SEE Policy Booklets are an output of the SEE project, a network of eleven design organisations in Europe, examining how to integrate design into regional, national and European policies.
SEE Policy Booklet 4 outlines the role of design in bringing innovative ideas to market.
Section one demonstrates that design features not only at intermittent points in the innovation process but can form part of every aspect of the process from generating new product and service concepts and understanding user needs to a product's production, use and ultimate disposal.
Those products proving most successful in competitive markets are those integrated into an advanced customer experience with intelligent services adding value to the product itself.
To enable companies, particularly SMEs, to bring ideas to market, governments are increasingly investing in design support programmes and moving away, as Dröll stated, from traditional innovation support.
Section two describes the lessons learnt throughout the course of the SEE project in delivering design support programmes focused on enabling industry to develop new products and services.
Section three contextualises the role of design support programmes within the broader national system for design, which includes other elements that make up a nation or regions' design resources and actors.