source: http://www.coniferresearch.com/

Abstract: CONIFER collaborated with Steelcase, USA, on the Wood Furniture project, a strategic perspective on private office furniture starting from customer’s aims and objectives. For this project, the innovation process is based on CONIFER training a team of industrial designers, marketers, and engineers in ethnographic research approaches and leading members of that team on expeditions into typical workplaces, videotaping people using private offices, and interviewing them.

Steelcase Wood set up a four-week program in which team members watched video, brainstormed, and identified key needs, new products and communication that they might address.

Dimensions 

Social

Growing acceptance within users community and companies to promote user-centred approach. Here, a complete user-based process from idea generation to promotion of the final innovation with or by the users themselves.

Economic / Industrial

Ibid.

Design / Art

Based on user centred design approaches

Obstacle

Economic / Industrial

Time consuming and quite expensive research

Indication

Change in current innovation patterns

This case is in line with the increasing involvement of users into the innovation process and push it one step further to involve the user into the presentation and promotion of the new products in a peer-to-peer interaction.

Sector specifics / cultural specifics

The case is focused on private furniture.

Source

Magazine