放一個視頻，幫大家回顧一下這個過程。這個視頻通過圖解動畫展示了我剛剛講的七個步驟。

（視頻）

這是對我剛才講的七個過程的快速回顧，我們需要使用這些原則來做出成功的設(shè)計，從而使明天更加美好。

我們需要把設(shè)計內(nèi)容和設(shè)計過程整合起來，來應(yīng)對未來的挑戰(zhàn)，進而改變設(shè)計這個概念本身。非常感謝各位。

Thank you for having me here.Thank you, leaders of Jiangnan University and School of Design.Thank you for inviting me to the city of Wuxi, I enjoy it here.

I want to give you some introduction. First of all, my personal background. We are talking about design and the transition,right? Design and Change. My personal adventure itself was a journey of change. I would like to tell you some of the important events in that journey, that had affected me，in my life. You see the city in the picture; it’s a part of India,where I was born, including my early schooling days. By 1976, you see the guy with the big beard, that’s me.Under the picture, I had to write my name! I was a design student,like some of you here, right? I was learning about design. That was a big part of my journey to understand what is design. The person on the right, Charles Eames，is one of the most prominent designers at that time. I had the good fortune to work with him, and learn a lot about the fundamentals, how to handle complexities. During that time, I explored the idea that design is not just designing a product, but it also means solving complex problems.

Of course, you guys are the future of design, and you will design many good things in the future. In my case, going back to 1986, when I was practicing design innovation, that was the time computers began coming to our lives. The first Macintosh became available. Designers became much more empowered to do such things like self-publishing, beautiful graphics, and using Photoshop to do many things we couldn’t do without computers. But it was too expensive then, by 1986, I couldn’t get my hands on those computer devices to help me out. So, I was searching for another place where I can learn about it. Then I found this place, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago,the professor was using the most advanced methods, using computers as a tool for design. You see the device on the right, it is typewriter. I used to type my letter, mailed it,and waited for about three weeks before the professor replied. He invited me to IIT in Chicago, saying if I go there, I would learn a lot about computer aided design. That’s how I went to the IIT. I had real fun there, and I spent a lot of time with Jay Doblin, the great designer,one of the most famous teachers in my life. His partner founded a company in Chicago, called Doblin Group,focused on design strategy. I happily joined the company, worked there for twelve years.

That gave me opportunities to work with companies such as Apple,Texas Instruments, SAS airlines, and other similar companies. I could do many experiments with design methods and techniques that I could evaluate. I was also supervising many interesting design projects. I learned a variety of things in this agency through the consulting work I was doing. Later, I decided to rebalance my work, I began to accept more projects, which is in line with my own interests, such as teaching,sharing, publishing, designing and so on. In 2002, I joined the Institute of Design in Chicago, the world's leading design school. It is leading the world in latest design trends, so I was very glad to be there. That was the time I also got an opportunity to write and publish my knowledge, such as the book “101 Design Methods.”

As you can see, the book was translated in traditional Chinese language and simplified Chinese.My book is translated into other languages as well, such as Korean,Indonesian, Thai, and Japanese. My book is used around the world by innovators. Of course, I worked with many companies, to help them with their design problems. At the same time, I show them how to use their designs to influence and impact the world.

This is the world that enables us to enjoy great technologies.These technologies, as you can see,we are using computers, software,for example WeChat, email, and so many other technologies, making me feel that life is very good. Whether we are talking about work or life,technologies of today have become an indispensable part, an integral part of our daily life.

We have changed how we see our world now. This picture is from an app called Google Earth. When I get up in the morning, there are many companies affecting my everyday life,including WeChat, Alibaba, Facebook,Google etc. All kinds of companies are affecting my life, are changing the world for all of us. We now turn the world once again, we only see water. What we now see is the Pacific Ocean. But when we see the world differently, it is not just about technology, but also about companies that affect me and so on.And it is also about what I can do,my experience. When we take pictures during travel, we can put these on WeChat, and Facebook, to share with our friends. We can share our stories with our family and friends.

This is what we are doing, if we're going to have a sustainable world, Professor Zhang had mentioned the social role before, we are part of the world, we need to do some good things, making our world better, this is what we must consider. At the same time, we use these words, such as open innovation and other words,such as the concept of conservation of energy as green, recycle, and recovery. For the projects that we do, we need to see if it is good for our society and our environment. This is also very important.

For designers, the big question is how can we design for the transformation in this world? How to create innovations in such a changing world? That is a question all of us need to ask: I, as a designer,how can I influence and impact the world through my work? In my book 101 design methods I share some of my ideas and thoughts with you.

In this speech, I'm going to mainly share six major principles with everyone. All of us should try to use these six principles. In fact,I, directly or indirectly, am in the application of these principles in my own work. This is very important for everyone, for innovation. Let’s look at them one by one.

The first is about considering all stakeholders, in which you must have a vision to include everyone. You need to look at all aspects comprehensively to find a way to solve problems. So, when we talk about innovation, we can use this model, for example, when we bring technology into the world of innovation, the developers of these technologies must play a very important role in the process of the innovation.

The business community and the markets also need to be integrated in our approach to innovation. We also need to pay attention to the people we are designing for and their experiences. Psychologists,behaviorists, and anthropologists are able to understand human behavior, to study what people’s experiences and their behaviors and will be able to contribute. The last is the social and environmental factors. What we can do to make some new changes to society and the environment as we develop design innovations?

Those who work as scientists and social workers, or those who are paying close attention to the social environment, environmental experts and so on, all those people, in fact, should be involved according to this principle. Innovation is the hub, to which the pieces are linked together. This is very important.We as designers, we sometimes are too focused on the problems we are facing, what we need to improve, we may forget other aspects. However,big pictures are what we need to focus on, we must be very open,and listen to many people such as researchers, business analysts,financial experts, and so on, to give us their perspectives. This is what we need to do every day. We can call it, cooperation that brings inspiration.

When we do a project, all of us work together, we agree to cooperate,and put together all stakeholders-- people giving money, a company executive, a designer, and so on --to work together. If you are the financial officer of the company, you are also welcome to join in, to help innovations succeed. This is what we must do every day.

Also, we need to have tools to rebuild our mental models,tools that reconstruct, rebuild our thought. We just talked about technological changes. But it is also about our experiences that change,what can be called reconstruction.Reconstruction means changing the solution to a problem. For example,Apple, when it designed iPod, it is not that they designed a better MP3 player, they have completely improved the experience of people who enjoyed music. They reframed experiences through the iPhone, iPad, and other similar products that are in development today. Similarly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that Amazon uses for delivery, is also reconstructing the idea of delivery. I believe, they will also be used in China too in the future.

They completely change the concept of delivery, if you order something on Alibaba, they just don't let the courier to send, and they send them directly through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Amazon is now using this technology and they are reconstructing the concept of delivery.

This is a figure of population growth, as you can see, the rural population and urban population. For rural population growth, the line is blue and the urban population is in red. There’s a decline in rural population, the urban population is on the rise. We can see the trends.In 2050, we may have double the urban population, while rural population become less and less. More than 6 billion people will live in cities by the year 2050. So, it is will have a major impact on our environment and society. So, we must build smart cities. How can we rethink our cities, to accommodate so much rising population? What we are doing in smart cities by using a variety of technologies is another example of reconstruction or rebuilding.

For example, through different street and mobile devices, during a day trip in the city, people will use a variety of technologies to do their activities, letting the city be more intelligent. In the future, we will build systems that are intelligent.As in the United States, we will use more systems that are selfaware, self-learning, responsive,predictive, and autonomous, using all kinds of technologies in helping us rebuild cities as smart cities.

Third principle is to create innovations that make us happy. As for products people use, we ought to do people-centered design. How do we make people happy, if she is my client, I will need to enter her mind, where I can understand her desires and what she wants. If we can really know her needs, then as designers, we can design for her and for what she really wants. Like iPod,which is a good example. At that time, it redefined music players,when it was not only to bring a better product, but a better music experience. I really like iPod Touch,it has two words, “engineered” is about the hardware, “funness” is about maximizing the joy, happiness.These two words are very important.The point of this product was the experience, why the iPod was so successful. Many other products are the same, such as iPhone, we will also feel very happy when using.

The various apps in our phones and tablets, just like navigation apps which we can’t leave when going out, and different kinds of games that we can play. All these apps which we can use every day bring us joy. Similarly the system of Apple watch and Apple cars the operating systems of which is created to dramatically improve our driving experience.

Apple is designing these smart cars, by which they want to reshape the concept in the field of automobile, to make people more delightful when driving. They are designing the car in secrecy; we are looking forward to the result.

Next is empathy, that you can feel others' feelings. Are you able to stand in the perspective of the users to feel what they want, it needs a lot of skills. These skills can come from fields like psychology and behavioral science. Only through these ways can we have empathy and really know what's going on inside others’ brains. If we can achieve this, then it obviously will provide great help for our design.

Then follows three other important principles. The first one is to motivate action through the culture of innovation. We need to help others, others in organizations,to become more innovative. We need to cultivate an innovative culture atmosphere. But how can we do this?For me, it is about being a leader.A lot of people do very well in this respect. They make the whole company into a very innovative enterprise by their own actions. Another way is to become a star of the team, and then slowly change the culture of the organization through teamwork.But it is very difficult to do so,especially in large corporations, in which the culture is quite stable and is quite hard to change.

We can think of other techniques,to help us change people in enterprises, make them become more innovative. Such as designing a creative lab, physical or virtual laboratory. Everybody can participate in this simulated working space, it can also help enterprises to reshape their culture of innovation. Open innovation is another very important concept, in which everyone can participate, everyone can innovate.For example, there's a very famous medical company, they have an open source design, they design products through open innovation and once a product finally succeeds, they would only get part of the profits, one part of the copyright would be given to the contributor. In the future,there will be more and more of such open innovation initiatives.

The fifth principle is about extending the context of innovation,we not only focus on a product, but also try to know everything else around it that brings value to us.Including laws and regulations this product will be involved in, there are all kinds of content that we need to know. Consider products people often use, such as the taxi system.It is not just we take a taxi and we just pay for it. Uber, Didi, they now have merged, they actually have a service system that dramatically improves people’s travel experience,so it is not only a very simple system but also a system that drives change in the taxi industry.Including during the Double 11 today,singles day, as you all know.

Last I heard that the Double 11’s turnover reached a value of$14 Billion. So, Alibaba actually has a very good business innovation.The successful innovation of Alibaba is not just a retail innovation,but it is actually an integrated innovation combing all kinds of technologies and all kinds of experiences together. A payment system innovation is also included in this integration, providing to the consumer a completely new and different experience.

There are some other successful examples such as Google Operating System, and WeChat -- we use and Facebook instead in the United States --, these platforms are also very broad system-level concepts.They are designed for a very broad system context, not just focused on a specific product by itself.

The last principle, which I will go over in more detail tomorrow, is about the questions “What should I do for innovation?” and “How do I go to the real practice?” I have described this model in detail in the book. A model that I teach in my class too. In this model, there are four topics, all these topics are very important in design. They are research, analysis, synthesis,and implementation. We have a lot of steps in this process of design that we need to follow. I will quickly show these steps.

The first is to know what's your intention, when you are in the process of design, you need to know what you really want to design,what is your problem. You need to know where the problem is, is it a new problem? We must recognize this problem very early. This is what I say, first sense or feel your intent.It's like surfing, once he wants to surf, he would take a surf board,he would stand on the shore for a long time, he wouldn't dive in the water first. Why does he stand on the shore for so long? What is he doing?He is thinking, he is watching the sea, watching the waves of the sea,asking if it is fit for him to be in the water, he is thinking about the strength of the wind, asking if the wind is right. So that is early thinking, before surfing, to make sure there in no risk.

Design is also like this, we need to step back and think of what we are going to design in the first place, what it is about. Next, as a second step, we need to know what the background is. If we are designing anything for our city streets, we must first understand the realistic background, such as seen in the photo I took in Chicago from my office, a street view. You can see all kinds of things in the background, the pedestrian crossing the road, cars moving, cars parked, street lights,the bridge, street signs etc. All these different stakeholders, in fact, make up the whole system,as being various parties of the system. So, the first thing we must understand is the background information, and know how to achieve a very harmonious, integration of different parties involved.

Next step is to understand people, as I have just talked about,for instance, if the person is your user, part of the target user group of your product, then you need to know what is that person doing,thinking. Once you understand the reality and understand the people,you will need to go to the next step.You need to find insights, and shape your insights. What is the meaning of all these? Once you collect a lot of information in the previous two steps, we need to look at the information in a high level, to gain more insight into the content, which may take many days or even weeks,to find some patterns, to find some laws, that will let us know what to do next. Once we have good insights,we know we can explore various kinds of ideas and concepts.

Do you know this picture is from which movie? Can you recognize? It is from the movie called “Minority Report” acted by Tom Cruise 18 years ago, the film is obviously a movie about exploring the future technology. The movie makers found a design team to think about the future and contribute to the script.Then during the process of their imagination, they came up with a variety of concepts of technology application in the future. So, in this movie, they applied a lot of these concepts. For example, a screen in the air using gestural recognition for human-computer interaction and so on. In fact, after 18 years, so many of the technologies shown in the movie have become real, such as unmanned vehicle, iris recognition,spiderbots. It is very interesting that we can actually conceive solutions that will work in the future, and we can make it a part of the challenge in our design process.

You may come up with many concepts when doing brainstorming.But having a lot of ideas alone in not enough because they have not been really implemented. So, we must do the last step, which is to implement our solutions, that we provide for customers. When we have an idea,an abstract solution, we will have to come back to reality to make it real. In design process, we have all learned about how to make a small model, a prototype of a product we design. When creating prototypes of our ideas, we also consider that this is not only just about the idea, but also about the enterprise strategy,the market, pricing, and so on. Here is an example, you know, TOMS SHOES,when you buy a pair of shoes, another pair of shoes will be directly delivered to someone in a developing country, such as India or Africa.The idea is very good. At first many people questioned about the concept,whether you can still make a profit by doing so? But you can. Many companies are doing similar things,because it is about doing good for the world while also succeeding in business.

This process is not completely linear, and some of the processes happen nonlinearly. When using this process you must be very careful and recognize that some of the processes may be random. When you are working on a design project, you cannot expect it always has linear growth.The process is also reiterative. Some of the early prototypes, after you finish designing them, you may have to finish three or four prototypes before finally producing them.

I hope everybody will try to use these seven principles, which I just shared with you.

Now I am going to show you a short video, to help you see this process. This video shows the seven steps as diagrammatic animations.

（Video）

This is a quick view of the seven steps in the design process. We need to apply this process and all these principles, and make our designs successful so that tomorrow can become a wonderful place.

We need to integrate our design content and design process together and take on the challenges of the future and thereby change the concept of design itself. Congratulations to all of you and thank you very much.