Exploring framing and meaning making over the design innovation process

It is well established that key to achieving innovations is to innovate on meaning; however, most discussion is limited to the meaning of the end product to the user. We argue that meaning changes should be explored throughout the design process. We contend that framing is intrinsically related to the creation of new meaning due to its capacity to provide a new standpoint from which to approach problems and subsequently direct novel solutions. We provide an analysis of framing and meaning making by studying three design innovation methods that span social, product, and business design. We arrive at a common model of framing in which we explore how meaning changes are initiated and in what form they manifest. We contend that the act of framing creates new meaning by providing a new interpretation of the problem (to the designer) and/or an interpretation of the solution to the user.