Harnessing Innovative Design Thinking Methods for Material Innovation

Material innovation is often framed as the search for new substances or improved performance. In practice, it is a much broader challenge that sits at the intersection of material properties, user behavior, production systems, and market realities. It requires not only scientific knowledge, but the ability to understand how materials operate within complex, real-world contexts.

This perspective shifts the focus from isolated material development to a more strategic, systems-oriented approach, where materials are understood as part of larger technological, cultural, and economic frameworks. This becomes especially relevant when working across design, science, and industry, including in contexts such as Israeli material innovation, where close collaboration between disciplines is essential.

Exploring Innovative Design Thinking Methods in Material Innovation

Design thinking is often associated with product design or user experience, but its principles become particularly valuable when applied to materials. Not as a fixed process, but as a way to structure exploration, connect disciplines, and move between abstract ideas and tangible outcomes.

For example, NakedPak, a startup founded by industrial designer Naama Nicotra, began as a graduation project and developed into a system where packaging becomes part of the product itself. The material is designed to dissolve and cook with the meal, redefining the relationship between packaging, product, and use.

This startup was also presented in one of my recent lectures on material innovation, where, alongside the curiosity it sparked, questions arose around hygiene and taste. In the discussion that followed, it became clear that the ability to rinse the material before cooking, together with positive feedback from early users, reflects how material decisions take shape within everyday practices. These decisions enable new possibilities that respond to user needs and reduce the environmental impact of eating.

NakedPak: packaging that becomes part of the meal, dissolving during cooking. Also featured in my recent lecture on material innovation.

In material innovation, design thinking often takes the form of concrete working methods:

• Cross-disciplinary collaboration:

  Material development rarely happens within a single discipline. It requires the integration of scientific knowledge, an understanding of manufacturing processes, and a design perspective that considers use, context, and value.
  

• Rapid prototyping and iterative testing:

  Unlike digital systems, material experimentation requires physical iteration. Prototyping is slower, more resource-intensive, and carries consequences that cannot be instantly reversed.
  

• Scenario-based thinking:

  Materials exist within specific contexts of use. Considering where and how a material will be applied helps surface constraints early, from manufacturing processes to user interaction and long-term maintenance.
  

• Sustainability mapping:

  Assessing a material across its lifecycle reveals trade-offs that are not always visible at the development stage. Decisions made at the level of sourcing or processing often carry long-term environmental and social implications.

In , founded by chemist Michael Layani, designers are involved from early stages, shaping applications alongside material development. Their role is not only aesthetic, but instrumental in translating material potential into market-relevant products.

Companies like Daika Wood demonstrates how these principles take shape in practice. The company has developed an innovative material based on wood waste that behaves like wood but can be produced through casting and 3D printing, enabling new applications. From early stages, designers were part of the team, helping translate material potential into relevant uses within real-world systems.

Daika Wood: wood waste transformed into a castable material for new applications.

Challenges as Opportunities in Applying Design Thinking to Materials

Material development often begins with an open, exploratory mindset, where the goal is to expand possibilities rather than define them. Only later do constraints become central, not as limitations, but as tools for navigating complexity and making informed decisions within real-world systems.

1. Complexity:

   The world of materials is vast, with countless variations of each. Navigating it requires more than scientific knowledge; it demands the ability to see the bigger picture.

   
   

2. Long development cycles:

   Unlike digital products, materials take time. Development can span months or years of testing, iteration, and validation, where each decision has physical consequences that cannot be instantly reversed.

   
   

3. Cost alignment:

   Material choices are not made in isolation. The cost of a material must align with the pricing of the final product and the broader business model, shaping what is feasible at scale.

   
   

4. Sustainability trade-offs:

   Evaluating materials across their lifecycle reveals system-level interactions that are not always visible during development. Decisions at the level of raw materials and processing carry long-term environmental, economic, social, and regulatory implications, shaped by both market dynamics and policy frameworks.

Taken together, these approaches—cross-disciplinary collaboration, iterative prototyping, scenario-based thinking, and sustainability mapping—become visible in real material developments.

UBQ Materials, for example, converts unsorted household waste into a usable industrial material, addressing one of the key limitations of current recycling systems: the need for sorting. Beyond the technological solution, this approach operates within an existing system, shaped by policy, market conditions, and the way materials are perceived and adopted in practice.

Having worked with UBQ Materials in the past in the context of material curation material curation in design and innovation, and having followed their development over time, it becomes clear that material innovation is shaped not only by technological capabilities, but also by the systems in which materials operate.

UBQ Materials: converting unsorted household waste into industrial material.

Moving Forward with Strategic Material Innovation

Material innovation today requires more than technical expertise. It calls for the ability to connect material properties with user needs, production realities, and long-term environmental impact.

Across different contexts, from early-stage initiatives like NakedPak to industrial-scale solutions such as UBQ Materials, and material-driven companies like Daika Wood, material innovation reveals a consistent pattern. The success of a material is not determined by performance alone, but by how it is integrated into systems of production, use, and value.

This requires a shift in perspective, from treating materials as isolated substances to understanding them as part of interconnected systems.

This shift is not only methodological, but strategic. It shapes how materials are developed, evaluated, and ultimately adopted.

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