During the Dutch Design week Paul Gardier, Vice President of Philips Design, had a interesting view on the future of product and service design.

A quick recap:

Industrial economy – 1950
In the beginning product design was focused on bringing prosperity to the masses and modernising our lives. It brought us commodities with better and better product features. This is what we call the beginning of our consumer society.

Experience economy – 1980
As prosperity grew, we started to desire to differentiate ourselves and we experienced a shift from product functionality to the rise of super brands, where targeted experiences helped us to promote our own personal lifestyles & identities. The focus of design shifted from products to product-service combinations as we started to experiment and break social taboos and structures.

Knowledge economy – unfolding now
Now we see design focusing on enabling people to get the most out of their lives. Context and creativity is gaining importance and brands try to engage people through co-creation and crowdsourcing while we aim to stimulate individual empowerment. This is reflected in the rise of major brands as Google, Ebay, and Shapeways through which people can become salespersons, researchers and designers.

Transformation economy – future
The future will be dominated by design for complete ecosystems generating total brand experience and true value creation. Companies will only be able to build these value networks by working together. Our main goal in the end? To make the difference and have a positive impact on our world: Do good.

Do you recognise your own business in one of the paradigms? Are you curious to the implications of what’s coming? Download the PDF or give us a buzz!