When we talk about product development we often use the word ‘use’ to describe what end-users do and ‘innovate’ to describe what we as designers do. But is there really such a clear distinction between the two in practice?

Skilled use of products often includes configuration, appropriation, and re-design. Here we can question if innovation stops when the product is put on the market, or if we can look at it as an ongoing process that involves both designers and users. Can we re-conceptualise notions of designers as active producers and people as passive users? How could one support people’s innovative engagement in product use to somehow bridge use and innovation?

I would like to discuss this topic with participants interested in user-driven innovation, and focus especially on what approaches one could take to actually bridge use and innovation.