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The thing with product design |
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(Brusino Arsizio, 2004) |
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The thing
with design is that every body feels competent to
formulate and express an opinion about it. Actually,
everybody should have and express an opinion about
(product) design, like art, politics and all topics
that concern society. The fact that this does not
happen often enough may be the cause for the many
ineffective products and solutions. |
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Having
an opinion does not mean being able to direct development
towards an effective solution; one that customer
wants and the user (who not always equals the customer)
is happy with. |
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Being
able to develop an effective solution requires the
ability to formulate and/or design the solution,
the ability and/or methods to communicate effectively
between the parties of a (typically) interdisciplinary
(and often multi cultural) team, and the methodology
to test effectiveness of the solution against pre-defined
metrics. |
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An effective
solution is the result of a development process
that iterates between prototyping and empirical
validation. In product design, prototyping often
is used to explore not only solution possibilities
but also to explore the assignment and customer
needs. The success of a project relies on the recognition
that prototypes are to be produced quickly, and
to be thrown away. |
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To communicate
between the various parties of the interdisciplinary
team is improved by methods to handle non-tangible
information. Especially in design and interface
related projects the ability to communicate subjective
information is an important success factor. |
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Empirical
validation and usability testing, especially when
performed early in the design process, helps to
converge the iterative development process towards
a successful solution. |
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These
pages explore the topics of iterative product design,
of usability and empirical validation and of the
communication of non-tangible information. Ideas
are illustrated using examples drawn from original
work from actual and past projects. |
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- Fred |
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