Abstract
Digital technology is an important source for digital product’s design and innovation. Many IS researchers have studied the role of digital technology in innovating product’s functions and aesthetics. Yet fewer have studied the role of digital technology in innovating in a third design element—meaning—in product design and innovation. “Meaning” refers to a product’s symbolic, psychological, and cultural associations that were proposed by designers, which together significantly alter users’ perceived experience of the product. Innovation with digital technology in product meaning, a source of new values for using a product, is different from innovation in functions and aesthetics. This fact has practical, as well as scholarly implications: without a robust vocabulary to discussing meaning innovation, the literature implicitly assumes innovation with digital technology happens in only functions and aesthetics despite the importance of innovation in meaning. Further, designers and companies may miss a valuable opportunity to earn higher returns. Thus, taking a design perspective, we leverage design and management theories to study how designers use digital technology to innovate in product meaning. We plan to use multiple case studies, expert panels, and semi-structured interviews. Initial findings based on twenty-hour pilot interviews and potential contributions are discussed.
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