Sense of Community (Editorial)

As we are starting our third year, it gives me a great pleasure to say that the readership of the journal continues to expand and diversify. Thank you for that!

Given the interesting and diverse background of our readers (like yourself), we have decided to reach out to some of you who are leading experts in your respective fields and invite you for an interview. And this is something that I hope will remain as a regular feature of our journal. After all, the purpose of this journal is not only to disseminate new knowledge, but also to create a community of creative thinkers and innovators. Involving you further with our journal is a part of that.

In line with, I will start the first issue of this volume with an in-depth interview with Mitchell Sipus, a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the White House. Sipus is an interdisciplinary designer and urban planner who works with complex sociotechnical systems and has a particular interest in reconstruction of cities affected by future wars. Prior to joining the Obama administration as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, Sipus worked in some of the world’s most challenging environments and most terrifying war zones from Afghanistan to Somalia. In the ‘Tour of Duty’ interview, we will be discussing his background and experience, and why he has chosen to follow such a challenging career path. Also, we will discuss about what does it take for a designer to operate in this context and how does it look to work as an innovator at the highest levels of government. In the lead up to the interview, I will also summarize the Presidential Innovation Fellows programme; how it all came about; why the US government is seeking innovators to work with politicians; and how this programme is planned to evolve in the post-Obama years.

Following this we will start with our series of articles with ‘Redesigning the concept of money’ by Ida Telalbasic (Loughborough University London). In this article, Telalbasic challenges the current capitalist system and presents six case studies, which show complementary currency systems that provide alternative economic models for the communities that use them. In this exciting study, Telalbasic takes a service design perspective to analyse these examples, from both developed and developing economies. In conclusion, she argues that service design, through systems of permanent or temporary access to credit, not only responds to contemporary socio-economic conditions, but also contributes to shape new ways of practising democratized economics.

The next article, ‘Design intensive start-ups’, is written by Cabirio Cautela, Lucia Rampino, Sara Colombo and Giuliano Simonelli (Politecnico di Milano). In this article the authors examine the relatively new phenomenon of start-ups that focus on design as primary source for their development. Two main questions underpin their study: (1) How do Design-Intensive Start-ups (DNS) differ from New-Technology Start-ups (NTS) with respect to critical dimensions for development of start-ups? (2) In which way DIS use design? A multiple case study protocol was adopted to investigate these two questions. According to the authors, the results show that DIS not only differ from NTS with respect to several core dimensions but also differ in terms of the overall new venture creation logic. Both theoretical and practical implications for design thinkers are included as well.

The article ‘Designing for sacred service experiences’ by Ted Matthews (AHO – Oslo School of Architecture and Design) adds another dimension to service design. Whilst the notion of ‘sacred’ has been examined in the literature on consumer behaviour, often highlighting its potential for extraordinary experiences, meaningful moments and customer loyalty, as Matthews points out, little research has been undertaken, which investigates how such experiences might be designed for. This article describes a new service design approach (applied in a Norwegian context) that brings together sacred theory and the tools of service design with the aim of designing for sacred service experiences. This method is one of the first approaches that specifically incorporates cultural material into the service design process, raising the importance of meaning and values alongside that of the functional in service design. Matthews suggests that service design, like all design disciplines, acts as a cultural intermediary, but that service design today lacks a cultural orientation in its existing practice. Due to this, he encourages the rethinking of several service design terms.

Finally, we will close this issue with a book review by Hans Kaspar Hugentobler (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Arts). In a tribute to his former teacher and professor at the Institute of Design at IIT in Chicago – John Heskett, Hugentobler points out that few books in the design field are charting new territory in such a profound way as does A John Heskett Reader: Design, History, Economics.

We hope that you will enjoy reading our selection in this issue and as always we look forward to receiving new article ideas and suggestions for new content.

Also, I would like to use this opportunity to introduce Robert Crocker, our Associate Editor, as the new Editor-in-Chief starting from Volume 3, Issue 2. Crocker is an alumnus of the Ph.D. programme at the University of Oxford and he brings a wealth of experience in academic publishing. As the Founding Editor, I will continue to work closely with Intellect Books and our Editorial Team in an advisory capacity.

Follow this link to Vol. 3, No. 1 of the Journal of Design, Business & Society.