User Innovation

The emergence of novel product uses: An investigation of exaptations in IKEA hacks

Exaptation refers to the emergence of novel functionalities in existing products. We compare how product-first (compared to problem-first) search affects the occurrence of exaptations in a dataset consisting of creative modifications (i.e., hacks) of IKEA products.

IKEA product hacking

How user-innovators generate novel product functions through hacking