Better design for economy
The Government is missing an important tool in its bid to ensure the economy continues to deliver for its citizens. A study of the economic contribution of design to the economy, launched last month by DesignCo, a New Zealand design consortium, shows it contributes over $10 billion – or 4.2 per cent of GDP. That is more than agriculture.
The study highlights the rise and rise of design, using a 21st century understanding of what design is.
For many, design might still be understood as a good-looking product – chairs, fashion, buildings, phones, etc. These things are still important, but the meaning and impact of design has expanded considerably.
Design is now used in many more sectors of the economy and society; in exporting firms, technology, health, conservation, the public sector, within cities and elsewhere.
It is used as an approach to gaining customer and user insights and as a way of developing a company’s strategy.
New forms of design discipline are now used widely in the public sector to help ensure public services are efficient and suited for citizens rather than for the provider of the services.
This broadening of design’s impact is the result of more companies and organisations drawing on design’s unparalleled ability to get to the heart of users’ preferences and, once these are known, to create or improve new and existing products and services. Think Apple. Its success is based on its ability to understand its users’ needs and to meet these needs. Apple is a company built on design.
Given the study’s findings, you might be thinking this is a good-news story. And you’d mostly be right.
New Zealand design is world class. We have some spectacular designers and design stories.
Firms such as Gallagher, the Hamilton animal management equipment manufacturer and exporter; Allbirds, maker of the world’s most comfortable shoes; and Xero – which needs no introduction – use design to ensure their products are best suited to their customers’ needs, and to lock in continuous innovation.
Many government departments have established service design teams to explore the way in which the public interacts with public services, and to help address hard-to-move issues that encompass many agencies.
And New Zealanders living in urban spaces now benefit from improvements to their urban environments driven by urban design. Cities that take urban design seriously are becoming better places for people to live in and are attracting and keeping skilled people. Waterfronts are being rediscovered.
The design sector has enormous potential, but needs government investment to realise this potential. It cannot do this by itself.
The sector is not seeking handouts but investment based on solid evidence, identified returns, and measured and monitored performance targets, the sort of investment that the government made in 2004 with the Better By Design programme, aimed at inserting design thinking and methodologies into large exporters. That programme has been a success for the annual $3m investment. Compare this to the Government’s annual support for science of $1.6b.
DesignCo is keen to see whichever party holds power after this Saturday enact a range of recommendations we know will benefit New Zealand.
Our recommendations include Treasury developing a national design strategy in collaboration with the design sector, and the establishment and funding of a body similar to the UK Design Council, responsible for the strategic co-ordination of design in New Zealand, bringing together the design industry, research and education.
We would like to see established an office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Design Advisor; a suite of Prime Minister’s Design Prizes (to the same value as the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes); and promotion of New Zealand design through the NZ Inc. network.
We’d also like to see a programme of business support for the use of design by SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises, similar to the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Better by Design programme, and increased focus, capacity and capability in matching design and design-thinking expertise with science and technology innovation needs at the early stages of development. This could be undertaken by Callaghan Innovation.
In the public sector, we recommend increased targeted funding support for design-led service transformation.
DesignCo believes STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) should be widened to include creative arts subjects such as design and creative media production, and the funding for these subject areas increased. In addition, a dedicated research fund for design researchers to access should be established, in conjunction with infrastructure to support the allocation of funds.
These combined recommendations could be implemented for less than .02 of 1.0 per cent of the current government investment in science. By any standards, that is a worthwhile investment. ❚ Professor Claire Robinson is convenor of DesignCo.