This article emphasizes the need to refocus multimedia information retrieval (MIR) research towards bridging the utility gap , the gap between the expected and defacto usefulness of MIR solutions. This requires us to revisit the notion of relevance, but also to consider other criteria for assessing MIR solutions, like the informativeness of the retrieved results and how helpful they are for the users. The article also states that this focus shift cannot be realized incrementally, but by revisiting the foundations of MIR solutions, that is, by a utility-by-design approach. In this respect, a number of research challenges are proposed.