Like a somnambulist under hypnosis, I anxiously nodded in agreement in my sleep yesterday morning as WNYC ran a story close to top of the hour. I was sure that the male broadcaster was talking about how design practices were being superseded by "innovation" practices in the business world in a re-hash of Rick Poyner's article in the April issue of ID, Down with Innovation. But when I went to their website upon waking, the only thing I found was this feature (presented by a female narrator) about "crowd-sourcing" (what business speak) or community-based design.

Using the business models of RYZwear and Threadless T-Shirts, the feature goes on to explain how community based design is the next step in the post-industrial revolution.

More after the jumpThe report states that relying on customers for design and market research allows companies like RYZ to move much more quickly, compressing market research and the design process from 12 months into 6 weeks; driving overhead down and profits up (theoretically); and that with a generation already familiar with creating it's own content, that this is the way of the future.

But how on earth did my anxieties about the suits co-opting design with "innovation management" bubble to the surface and let me mix these two topics up? Blame it on WNYC. It's bad enough that they treat us like guinea pigs with wanna-be talk show hosts and surreptitiously badger us for money all summer, but taking the human voice away that announces the time in the 5am hour has done some serious damage to my waking cues and stressed me out about when I need to actually get out of bed. Shameless.

You can read the story or listen to it here

photo courtesy of NPR