Design innovation is acquiring greater importance as consumers’ emotional needs
grow ever greater and the cycle of technological innovation grows ever faster. Apple
in particular led and strengthened this trend, achieving incomparable business success
in the technology-driven electronics industry. However, although the importance of
design innovation has increased, very little research has been done to explain the
influence of design innovation on business success. This study aims to investigate the
influence of design innovation attributes on perceptions, attitudes, and purchase
intentions among designers and consumers.
408 designers and 464 consumers participated in an online survey that presented as
stimuli four different smart watches. Design innovation attributes were evaluated
based on the criteria of features, aesthetics, and ergonomics; consumer-perceived
values were categorized as emotional, social, and functional. Regarding consumers
attitudes, attitude toward product and attitude toward brand were measured separately.
Overall results indicate that purchase intention among designers and consumers alike
is influenced by their attitude toward product as well as brand. However, in the case
of designers, these attitudes are most influenced by emotional value, while consumers
are influenced by emotional as well as social values. Moreover, all three innovation
attributes - namely, features, aesthetics, and ergonomics - affect designers’ perception
of emotional value, but only aesthetics and ergonomics affect consumers’ emotional
and social value. The study demonstrates three significant differences in the responses
of designers and consumers. First, there is correlation of aesthetics and ergonomics to
functional (price) value among designers, but not consumers. Second, there is
correlation of functional (quality) value to attitudes toward product and brand for
consumers, but much less or none at all for designers. Third, the influence of features
on perception of emotional value is more pronounced among designers as compared
to consumers. In conclusion, aesthetics and ergonomics are important design
innovation attributes for consumers as well as designers, but the latter also attach
significance to features. While perception of emotional as well as social value is
important to consumers, designers consider only emotional value. It is anticipated that
the relative importance of design innovation attributes will vary according to product
categories and price ranges; therefore, further comparative studies will be meaningful
in investigation of design innovation.