Developing Industrial Design Innovation Accountability by Integrating Knowledge Synthesis with a Design-Led Approach

The Industrial design profession has continually evolved alongside global socio-technological development. The practice of industrial design has slowly shifted from craft-based design to mass-produced products, and is now concerned with complex social, environmental, and technological systems and issues. Industrial designers are increasingly expected to adapt and incorporate new ways of thinking, technologies, and ideals into their practice. This study proposes a new approach for design-led research, which facilitates the creation of research-oriented design briefs and the transfer of knowledge from practice. The stated goals of the industrial design profession are to proactively develop products that are not only aesthetically refined and functional but innovative beyond their utility as socially, ecologically, and technologically meaningful artefacts. Achieving this requires new methods for integrating knowledge and design practice in a working situation. Analysis of design research literature provides the underlying theory for a new methodological approach developed to support industrial designers in managing this process, applied in an education context as a new pedagogical framework. The Innovation Accountability Framework has two phases. Firstly, it provides an interface for synthesising research data to formulate and position the design task through a multi-level perspective. Secondly, it provides a structure for creating contextual portfolios that supports design development with thorough documentation that instils accountability in the design decisions made, sharing of results, and tracking of connections between theory and design interpretation. Results show improvement in project formulation, project progression, and results synthesis in design-driven innovation projects conducted by novice industrial designers. The significance of these outcomes demonstrates that the pedagogical framework structures an integrated design approach that positively influences design-driven innovation projects. We suggest that this is a scalable approach that can also be used by design professionals needing to strategically integrate new knowledge through a hybrid practice-design research process.