Search

We asked six leading industrial designers to tell us which products inspired them. The breadth of their choices was unexpected. When we first see a product, there is something in [...]

Some manufacturers have spent hours debating the correct way to arrive at the ratings for Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) only to find that the calculated Risk Priority [...]

A common misconception is that humans are flexible and can adjust to less than optimal designs, while robots and machines have much less freedom and demand more design optimization. But […]

Multisource product design is a concept that integrates the viewpoints of both designer and consumers to come up with a product that strikes a balance between the two. Such products bring higher profits to a firm, and consequently, greater market share. Conjoint analysis (CA) procedures are used in integrating consumer inputs at the early stages of the product design process. By means of CA, distinct sets of designer characteristics and consumer attributes are defined and correlated to each other to come up with an optimized product design., Product design, the painstaking process by which prototypes are developed and specifications are created and implemented in actual production, is an integral part of any business strategy. For the process [...]

Despite its glowing reputation for impeccable design, Germany's Baumann & Baumann has been criticized for its ideological rigidity. The Baumann & Baumann Buro fur Gestaltung is a pillar of the [...]

Products in the concept and student category show overdependence on digital technology, as it makes objects multitasking and multisensual. But the designs fail to encourage social interaction and focuses only on one-to-one relationship with objects. Focus on personal information tool and the media-enhanced work environment points to the way communication technology strikes a balance between private and public life. Award-winning designs, the Soft Fan and a thumbprint as a personal access code for a door handle, are praised for their innovativeness and use of digit.

Functionalism has greater significance than aesthetics in equipment designing, as a product should communicate its function at the most basic level. Designs often fail to comply with product ergonomics and user interface because rethinking of the interface would lead to extensive industry retraining. An industrial carpet cleaner's functionalism matched with ergonomics and aesthetics, which won it the Best of Category award.

The designs of the interactive media products are divided into two groups, one comprising of new interactive metaphors and the other consisting of familiar metaphors wrought well to open new directions. 'The Book of Lulu' gets admiration for its use of known metaphors to create an emotionally resonant environment. 'Calculators' won the Best of Category award for turning a desktop calculator into a series of tactile objects. Its innovative redesign opens up a new world of interactive media. 'Pop Up Computer' and 'Volcanoes: Life on the Edge' are appraised for originality and universality.

Infomercials are advertisements for television media which look like TV talk shows with their own program names. They originated in 1984 with the Reagan administration's ban on buying large airtimes by advertisers and generated revenues of $1 billion in 1994. Infomercials feature products and services including kitchen accessories, cosmetics and skin care, weight-loss plans and psychic hot lines. A survey of infomercials details the price, product observations, selling pitch, and remarks on items such as the Power Foam cleaning agent, Sonicare toothbrush and the EZ Krunch exerciser.

Sir Norman Foster and Partners demonstrates the value of industrial design that enhances a building's functions through aesthetics rather than separating form and function. In so doing, the architectural firm is helping improve the public's perception of architects as socially relevant professionals rather than as elitist aesthetes. One example of Norman Foster's method is Stansted Airport outside of London, England. Several other architectural projects are discussed., As you approach the terminal at London's Stansted Airport, designed by Sir Norman Foster & Partners (P/A Dec. 1994, p. 54), the building seems buoyant, almost effervescent, with its undulating [...]

A growing body of companies all over the world, from Tokyo to Detroit, Milan to Munich, Stockholm to Silicon Valley, have discovered that industrial design can be a much more powerful weapon - strategically as well operationally - than they had ever suspected. But behind the new organizational awareness of design lies a set of paradoxes. For instance, if its commercial power is so manifest, why do so many managements still fail to recognize it? Why, when they do, have so many failed to give it sufficient weight within their organization? Why, in spite of repeated design-led successes in the marketplace, have many of the design pioneers allowed their commitment to design to decay? Most companies still need to undertake a voyage of 'executive discovery' - or rediscovery - about the various potential roles which design can play in strategy. This article explores these roles, the nature of this 'voyage', and its implications for managers.

Computers may be transforming the design process but, as Hester Thomas explains, clients still face the challenge of finding just the right service to enhance the presentation of their products [...]

Design plays an important role in product development not only for aesthetics but in terms of usability and manufacturability. While engineering focuses on how to make something work, design concentrates on making it usable. Design optimizes the function, value, and appearance of products and systems for the benefit of both user and manufacturer. Thus, design is a crossover discipline betweeen marketing, sales, customers, engineering and manufacturing., An industrial designer tells how product development teams can use design to peak advantage. Our industrial design firm recently visited with a project manager for a medical device manufacturer who [...]

I Long thought to be a peripheral consideration, design is emerging as a way to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. But CEOs must take a hand in determining a firm's […]

Industrial designers based overseas are asked to evaluate American design. Although there are areas wherein US designs stand out, such as in professional equipment, there seems to be a general agreement among the evaluators that many US companies are not assigning enough importance to design, hence the lackluster performance of many US designers. American designs are criticized as provincial, mediocre, not reflective of consumer needs and 'not catching up' with foreign competitors. Manufacturers and designers are urged to seek inspiration in their surroundings and to be open to the influence of the culturally diverse members of the American society so that American design can become as vibrant and as rich as American music.

American small business owners are rediscovering the importance of industrial design in marketing their products, as they come to realize that consumers go for the functional that is visually appealing as well. Industrial designers can make manufactures more attractive by refining the relationships among a product's aesthetic elements, including size, shape and color. How industrial design firms such as Machen Montague Inc, Bleck Design Group, and Ziba Design Inc helped their clients turn awkward-looking contraptions into functional art is discussed.

Last month I wrote about a first step toward building a better web--improving our links. There are many reasons to improve our links, starting with their design. To paraphrase Tim […]

Industrial design is about more than just styling. A good industrial-design team must also consider technical details such as materials, draft angles, and manufacturing processes to create prototypes that product [...]

Agencies are now finding they enjoy influence at the top levels of business. By Michael Evamy Over the past two or three years, the design business has climbed to new [...]

'The word won't stop,' Mary Chapin Carpenter sings repeatedly on one of her earlier CDs. She is backed up in her insistence, if not on the disk, by paleontologist Stephen [...]

Dr. Peter Dewhurst argues that Design for Assembly (DFA) is still a relevant concept in modern-day manufacturing despite claims to the contrary of detractors. Dewhurst, co-founder of Boothroyd-Dewhurst Inc., remarks that DFA is actually the essential element for newer Design-for activities, including Design for Service and Design for Environment, which have supposedly replace DFA. The main function of DFA is to develop designs for products that are functionally efficient, easily assembled, reliable and of good quality. The main benefits of DFA are reduced manufacturing cycle time by 57%, reduced part count by 51%, reduced part cost by 37%, improved time-to-market by 50%, improved quality and reliability by 68%, and reduced assembly time by 62%. The latest software product from Boothroyd-Dewhurst is the DFA 8.0 which runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT., Here's an update on DFA--and some of the otehr more recent developments aligned with it--according to one of the two men whose names are synonymous with the practice: Dr. Peter [...]

Many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are looking to their suppliers for help in product development. The importance of early involvement of suppliers in the product development cycle can be attributed to the OEMs' awareness that supplied parts in good working condition is necessary in developing the products on schedule. This contributes to the competitiveness of the finished product., Did the manufacturing renaissance in America begin in the wrong place--namely, the factory floor? That's what Bart Huthwaite, president of the Institute for Competitive Design in Rochester, Mich., believes. According [...]

London studio Peepshow Collective this week reports that it met with several obstacles while creating the new on-screen look for BBC2's Culture Show (see designweek.co.uk). What's been the biggest creative [...]

A design research session on workplace mobility by SonicRim, a firm that specializes in conducting user research to help the product-design process is recreated. The starting point of this approach was to make a collage of how one feels, and likes to feel when working away from usual office spaces.

I read the book Factor Four: Doubling Wealth - Halving Resource Use a few years ago - it describes a new form of progress, resource productivity, which meets the overriding [...]

The question, 'What Do People Do All Day?' is not only the title of a popular children's book by Richard Scarry, but a springboard for the work of a local [...]

Sean Kinmont How many fashion accessories remain unchanged for 60 years? Most cigarette brands have retained the same design since birth, and with Lucky Strike it's not difficult to see [...]

Frost Design has designed the 2000 annual report for leading shoe company Clarks after being appointed earlier this year. Featuring three tins of shoe polish on the cover, the theme [...]