Throughout history, certain products appear to have undergone remarkable transformations.
A chair becomes a ladder.
A feed sack becomes clothing.
A scarf becomes a hooded vest.
A product designed for one purpose begins participating in another.
These transformations can appear simple.
Yet they often reveal something interesting.
Products Leave Clues
One of the challenges when studying transformation is that many transformations are difficult to observe clearly.
Ideas evolve.
Organisations change.
Technologies emerge.
People adapt.
The pathways can become difficult to trace.
Products, however, often leave clues.
Their states can be observed.
Their forms can be examined.
Their transformations can be compared.
Transformation In Plain Sight
A transformative product allows us to observe change in a tangible form.
Something existed.
Something changed.
Something else emerged.
The transformation may not explain every aspect of change.
Yet it provides an observable example from which patterns can be explored.
Why Products Matter
Products are interesting because they often make transformation visible.
The relationships between states can sometimes be seen directly.
The bridges can be examined.
The transition states can be explored.
The different approaches to transformation can be compared.
What may appear abstract elsewhere can become surprisingly concrete.
More Than Objects
At first glance, a product may seem like a simple object.
Something manufactured.
Something purchased.
Something used.
Yet many products tell stories about adaptation, possibility and change.
They reveal how an entity can move between states.
How new uses emerge.
How additional possibilities become available.
How transformation occurs.
Learning Through Observation
One of the goals of the Transformative Design research was not to tell products what they should become.
It was to observe what had already occurred.
To study transformations that already existed.
To look for patterns.
Relationships.
Structures.
Processes.
And learn from them.
Why Observation Matters
The more transformations that were observed, the more certain questions began to emerge.
Why did some transformations occur through rearrangement?
Why did others involve becoming something else?
Why did some transformations involve additional possibilities?
The products themselves rarely provided complete answers.
Yet they often provided valuable clues.
A Personal Observation
One of the most rewarding aspects of the research was discovering that transformation could be studied through things that already existed.
Not through speculation.
Not through prediction.
But through observation.
The products were not the destination.
They were the teachers.
Each transformation offered a glimpse into a reality that had already occurred.
And each transformation revealed something about how change itself might be understood.
Explore the Original Research
Transformative Design (2008)
An exploration of transformative products, states, transitions and the structures through which transformation may occur.
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