Summary
New scientific knowledge leads to new technologies, commercial opportunities, and eventually to social changes and individual adaptation. Changes in the role of design were presented in this broad context. This chapter followed the trends that lifted design from a supporting role in a fragmented product development process to that of an equal partner in a process that is unified by design.
The trend toward multi-disciplinary design teams that collaborate throughout the entire product lifecycle, allows teams to partner around a unified process that is infused with multiple forms of feedback from users. However, the most radical change that occurred in this context, was the evolution of experience design processes, methodologies, and tools, which helped create a new emotional framework for the relationships between people and the smart products that know something about them.
Increasingly, experience design helps transform products from being mere artifacts to becoming extensions of...
