Innovation in the user interface design process

Innovation is crucial to the success of the products and services that high-technology companies develop. Innovation in user interfaces is especially important since the user interface often defines a product or service in the customer´s mind. However, introducing innovation can add costs in terms of additional development time, lower reliability, and poorer standardization. Thus, tradeoffs must be made with regard to innovation in the development of commercial products and services. Little is known about how innovations are conceived and introduced into user interfaces. If we can analyze innovation in user interface design, then there is potential for improving the design process so that the costs of achieving innovation can be reduced. As a first step in this direction, several user interface designers were interviewed to determine how they achieve innovation in their work. An analysis of the designers´ comments is presented, including a five-stage model of the user interface innovation process. Suggestions for fostering innovation are also presented