Diffusion of Innovation

Your constantly-updated definition of Diffusion of Innovation and collection of videos and articles
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What is Diffusion of Innovation?

Diffusion refers to the pattern of adoption of a new product. The diffusion of innovation incorporates a 5-part process for adoption which includes knowledge, persuasion, decision making, implementation and finally confirmation. The process can be used to evaluate the efficiency of an adoption strategy and thus examine how that strategy can be amended to improve adoption.

Diffusion of innovation explains how target audiences react to new products, whether the new products are adopted or rejected.

Sometimes, an awful product is accepted enthusiastically by the customer base. Other times, a well-designed, superior product is outrightly rejected.

In 1962, Everett Rogers proposed a 5-stage model to outline the diffusion of innovation process. His framework is based on analyzing 500 studies across various disciplines.

The diffusion of innovation boils down to these 5 steps:

1. Knowledge

2. Persuasion

3. Decision

4. Implementation

5. Confirmation

These 5 steps describe how the target audience perceives and interacts with the product up to the point whether they make a decision to accept or reject it.

Sometimes a product fails not because of an inner flaw, but because the community is unable to support it appropriately at the time it enters the market.

Literature on Diffusion of Innovation

Here’s the entire UX literature on Diffusion of Innovation by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Diffusion of Innovation

Take a deep dive into Diffusion of Innovation with our course Emotional Design — How to Make Products People Will Love .

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