Insegnamento: User and social innovation. Docente: Elena Marinoni. Semestre: 2. Lingua di erogazione: ENG

Transcription

1 Insegnamento: User and social innovation Docente: Elena Marinoni Semestre: 2 Lingua di erogazione: ENG N max studenti ammessi:40 Polimi + 40 Erasmus Modalità d esame per non frequentanti: NO Integrated Product Design Interior and Spatial Design Design della Comunicazione Design for the Fashion System Product Service System Design Design & Engineering Digital and Interaction Design x x x x x

2 USER AND SOCIAL INNOVATION Both online and offline, the boundaries between producers and consumers are increasingly being blurred. In the words of Alvin Toffler, users are becoming producers, or prosumers. This is also evident in the social field, where there has been a significant shift away from seeing individuals as passive recipients of products and services. The core idea, often termed co-production, is that people who use services are hidden resources, not drains on the system, and that no service that ignores this resource can be efficient*. Co-production goes well beyond the idea of user engagement or consultation. Rather, it is about shifting responsibility and resources from professionals to users and involving people in the delivery of their own product-service systems. Social innovation is about new ideas that resolve existing social, cultural, economic and environmental challenges for the benefit of people and planet **. A true social innovation is system-changing it permanently alters the perceptions, behaviours and structures that previously gave rise to these challenges. Even more simply, a social innovation is an idea that works for the public good. *D Boyle & M Harris, The Challenge of Co-production, NESTA, London, 2009 **Viewed on 14 May 2012,

3 WHY A USER AND SOCIAL INNOVATION COURSE? Both user and social innovation represent an extraordinarily current issues for designers. They both move from the premise that more and more creative individuals embracing user and social innovation have to be regarded as a powerful driver of innovation and their behaviors should be carefully investigated in order to understand in advance social change. Over the course, the fascinating realm of user and social innovation will be investigated applying the trend research methodology. LEARNING OUTCOMES The main objectives of the course are: - training students awareness about the recurring dynamic between social change, emerging lifestyle trends pushing new consumer behaviors and resulting in new product-service systems and design aesthetics. - increasing students familiarity with trend research applied to user and social innovation - providing students methodological tools aimed at recognizing emerging trends and behavioral patterns that are set to impact the design scenario.

4 MAIN TOPICS The course will be dealing with the following topics: Well come to the age of prosumers Defining user and social innovation: the rise of co-creation, crowdsourcing, shifting from marketing to societing, open design A focus on trend forecasting intended as a research method aimed to support creative processes, design thinking and new products development The dictionary of the trend forecaster: what s the difference between trends, micro trends, mega trends, paradigms, styles, fads, memes The evolution of trend research tools over the time, from trend books and cool hunting to AI-driven trend forecasting platforms How do trends spread? Trickle Down Effect, Bottom-up Effect, The curve of trend diffusion The five steps of the trend forecasting methodology Focus on mega and emerging trends emerging trends driving social change and reshaping behaviors, consumers expectations, aesthetics and design. In addition to the professor's lectures, the course will be enhanced through in class team works, guests testimonies, flipped classes, presentation of remarkable case studies showing actual applications of the trend research methodology to real business contexts.

5 COURSE ASSESSMENTS 1. The students' mastery of the theoretical contents of the course will be evaluated in the occasion of an intermediate assessment, a written test with open questions about both the constructs shared in class and the three references of the essential bibliography, 2. The final assessment will consist of the delivery and in class presentation of a trend report developed in team (approximately 3/4 persons for each team) and supported by an iconographic research. The trend report, illustrated through a cross-sectorial approach, will be structured according to the guidelines provided in the brief by the professor. CRITERIA OF EVALUATION The final assessment will be aimed at evaluating the students following skills: -the capability to collect evidences and insights from a variety of both primary and secondary sources, selecting the relevant insights and leveraging as research methods both participant observation and desk research -the capability to provide through a cross-sectorial approach a consistent and visually rich data set to back up the research work -lateral thinking in finding out in a sensible and original way meaningful connections in the data set -critical thinking in interpreting and contextualizing data and supporting evidences wither a wider socio-cultural framework -graphic and communication skills in developing an original and effective way to convey the research findings -effectiveness in public speaking and mastery of proper lexicon

6 ELENA MARINONI BIO Trend forecaster and strategic marketing consultant. Graduated in strategic design at Politecnico of Milano in 2002, she has been working for many top national and international companies to tune in with demand evolutions and emerging trends in order to support innovation funnels, new concepts development, communication strategies. She is the Head of Trend Research at Nextatlas ( ), an AI driven trend forecasting platform based on a crowd-sourced data stream of contents shared by an international community of +300k trendsetters gathering online on social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr. Since 2009, she is in charge for the directorship for Capri Trendwatching Festival. She gives lectures on trend forecasting at Politecnico of Milano, Istituto Marangoni and Università Alma Mater of Bologna, teaching the following subjects: Trend Forecasting, Sociology of Consumption, Future Fashion, Cool Hunting and Cult Searching, Contemporary Fashion Panorama, Contemporary Design Analysis. Over the years, she has developed a solid competence in such areas as fashion, design, new lifestyles, luxury scenario, consumption trends, advanced forms of retail and shopping experience, brand strategic positioning. Previously, she has been working at Radar Trend Distillery and at GPF spa as the company managing director. elena1.marinoni@polimi.it