Using a design led approach to emotional business modelling

Prototyping is an established and accepted practice used by the design community. Prototypes play a valuable role during the design process and can greatly affect the designed outcome. The concept of a business model prototype, however, is not well understood by the design and business communities. Design industry trends indicate a move away from product and service innovation towards business model innovation. Therefore, it stands to reason that the role of prototypes and prototyping in this context should also be considered. This paper is conceptual and presents a process for creating and enabling business model prototypes. Specifically, the focus is on building emotional connections across the value chain to enable internal growth within firms. To do this, the authors‟ have relied on personal observations and critical reflection from multiple industry engagements. The outcomes of this critical reflective practice are presented and the opportunities and challenges for this approach are discussed. Future research opportunities are also detailed and presented within the context of the emotional business model.

Broadening horizons : an emerging research agenda modelling design led innovation across secondary education

A re-examination of design education at all levels is needed to ensure global economic competitiveness and social and environmental sustainment. This paper presents an emerging research agenda modelling design led innovation approaches from the business sector to secondary education curriculum. To do this, a review of literature is provided and current knowledge gaps surrounding design education are detailed. A regional secondary school design immersion program is outlined as a future research case study using action research. A framework and recommendations for developing and delivering pedagogical approaches for 21st century skill outcomes in secondary education are briefly introduced and future research objectives are overviewed and discussed.

Challenges and opportunities in the journey of the design-led innovation champions

The purpose of this study is to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by design champions in proposing and applying design methods and insights in existing firms. This study investigates the early stages of the journey of the design champions as they incorporate design into operational and strategic conversations and practices, and their progress in mastering these challenges as opportunities in a firm context. Little research on this topic has been reported, yet it is of growing interest as more firms turn to design-led innovation to shape their strategies and practices. Interviews with design champions were used to investigate first hand the experience and reflections the many challenges provide. Findings from the study provide some early insights that can be extended through further research.

Unpacking the opportunities for change within a family owned manufacturing SME : a design led innovation case study

The following paper presents insights found during an ongoing industry engagement with a family-owned manufacturing SME in Australia. The initial findings presented as a case study look at the opportunities available to the firm engaging in a design led approach to innovation. Over the period of one year, the first author’s immersion within the firm seeks to unpack the cultural, strategic, product opportunities and challenges when adopting design led innovation. This can provide a better understanding of how a firm can more effectively assess their value proposition in the market and what factors of the business are imperative in stimulating competitive difference. The core insight identified from this paper is that design led innovation cannot be seen and treated as a discrete event, nor a series of steps or stages; rather the whole business model needs to be in focus to achieve holistic, sustainable innovation. Initial insights were found through qualitative interviews with internal employees including: overcoming silos; moving from reactive to proactive design; empowerment; vision for growth and the framing of innovation.

What is the role of design-led innovation and design-led prototyping in developing novel business models?

Recently, ‘business model’ and ‘business model innovation’ have gained substantial attention in management literature and practice. However, many firms lack the capability to develop a novel business model to capture the value from new technologies. Existing literature on business model innovation highlights the central role of ‘customer value’. Further, it suggests that firms need to experiment with different business models and engage in ‘trail-and-error’ learning when participating in business model innovation. Trial-and error processes and prototyping with tangible artifacts are a fundamental characteristic of design. This conceptual paper explores the role of design-led innovation in facilitating firms to conceive and prototype novel and meaningful business models. It provides a brief review of the conceptual discussion on business model innovation and highlights the opportunities for linking it with the research stream of design-led innovation. We propose design-led business model innovation as a future research area and highlight the role of design-led prototyping and new types of artifacts and prototypes play within it. We present six propositions in order to outline future research avenues.

Gaps in organizational leadership : linking strategic and operational activities through design-led propositions

The relationship between design process and business systems has been of interest to both practitioners and researchers exploring the numerous opportunities and challenges of this unlikely relationship. Often the relationship is presented as building design thinking capability within an organization, which can be broadly described as the union of design and strategy. Brown (2008) notes that design thinking is ‘‘a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technically feasible and what business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunities’’ (p. 1). The value that design thinking brings to an organization is a different way of framing situations and possibilities, doing things, and tackling problems: essentially a cultural transformation of the way it undertakes its business. The work of Martin (2009) has clearly shown the generalized differences between design thinking and business thinking, highlighting many instances in which these differences have been overcome, but also noting the many obstacles of trying to unify both approaches within an organization. Liedtka (2010) encourages firms to try and persist in overcoming these barriers, as she has noted that ‘‘business strategy desperately needs design ... because design is all about action and business strategy too often turns out to be only about talk ... fewer than 10 percent of new strategies are ever fully executed’’ (p. 9).

Videogame control device impact on the play experience

New types of control devices for videogames have emerged and expanded the demographics of the game playing public, yet little is known about which populations of gamers prefer which style of interaction and why. This paper presents data from a study that seeks to clarify the influence the control interface has on the play experience. Three commercial control devices were categorised using an existing typology, according to how the interface maps physical control inputs with the virtual gameplay actions. The devices were then used in a within-groups experimental design aimed at measuring differences in play experience across 64 participants. Descriptive analysis is undertaken on the performance, play experience and preference results for each device. Potential explanations for these results are discussed, as well as the direction of future work.

Six rules for practice-led research

Recent experience of practice-led postgraduate supervision has prompted me to conclude that the practice-led research method, as it is currently construed, produces good outcomes, especially in permitting practitioners in the creative arts, design and media into the research framework, but at the same time it also generates certain recurring difficulties. What are these difficulties? Practice-led candidates tend to rely on a narrow range of formulations with the result that they assume: (i) the innovative nature of practice-led research; (ii) that its novelty is based in opposition to other research methods; (iii) that practice is intrinsically research, often leading to tautological formulations; (iv) the hyper-self-reflexive nature of practice-led research. This set of guidelines was composed in order to circumvent the shortcomings that result from these recurring formulations. My belief is that, if these shortcomings are avoided, there is nothing to prevent practice-led from further developing as a research inquiry and thus achieving rewarding and successful research outcomes. Originally composed for the purposes of postgraduate supervision, these six rules are presented here in the context of a wider analysis of the emergence of practice-led research and its current conditions of possibility as a research method.

Efficacy of oral or intrauterine device-delivered progestin in patients with complex endometrial hyperplasia with atypia or early endometrial adenocarcinoma : a meta-analysis and systematic review of the literature

Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of progestin treatment to achieve pathological complete response (pCR) in patients with complex atypical endometrial hyperplasia (CAH) or early endometrial adenocarcinoma (EC). Methods: A systematic search identified 3245 potentially relevant citations. Studies containing less than ten eligible CAH or EC patients in either oral or intrauterine treatment arm were excluded. Only information from patients receiving six or more months of treatment and not receiving other treatments was included. Weighted proportions of patients achieving pCR were calculated using R software. Results: Twelve studies met the selection criteria. Eleven studies reported treatment of patients with oral (219 patients, 117 with CAH, 102 with grade 1 Stage I EC) and one reported treatment of patients with intrauterine progestin (11 patients with grade 1 Stage IEC). Overall, 74% (95% confidence interval [CI] 65-81%) of patients with CAH and 72% (95% CI 62-80%) of patients with grade 1 Stage I EC achieved a pCR to oral progestin. Disease progression while on oral treatment was reported for 6/219 (2.7%), and relapse after initial complete response for 32/159 (20.1%) patients. The weighted mean pCR rate of patients with grade 1 Stage I EC treated with intrauterine progestin from one prospective pilot study and an unpublished retrospective case series from the Queensland Centre of Gynaecologic Oncology (QCGC) was 68% (95% CI 45- 86%). Conclusions: There is a lack of high quality evidence for the efficacy of progestin in CAH or EC. The available evidence however suggests that treatment with oral or intrauterine progestin is similarly effective. The risk of progression during treatment is small but longer follow-up is required. Evidence from prospective controlled clinical trials is warranted to establish how the efficacy of progestin for the treatment of CAH and EC can be improved further.

I just want to design a sexy flying car! Teaching design-led innovation to designers

Many international management programs have capitalised on the value design can have upon potential business solutions and strategies (Martin, 2009 & Brown, 2008) as well as many international design programs introducing designers to business theory and curriculum (Manzini & Rizzo, 2011). This paper presents the findings from structured interviews with undergraduate design students and design industry professionals. Current literature surrounding design led innovation and the role designers’ play within it is also discussed and the challenges facing designers in this emerging design era are presented. The findings from this study indicate that most designers enter an undergraduate program not wanting to become the business leaders of tomorrow. Instead, they enter in the hope they can humbly help people and to make a difference in the world. There are contentions with this perspective, felt by industry, academia and students around why designers need to be taught business theory content. This paper provides the first step to overcoming this challenge by providing insight into the attitudes, perceptions and challenges designers are facing with this new design era.

Physiological, perceptual and technical responses to on-court tennis training on hard and clay courts

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of court surface (clay v hard-court) on technical, physiological and perceptual responses to on-court training. Four high-performance junior male players performed two identical training sessions on hard and clay courts, respectively. Sessions included both physical conditioning and technical elements as led by the coach. Each session was filmed for later notational analysis of stroke count and error rates. Further, players wore a global positioning satellite device to measure distance covered during each session; whilst heart rate, countermovement jump distance and capillary blood measures of metabolites were measured before, during and following each session. Additionally a respective coach and athlete rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured following each session. Total duration and distance covered during of each session were comparable (P>0.05; d<0.20). While forehand and backhands stroke volume did not differ between sessions (P>0.05; d<0.30); large effects for increased unforced and forced errors were present on the hard court (P>0.05; d>0.90). Furthermore, large effects for increased heart rate, blood lactate and RPE values were evident on clay compared to hard courts (P>0.05; d>0.90). Additionally, while player and coach RPE on hard courts were similar, there were large effects for coaches to underrate the RPE of players on clay courts (P>0.05; d>0.90). In conclusion, training on clay courts results in trends for increased heart rate, lactate and RPE values, suggesting sessions on clay tend towards higher physiological and perceptual loads than hard courts. Further, coaches appear effective at rating player RPE on hard courts, but may underrate the perceived exertion of sessions on clay courts.

Using scenarios to explore the social aspects of design led innovations

Emerging technologies have redefined the way people go about everyday life. An increasing array of online and on-the-go solutions supporting remote work, entertainment on demand, information sharing, social communication, telehealth and beyond, are now available at the touch of a screen. This paper discusses concept of scenarios as a design tool that can be successfully employed by organisations as an innovative design led approach to: (i) understand people’s everyday practices in current social contexts in order to identify opportunities and emerging markets, and (ii) reveal stakeholder relationships existing in the provision of services within current everyday practices. To illustrate this approach, two case studies will be presented: the first focusing on a real industry project exploring opportunities for the development of future health care services, the second focusing on people’s access to services as part of a transport journey experience. This paper aims to demonstrate the use of scenarios as part of a design led innovation approach to understand the social aspects and their complexities of new designs in an increasing everyday technological driven context.

Intravascular device-related research : future priority areas for cancer nursing

The majority of cancer nurses have to manage intravascular devices (IVDs) on a daily basis, thus placing nurses in the strongest position to generate and use best available evidence to inform this area of practice and to ensure that patients are receiving the best care available. Our literature clearly reflects that cancer nurses are concerned about complications associated with IVDs (eg, extravasation,1 IVD-related bloodstream infection [IVD-BSI],2,3 and thrombosis4). Although enormous attention is given to this area, a number of nursing practices are not sufficiently based on empirical evidence.5,6 Nurses need to set goals and priorities for future research and investments. Priority areas for future research are suggested here for your consideration.