Abstract
Design, as a set of principles, skills, and mindsets, crosses and transcends disciplines, academic fields, industry sectors, professions, and the scale of projects and applications. Design Thinking, as known in the popular vernacular, affects every business, community, and community member. Design, across professions, disciplines, commercial sectors, and public organizations, makes a difference in people’s lives on a daily basis and has the potential of tackling the world’s grand challenges and wicked problems. But how do we understand and measure the impact of design? In this paper, we study this important and elusive topic of the impact of design, across disciplines and across scales. A design impact framework is developed as part of this study, based on empirical sources from international design awards and competitions, the literature, exemplar projects, and experts. We validate the framework over a three-year period through a nation’s top award program, and 59 design projects shortlisted for the award. Ultimately, the developed and validated design framework is relevant to individuals, teams, organizations, companies, communities, business sectors, social innovators, and even cities and countries. As we understand design impact, we will be able to develop approaches for planning, executing, and measuring the implementation and management of design, ultimately leading to innovations for chosen opportunities. Measurement is a key for any assessment process. Measurement of design impact will specifically allow for closed loop feedback that can enhance organizational strategies for implementation of design