Track 2.3 - Design & Experience at the Heart of Organizations: What Does it Take?

Estelle BERGER, Researcher & Lcturer, Strate School of Design, Sèvres, France, 
Caroline GAGNON , Associate Professor, School of Design, Laval University, Québec, Canada, 
Frédérique PAIN, Research & Innovation Director. Strate School of Design, Sèvres, France, 

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Track's Contacts : 

e.berger[at]strate.design
caroline.gagnon[at]design.ulaval.ca
f.pain[at]strate.design

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“Ultimately all problems of design merge into one great problem: ‘design for life’.” (Moholy-Nagy, 1947)
In the last decades, Design has been playing an increasing role in organizations and society. The discipline has shown its relevance to tackle systemic issues and transform “existing situations into preferred ones” (Simon, 1988), with human experience at the heart of its concerns.
For companies, Design represents a humanist approach as well as a strategic lever for innovation. Though, being a design-centric organization may not be self-evident for several reasons. Firstly, because Design and corporate cultures inherently differ [Design Culture]. Secondly, because deploying Design tools and methods requires appropriate forms of governance at company level [Design Management]. Finally, because the value created by an experience-based approach to design mainly remains intangible [Design Impact].
This track calls for contributions able to support and extend reflection on the strategic role of Design and Experience for organizations, especially in three directions:
- [Design Culture]
Design values and corporate culture: a marriage of convenience?
The elements of a Design culture, as well as the values and reasons driving designers’ action do not always resonate with companies’ ways of doing. How to create a dialogue between organizational and design cultures and resolve potential contradictions? How to understand and accept differences in order to work in symbiosis?
- [Design Management]
Meaningful forms of design governance: articulating tools & methods at organizational level
Deploying a design process and ways of doing is more than formalizing methods and applying design tools. Between the interdisciplinary methodological eclecticism of design and the current initiatives and trends to popularize it, how do companies position themselves? Depending on a specific context, how to use design tools and methods in a meaningful way?
- [Design Impact]
Measuring the value of Experience as an intangible asset in organizations
An experience-based approach to design orchestrates intangible aspects of customers’ and employees’ experience such as emotions, imaginary… But there is a lack of objective frameworks to measure such assets. What indicators are relevant to demonstrate the value of experience for brands and organizations? Will measuring transform and influence projects processes, management and evaluation at a company level?
From the field as well as through conceptual perspectives, submissions are expected to use scientific methods (e.g. multicase study, longitudinal study, discourse analysis…) or any other relevant epistemological frame able to support an analytic and/or critical approach.

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