Everyday design-driven innovation: Exploring meaning change in IKEA hacking

Abstract

Although much work exists to describe design-driven meaning innovation, few provide objective tools to identify and measure meaning innovation. Within the context of everyday design and adopting conceptual blending theory, we identify and assesses design-driven innovation in meaning within cases of IKEA product hacking as examples of higher-level everyday design. Conceptual blending is used as a scaffold for a content analysis of 100 IKEA hacks to identify 60 cases of meaning change. These cases are further assessed through objective meaning innovation scores derived from conceptual blending theory. A user evaluation is then conducted through a pair-wise comparison of the 60 cases to derive meaning innovation scores. The results indicate, although personal biases, idiosyncrasies, and life experiences inevitably influence evaluation of innovation through conceptual blending, that the approach has potential as an objective means to identify and evaluate design-driven meaning innovation in cases of everyday design. Finally, broader implications for assessing meaning innovation are discussed.