Lesson 5

Read the text: Product Design

Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad concept, it is essentially the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.

In a systematic approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible inventions and products. The product designer's role is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products that other people can use. Their evolving role has been facilitated by digital tools that now allow designers to communicate, visualize, analyze and actually produce tangible ideas in a way that would have taken greater manpower in the past.

Product design is sometimes confused with (and certainly overlaps with) industrial design, and has recently become a broad term inclusive of service, software, and physical product design. Industrial design is concerned with bringing artistic form and usability, usually associated with craft design and ergonomics, together to mass-produce goods. Other aspects of product design include engineering design, particularly when matters of functionality or utility (e.g. problem-solving) are at issue, though such boundaries are not always clear.

There are various product design processes and many focus on different aspects. The process shown below, for example, is "The Seven Universal Stages of Creative Problem-Solving," outlined by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnell. It helps designers formulate their product from ideas. This process is usually completed by a group of people, i.e. industrial designers, field experts (e.g. prospective users), engineers, etc. depending upon the products involved. The process focuses on figuring out what is required, brainstorming possible ideas, creating mock prototypes, and then generating the product. However, that is not the end of the process. At this point, product designers would still need to execute the idea, making it into an actual product and then evaluate its success by seeing if any improvements are necessary.

The product design process has experienced huge leaps in evolution over the last few years with the rise and adoption of 3D printing. New consumer-friendly 3D printers can produce dimensional objects and print upwards with a plastic like substance opposed to traditional printers that spread ink across a page.

The design process follows a guideline involving three main sections: analysis, concept and synthesis.

The latter two sections are often revisited, depending on how often the design needs touch-ups, to improve or to better fit the criteria. This is a continuous loop, where feedback is the main component. To break it down even more, the seven stages specify how the process works. Analysis consists of two stages, concept is only one stage, and synthesis encompasses the other four.

Analysis

• Accept Situation: Here, the designers decide on committing to the project and finding a solution to the problem. They pool their resources into figuring out how to solve the task most efficiently.

• Analyze: In this stage, everyone in the team begins research. They gather general and specific materials which will help to figure out how their problem might be solved. This can range from statistics, questionnaires, and articles, among many other sources.

Concept

• Define: This is where the key issue of the matter is defined. The conditions of the problem become objectives, and restraints on the situation become the parameters within which the new design must be constructed.

Synthesis

• Ideate: The designers here brainstorm different ideas, solutions for their design problem. The ideal brainstorming session does not involve any bias or judgment, but instead builds on original ideas.

• Select: By now, the designers have narrowed down their ideas to a select few, which can be guaranteed successes and from there they can outline their plan to make the product.

• Implement: This is where the prototypes are built, the plan outlined in the previous step is realized and the product starts to become an actual object.

• Evaluate: In the last stage, the product is tested, and from there, improvements are made. Although this is the last stage, it does not mean that the process is over. The finished prototype may not work as well as hoped so new ideas need to be brainstormed.

Exercise 1. Read and memorize using a dictionary:

tangible, ideate, implement, overlap, objective, execute, brainstorm, bias, judgment, utility, solution, commit, narrow, improvement, involve, issue, restraint, encompass

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What is the product designer's role?

2. What is the product design sometimes confused with?

3. What can new consumer-friendly 3D printers produce?

4. What stages does synthesis encompass?

Exercise 3. Complete the sentences with the suggested words: adoption, huge, dimensional, substance, few

The product design process has experienced ____ leaps in evolution over the last _____ years with the rise and _____ of 3D printing. New consumer-friendly 3D printers can produce _____ objects and print upwards with a plastic like _____ opposed to traditional printers that spread ink across a page.

Exercise 4. Ask questions to the given answers:

1. Question: ______________________________________________?

Answer: The product designer's role has been facilitated by digital tools.

2. Question: ______________________________________________?

Answer: Industrial design is concerned with bringing artistic form and usability, usually associated with craft design and ergonomics, together to mass-produce goods.

3. Question: ______________________________________________?

Answer: The design process follows a guideline involving three main sections: analysis, concept and synthesis.

Exercise 5. Match the left part with the right:

1. The ideal brainstorming session does not involve any bias or judgment,	a) realized and the product starts to become an actual object.
2. They gather general and specific materials which	b) become the parameters within which the new design must be constructed.
3. The conditions of the problem become objectives, and restraints on the situation	c) but instead builds on original ideas.
4. This is where the prototypes are built, the plan outlined in the previous step is	d) will help to figure out how their problem might be solved.

Exercise 6. Learn the following definitions:

Synthesis is the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity (opposed to analysis).

Industrial design (ID) is 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.

Ergonomics is an applied science that coordinates the design of devices, systems, and physical working conditions with the capacities and requirements of the worker.

Exercise 7. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“Product design processes ”

“The stages of synthesis”

“The stages of analysis”