This success of a Product can be attributed to
several factors:
Size and weight
Performance features
Operationability
Superior ergonomics
Reliability
Durability
Maintainability
Materials
Appearance
The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) defines industrial
design as “the professional service of creating and developing
concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value, and
appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both
user and manufacturer.” This definition is broad enough to include
the activities of the entire product development team. In fact,
industrial designers focus their attention upon the form and user
interaction of products. Dreyfuss (1967) lists five critical goals that
industrial designers can help a team to achieve when developing new
products:
Utility: The product’s human interfaces should be safe, easy to use,
and intuitive. Each feature should be shaped so that it communicates
its function to the user.
Appearance: Form, line, proportion, and color are used to integrate
the product into a pleasing whole.
Ease of maintenance: Products must also be designed to
communicate how they are to be maintained and repaired.
Low costs: Form and features have a large impact on tooling and
production costs, so these must be considered jointly by the team.
Communication: Product designs should communicate the corporate
design philosophy and mission through the visual qualities of the
products.
Most products on the market can be improved in
some way or another by good ID. All products that
are used, operated, or seen by people depend
critically on ID for commercial success.
With this in mind, a convenient means for assessing
the importance of ID to a particular product is to
characterize importance along two dimensions:
ergonomics and aesthetics. (Note that we use the
term ergonomics to encompass all aspects of a
product that relate to its human interfaces.) The more
important each dimension is to the product’s
success, the more dependent the product is on ID.
Therefore, by answering a series of questions along
each dimension we can qualitatively assess the
importance of ID.
Industrial design is typically involved in the overall product development process
during several different phases. The timing of the ID effort depends upon the
nature of the product being designed. To explain the timing of the ID effort it is
convenient to classify products as technology-driven products and user-driven
products.
Technology-driven products: The primary characteristic of a technology-driven
product is that its core benefit is based on its technology, or its ability to
accomplish a specific technical task. While such a product may have important
aesthetic or ergonomic requirements, consumers will most likely purchase the
product primarily for its technical performance. For example, a hard disk drive for
a computer is largely technology driven. It follows that for the development team
of a technology-driven product, the engineering or technical requirements will be
paramount and will dominate development efforts. Accordingly, the role of ID is
often limited to packaging the core technology. This entails determining the
product’s external appearance and ensuring that the product communicates its
technological capabilities and modes of interaction to the user.
User-driven products: The core benefit of a user-driven product is derived from
the functionality of its interface and/or its aesthetic appeal. Typically there is a
high degree of user interaction for these products. Accordingly, the user interfaces
must be safe, easy to use, and easy to maintain. The product’s external
appearance is often important to differentiate the product and to create pride of
ownership
How important is ease of use?
How important is ease of maintenance?
How many user interactions are required for the
product’s functions?
How novel are the user interaction needs?
What are the safety issues?
Is visual product differentiation required?.
How important are pride of ownership, image,
and fashion?
Will an aesthetic product motivate the team?
Many large companies have internal industrial design
departments. Small companies tend to use contract ID services
provided by consulting firms. In either case, industrial designers
should participate fully on cross-functional product development
teams. Within these teams, engineers will generally follow a
process to generate and evaluate concepts for the technical
features of a product. In a similar manner, most industrial
designers follow a process for designing the aesthetics and
ergonomics of a product. Although this approach may vary
depending on the firm and the nature of the project, industrial
designers also generate multiple concepts and then work with
engineers to narrow these options down through a series of
evaluation steps.
Specifically, the ID process can be thought of as consisting of the
following phases:
Investigation of customer needs.
Conceptualization.
Preliminary refinement.
Further refinement and final concept selection.
Control drawings or models.
Coordination with engineering, manufacturing, and external vendors.
1. Quality of the User Interface
2. Emotional Appeal
3. Ability to Maintain and Repair the Product
4. Appropriate Use of Resources
5. Product Differentiation
The primary mission of ID is to design the aspects of a
product that relate to the user: aesthetics and
ergonomics.
Most products can benefit in some way or another from
ID. The more a product is seen or used by people, the
more it will depend on good ID for its success.
For products that are characterized by a high degree of
user interaction and the need for aesthetic appeal, ID
should be involved throughout the product development
process. Early involvement of industrial designers will
ensure that critical aesthetic and user requirements will
not be overlooked or ignored by the technical staff.
When a product’s success relies more on technology, ID
can be integrated into the development process later.
Active involvement of ID on the product development
team can help to promote good communication between
functional groups. Such communication facilitates
coordination and ultimately translates into higher-quality
products.
