Innovation for Challenges of Today
Overview
This unit aims to develop students' capability to identify new innovation opportunities appropriate for market adoption in the next 5 years. These new innovations may be objects, systems, services, experiences, built environments, practices or business ideas. Techniques for opportunity exploration will draw on human-centred research methods, analysis of available data sets and social innovation. New innovation ideas will consider societal and environmentally responsible impacts, user needs, digital technology and value creation. Students will develop a portfolio of innovation opportunities that may relate to their passions, disciplinary interests or other industry sectors in preparation for the capstone units.
02-November-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Discover and define opportunities for new products using human-centred research methods
- Use societal needs as a launching pad to ideate new innovation opportunities
- Use data analysis and/or currently available digital technologies to inform new ideas
- Identify multiple innovation project opportunities for market adoption within 5 years
- Prioritise innovation opportunities using relevant evaluation tools
- Consider societal and environmental impacts of ideas
- Communicate the value proposition of ideas to potential users and/or stakeholders
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Activity Type | Activity | Total Hours | Number of Weeks | Hours Per Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-campus | Studio | 36 | 12 weeks | 3 |
| Specified Activities | Various | 54 | 12 weeks | 4.5 |
| Unspecified Activities | Independent Learning | 60 | 12 weeks | 5 |
| Total Hours: | 150 | Total Hours (per week): | 12.5 | |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | Individual/Group | 100% | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
Content
This unit may include:
- Human-centred design methods
- Data mining and big data analysis
- Current local and global market trends
- Frameworks for value creation
- Ideation techniques and creativity tools for social innovation
- Strategies for opportunity discovery and definition
- Communicating design intent and value propositions
- Storytelling techniques
- Crowdsourcing platforms
- Evaluating value and potential of new ideas
- Sustainable design
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.