Product Design: Conceiving New Products and Services

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Product Design Conceiving New Products and
Services

• Mktg 551
• The University of Mississippi
• Prof. Charles Noble

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What is Design?

• The non-technological essence of a product
  (C. Noble)
• Design may be our top unexploited competitive
  edge (Tom Peters 2004)

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Concepts of Product Design (click here for
supporting article)
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The Power of Design
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What is the source of advantage and superior
performance for a company like Dyson?
James Dyson 746 on Forbes list of Worlds
Richest People (1 billion)
- Former art student ran through 5,127 prototypes
until he perfected the G-Force, a bag-less
upright that uses a spinning technology to better
keep its suction constant. - Introduced in U.K.
in 1993 and was immediate hit. - U.S. sales
quadrupled in 2004 and boosted group's total
revenues by 54 to 747 million. - Now
available in 39 countries. - The San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art and eight other museums
display his vacuum cleaner.
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Disrupting the competitive balance, spawning
imitation, leaders become followers...
46 UK market share 32 U.S. (1st) (Financial
Post 2/28/07)
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Yet, by objective product-oriented standards,
it is relatively mediocre

ranked 16/17 of 43 cleaners tested
(www.consumerreports.org)
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Probably not an isolated story...
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Industrial Design

• Connects Engineering (performance attributes)
  with Marketing (customer wants and needs)
• Draws from engineering, architecture, psychology,
  physiology and marketing
• Worries about things like ergonomics, look and
  feel, user friendliness, style, ease of
  functionality, and distinctiveness

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User Centered Design

• Tries to understand the interaction between a
  user and a product and translate that
  understanding into a product form. Two
  dimensions
• Cognitive How logical and natural a product is
  to use
• Emotional How people feel about using it

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An Example The Dewalt Worksite Radio/Charger

• Issues/Challenges
• Tradespeople like to listen to music while they
  work
• Tools (and radios) in this environment take a lot
  of abuse bouncing around in trucks, falling off
  roofs
• More and more tools are cordless, requiring one
  or more recharges during a work day

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Key Features of the Radio

• Tough external metal frame that protects the
  delicate radio elements from abuse
• Big knobs and simple controls can be used while
  wearing gloves
• Waterproof
• Built-in battery charger
• Distinctive color easy to spot and reinforces
  Dewalt brand
• Lots of empathic, user-centered design here!

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The Innovation Process (Fig. 3 in article)
Abstract
Frameworks (insights)
Imperatives (ideas)
Synthesis
Analysis
Observations (contexts)
Solutions (experiences)
Concrete
From Innovation as a Learning Process (Beckman
Barry)
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One example of an innovation-inducing
framework(based on Figs. 4-5)
public
emotional
functional
private
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Cradle-to-Cradle Design

• Based on the idea of a closed loop product life
  cycle
• Based on eco-effectiveness waste equals
  food
• Goal of zero landfill
• Includes not just the product but packaging and
  processes as well

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From the Herman Miller article

• The characteristic design approach of the last
  century was cradle to grave. It involved
  digging up, cutting down, or burning natural
  resourcesreleasing toxic material into the
  environment in the processto make products that
  became useless waste at the end of their useful
  lives.
• By contrast, the cradle-to-cradle approach
  mirrors natures regenerative cycles so that at
  the end of its useful life, a product and its
  component materials are used to make equally
  valuable products. C2C thinking does not just
  focus on minimizing toxic pollution and reducing
  natural resources waste. It goes one step
  further, demanding that companies redesign
  industrial processes so that they dont generate
  pollution and waste in the first place.

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Concluding Thoughts

• All design begins with customers
• It is possible to use many different approaches
  to analyze the consumer experience to develop new
  ideas
• Understanding consumers is an ongoing, not a
  one-time, event!