China's New Focus On Design

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As China's economy continues to shift from its manufacturing roots, experts hope that design can become a respected industry in its own right. In Beijing, the creative industry, which includes disciplines such as art and architecture, tourism, and sports, grew by 18%, to $106 billion in 2007, according to local media reports. Wang says better statistics about the value of the design sector in China are difficult to come by, but he says, "We also need this number to promote the design industry."

Field Still in Its Infancy

Business is doing its part, too. In 2002, Carnegie Mellon graduate Elaine Ann founded Kaizor Innovation, an innovation consultancy in Hong Kong. Kaizor has worked with the Hong Kong and Huizhou governments and quasi-government entities such as the Hong Kong Design Center, Hong Kong Productivity Council, and Hong Kong Science & Technology Park to teach design thinking and "human-centered design"—a methodology that bases design around the needs and habits of the end user—to business executives and government officials.

Ann has also seen a small number of first-tier, up-and-coming Chinese companies, including Lenovo, Baidu (BIDU), Alibaba, Huawei, Changhong, and BuBuGao, starting to establish user experience design teams, which focus on how people interact with a product or service, and are doing user research overseas. But because designers have varied levels of training and experience and many come from other disciplines, she says, the field is still in its infancy, like the U.S. was 10 to 20 years ago. "Many are stuck at how to convince management to incorporate such methodologies into the entire operation," she says.

In recent years, Ying Zhang, frog Design's general manager for Asia, has seen design and education begin to open up to new approaches. Recently, frog Shanghai has received more requests from both large and small Chinese companies for help with product innovation.

Mandate for Change

Still, Zhang says, most Chinese firms continue to function as design outsourcers, supplementing clients' teams rather than providing innovative strategy. For now, frog does not face much competition from local companies, but they "are growing fast, so we are always very cautious about things to [maintain] our status," says Zhang. As exports decrease and labor costs rise, "most companies in China have realized, especially over the past year, that they must begin changing the original manufacture-oriented model to survive."

Chinese design schools and shops still may be behind, but China has shown, particularly when the central government gets involved, that it can learn quickly.

Wong is a lifestyle and real estate reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.

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