Introduction

Design basically emerged more as a discipline from almost when people started looking into
sensibly design as an organized subject was from post World War two, where there were several
mishaps which happened to all the airplanes and people realize that there is a human side of all
the story, we and engineering cannot cater standalone to every requirement.

So, there has to be some kind of a confluence or merger between the human side and the
engineering side. The challenge today that our country really has is we are lacking in trained
manpower as regards global designers who can change businesses go in a certain direction
because businesses today are treated more about people, they are not about what really you sell
or what are the added advantages that we will come to you if you sell something, but it is about
whom you are selling, and what are their aspirations and can we track that aspiration back into
our designs and our products or our systems.

So, the need really is this that producing global designers with some Indian sensibilities where
the aspects of more or less everything that is related to this side of the world the Southeast Asian
economy, can be trapped somehow with the spirit of design in center of it.

we would start pointing out different aspects of product design as well as partially maybe user
experience design along the way; learning some basic tools and techniques which would be
needed by individuals who try to get trained in the area of designing systems or products or
experiences for people.

These are some organized tools knowledge of which is probably important for all the new
beginners in the area of design to start designing for different situations. So, the basic objectives
here are to create design thinkers, design entrepreneurs, design leaders so on so forth. So, what is
really the state of design in the world today if we were to look at a design as an opportunity.
The best example is an article from New York Times that got published about a couple of
years back when the new wave of design came as one of the dominant forces in the industry.
So, this article actually written by Rob Walker says that it is a golden age of
design and thanks to the convergence of creativity technology and big money that finally, the
heyday of the field may be upon us.

So, there are a lot of underlying facts, which are covered in this article because of which you
know this article got published. obviously, the whole field of design has kind of changed
from just designing something which is just sort of a basic you know mass customization
based or need based to something which is actually related to the experience related to using
of a product. It is missing the worldwide recognition as an essential component for what
we today called people centered innovation and people centered design.

So, they basically target user experience to begin with, and try to map that into all the you
know your innovations that go into a product and this way as in the following few examples,
products simply change definitions, products simply change those boundaries , but what can be
visualized as a product about let us say tens of years back, is no longer considered to be a
product anymore or a good product anymore; because there are so many different variants,
because of the usability and the user sense and the user aspiration that, the shape the size, the
form of the product has probably gotten completely changed in the current day.

History of Design Practice

one has to understand the design thinking process. A little bit of history about
how design really happened so, far and continued. It grew probably if you look at. So, this really
dates back all the way to 1870 when on the very famous Frederick W Taylor and Dilbert
introduced what is known as ergonomics in a work environment.

Basically they did the redesigning of the work atmosphere and environment. So, that was geared
towards productivity. The whole area of ergonomics was found by Jastrze bowski in the very
same year.
Bauhaus movement which was actually another sort of a pointer towards how design could be
important and what could be the relationship between art craft and society. The more important
need for a design intervention came up during the World War 2 because of repeated plane
crashes and the increased need felt by mankind to have man machine interaction to a probably a
better level.

Aspects which are related to human engineering or let us say engineering and psychology
merger came up in 1940s, again the ergonomics research society in UK was heavily involved in
the fifties to look at some of the industrial problems human safety was a very major concerned
raised and then you know human factors led to aspects related to redesigning of products. For
example from the general Alexander Graham bell telephone which is based on dial the push
button telephone emerged as a possibility the design the impact of environmental aspects on
creating productivity, in the work atmosphere or reduction of stress in the workplace became
almost a very common matter of study and common purview.

In 1980s we can see the specialization related to man machine to human computer interaction,
the cognitive side or the let us say the man machine interaction also known better as human
computer interaction interface was necessitated again ergonomics was interfaced with all this and
then there were other concepts, which generally emerged which led to finally, what we call the
user experience concept, which is actually merged now with design thinking and design
innovation process.

In between in the 90s there was usability engineering, user centered design which actually
converged into this user experience design, which has now for the last about one decade or so,
for more than a decade

Product and Product Development

The economic success of most firms depends on their ability to identify the needs of
customers and to quickly create products that meet these needs and can be produced at
low cost. Achieving these goals is not solely a marketing problem, nor is it solely a design
problem or a manufacturing problem; it is a product development problem involving all
of these functions

A product is something sold by an enterprise to its customers. Product development

is the set of activities beginning with the perception of a market opportunity and ending
in the production, sale, and delivery of a product. Although much of the material in this
book is useful in the development of any product, we explicitly focus on products that
are engineered, discrete, and physical

Characteristics of Successful Product Development

Product quality: How good is the product resulting from the development effort? Does it satisfy
customer needs? Is it robust and reliable? Product quality is ultimately reflected in market share
and the price that customers are willing to pay.

• Product cost: What is the manufacturing cost of the product? This cost includes spending
on capital equipment and tooling as well as the incremental cost of producing each
unit of the product. Product cost determines how much profit accrues to the firm for a
particular sales volume and a particular sales price.
• Development time: How quickly did the team complete the product development effort?
Development time determines how responsive the firm can be to competitive
forces and to technological developments, as well as how quickly the firm receives the
economic returns from the team’s efforts.
• Development cost: How much did the firm have to spend to develop the product?
Development
cost is usually a significant fraction of the investment required to achieve
the profits.

Who Designs and Develops Products?

 Marketing: The marketing function mediates the interactions between the firm and its
customers. Marketing often facilitates the identification of product opportunities, the
definition of market segments, and the identification of customer needs. Marketing
also typically arranges for communication between the firm and its customers, sets
target prices, and oversees the launch and promotion of the product.
• Design: The design function plays the lead role in defining the physical form of the
product to best meet customer needs. In this context, the design function includes engineering
design (mechanical, electrical, software, etc.) and industrial design (aesthetics,
ergonomics, user interfaces).
• Manufacturing: The manufacturing function is primarily responsible for designing,
operating, and/or coordinating the production system in order to produce the product.
Broadly defined, the manufacturing function also often includes purchasing, distribution,
and installation. This collection of activities is sometimes called the supply chain.
 The Challenges of Product Development
 Developing great products is hard. Few companies are highly successful more than half
the time. These odds present a significant challenge for a product development team.
Some of the characteristics that make product development challenging are:
• Trade-offs: An airplane can be made lighter, but this action will probably increase
manufacturing cost. One of the most difficult aspects of product development is recognizing,
understanding, and managing such trade-offs in a way that maximizes the success
of the product.
• Dynamics: Technologies improve, customer preferences evolve, competitors introduce
new products, and the macroeconomic environment shifts. Decision making in an environment
of constant change is a formidable task.
• Details: The choice between using screws or snap-fits on the enclosure of a computer
can have economic implications of millions of dollars. Developing a product of even
modest complexity may require thousands of such decisions.
• Time pressure: Any one of these difficulties would be easily manageable by itself
given plenty of time, but product development decisions must usually be made quickly
and without complete information.
• Economics: Developing, producing, and marketing a new product requires a large investment.
To earn a reasonable return on this investment, the resulting product must be
both appealing to customers and relatively inexpensive to produce.
For many people, product development is interesting precisely because it is challenging.
For others, several intrinsic attributes also contribute to its appeal:
• Creation: The product development process begins with an idea and ends with the
production of a physical artifact. When viewed both in its entirety and at the level of
individual activities, the product development process is intensely creative.
• Satisfaction of societal and individual needs: All products are aimed at satisfying
needs of some kind. Individuals interested in developing new products can almost
always find institutional settings in which they can develop products satisfying what
they consider to be important needs.
• Team diversity: Successful development requires many different skills and talents. As
a result, development teams involve people with a wide range of different training, experience,
perspectives, and personalities.
• Team spirit: Product development teams are often highly motivated, cooperative
groups. The team members may be colocated so they can focus their collective energy
on creating the product. This situation can result in lasting camaraderie among team
members.
 Concept Development Process

The Process of Identifying Customer Needs

Identifying customer needs is itself a process, for which we present a five-step method.
We believe that a little structure goes a long way in facilitating effective product development
practices, and we hope and expect that this method will be viewed by those who
employ it not as a rigid process but rather as a starting point for continuous improvement
and refinement. The five steps are:
1. Gather raw data from customers.
2. Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs.
3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy of primary, secondary, and (if necessary) tertiary
needs.
4. Establish the relative importance of the needs.
5. Reflect on the results and the process.

Documenting Interactions with Customers

Four methods are commonly used for documenting interactions with customers:
1. Audio recording: Making an audio recording of the interview is very easy. Unfortunately,
transcribing the recording into text is very time consuming, and hiring someone
to do it can be expensive. Also, audio recording has the disadvantage of being intimidating
to some customers.
2. Notes: Handwritten notes are the most common method of documenting an interview.
Designating one person as the primary note taker allows the other person to concentrate
on effective questioning. The note taker should strive to capture some of the wording
of every customer statement verbatim. These notes, if transcribed immediately after the
interview, can be used to create a description of the interview that is very close to an
actual transcript. This debriefing immediately after the interview also facilitates sharing
of insights between the interviewers.
3. Video recording: Video recording is almost always used to document a focus group
session. It is also very useful for documenting observations of the customer in the use
environment and/or using existing products. The video recording is useful for bringing
new team members “up to speed” and is also useful as raw material for presentations to
upper management. Multiple viewings of video recordings of customers in action often
facilitate the identification of latent customer needs. Video recording is also useful for
capturing many aspects of the end user’s environment.
4. Still photography: Taking photographs provides many of the benefits of video
recording, but is usually less intrusive and therefore easier to do while observing customers
in the field. Additional advantages of still photography are ease of display of the photos,
excellent image quality, and readily available equipment. The primary disadvantage is
the relative inability to record dynamic information.

Creativity, Innovation, and Invention

One of the key requirements for entrepreneurial success is ability to develop and offer something
unique to the marketplace. Over time, entrepreneurship has become associated with creativity,
the ability to develop something original, particularly an idea or a representation of an idea.
Innovation requires creativity, but innovation is more specifically the application of creativity.
Innovation is the manifestation of creativity into a usable product or service. In the
entrepreneurial context, innovation is any new idea, process, or product, or a change to an
existing product or process that adds value to that existing product or service.
How is an invention different from an innovation? All inventions contain innovations, but not
every innovation rises to the level of a unique invention. For our purposes, an invention is a truly
novel product, service, or process. It will be based on previous ideas and products, but it is such a
leap that it is not considered an addition to or a variant of an existing product but something
unique.

Concept Description
Creativity ability to develop something original,
particularly an idea or a representation of an
idea, with an element of aesthetic flair

Innovation change that adds value to an existing product or

service
Invention Truly novel product, service, or process that,
though based on ideas and products that have
come before, represents a leap, a creation truly
novel and different

Creativity
Entrepreneurial creativity and artistic creativity are not so different. You can find inspiration in
your favorite books, songs, and paintings, and you also can take inspiration from existing
products and services. You can find creative inspiration in nature, in conversations with other
creative minds, and through formal ideation exercises, for example, brainstorming. Ideation is
the purposeful process of opening up your mind to new trains of thought that branch out in all
directions from a stated purpose or problem. Brainstorming, the generation of ideas in an
environment free of judgment or dissension with the goal of creating solutions, is just one of
dozens of methods for coming up with new ideas.
Innovation
According to the management thinker and author Peter Drucker, the key point about innovation
is that it is a response to both changes within markets and changes from outside markets. For
Drucker, classical entrepreneurship psychology highlights the purposeful nature of innovation.
Business firms and other organizations can plan to innovate by applying either lateral or linear
thinking methods, or both. In other words, not all innovation is purely creative. If a firm wishes
to innovate a current product, what will likely matter more to that firm is the success of the
innovation rather than the level of creativity involved. Drucker summarized the sources of
innovation into seven categories, as outlined in Firms and individuals can innovate by seeking
out and developing changes within markets or by focusing on and cultivating creativity. Firms
and individuals should be on the lookout for opportunities to innovate.

Drucker’s Seven Sources of Innovation

Source Description
The unexpected Looking for new opportunities in the market;
unexpected product performance; unexpected
new products as examples
The incongruity Discrepancies between what you think should
be and what is reality
Process need Weaknesses in the organization, product, or
service
Changes in industry/market New regulations; new technologies
Demographics Understanding needs and wants of target
markets
Changes in perceptions Changes in perceptions of life events and
values
New knowledge New technologies; advancements in thinking;
new research

Invention

An invention is a leap in capability beyond innovation. Some inventions combine several

innovations into something new. Invention certainly requires creativity, but it goes beyond
coming up with new ideas, combinations of thought, or variations on a theme. Inventors build.
Developing something users and customers view as an invention could be important to some
entrepreneurs, because when a new product or service is viewed as unique, it can create new
markets. True inventiveness is often recognized in the marketplace, and it can help build a
valuable reputation and help establish market position if the company can build a future-oriented
corporate narrative around the invention.

Besides establishing a new market position, a true invention can have a social and cultural
impact. At the social level, a new invention can influence the ways institutions work. For
example, the invention of desktop computing put accounting and word processing into the hands
of nearly every office worker. The ripple effects spread to the school systems that educate and
train the corporate workforce. Not long after the spread of desktop computing, workers were
expected to draft reports, run financial projections, and make appealing presentations.
Specializations or aspects of specialized jobs—such as typist, bookkeeper, corporate
copywriter—became necessary for almost everyone headed for corporate work. Colleges and
eventually high schools saw software training as essential for students of almost all skill levels.
These additional capabilities added profitability and efficiencies, but they also have increased job
requirements for the average professional.

The Product Development Process

A process is a sequence of steps that transforms a set of inputs into a set of outputs. Most
people are familiar with the idea of physical processes, such as those used to bake a cake
or to assemble an automobile. A product development process is the sequence of steps or
activities that an enterprise employs to conceive, design, and commercialize a product.
Many of these steps and activities are intellectual and organizational rather than physical.
Some organizations define and follow a precise and detailed development process, while
others may not even be able to describe their process. Furthermore, every organization
employs a process at least slightly different from that of every other organization. In fact,
the same enterprise may follow different processes for each of several different types of
development projects.

The six phases of the generic development process are:

Planning: The planning activity is often referred to as “phase zero” because it

precedes the project approval and launch of the actual product development process.
This phase begins with opportunity identification guided by corporate strategy and includes
assessment of technology developments and market objectives

Concept development: In the concept development phase, the needs of the target
market are identified, alternative product concepts are generated and evaluated, and one
or more concepts are selected for further development and testing. A concept is a description
of the form, function, and features of a product and is usually accompanied by a set
of specifications, an analysis of competitive products, and an economic justification of
the project.

System-level design: The system-level design phase includes the definition of the
product architecture, decomposition of the product into subsystems and components, and
preliminary design of key components. Initial plans for the production system and final
assembly are usually defined during this phase as well. The output of this phase usually
includes a geometric layout of the product, a functional specification of each of the product’s
subsystems, and a preliminary process flow diagram for the final assembly process.

Detail design: The detail design phase includes the complete specification of the
geometry, materials, and tolerances of all of the unique parts in the product and the identification
of all of the standard parts to be purchased from suppliers. A process plan is
established and tooling is designed for each part to be fabricated within the production
system. The output of this phase is the control documentation for the product—the drawings
or computer files describing the geometry of each part and its production tooling,
the specifications of the purchased parts, and the process plans for the fabrication and
assembly of the product. Three critical issues that are best considered throughout the
product development process, but are finalized in the detail design phase, are: materials
selection, production cost, and robust performance.

Testing and refinement: The testing and refinement phase involves the construction
and evaluation of multiple preproduction versions of the product. Early
(alpha) prototypes are usually built with production-intent parts—parts with the same
geometry and material properties as intended for the production version of the product
but not necessarily fabricated with the actual processes to be used in production.
Alpha prototypes are tested to determine whether the product will work as designed
and whether the product satisfies the key customer needs. Later (beta) prototypes are
usually built with parts supplied by the intended production processes but may not be
assembled using the intended final assembly process. Beta prototypes are extensively
evaluated internally and are also typically tested by customers in their own use environment.
The goal for the beta prototypes is usually to answer questions about performance
and reliability in order to identify necessary engineering changes for the final
product.

Four Types of Product Development Projects

Product development projects can be classified as four types:

• New product platforms: This type of project involves a major development effort to
create a new family of products based on a new, common platform. The new product
family would address familiar markets and product categories. The Xerox Lakes project,
aimed at the development of a new, digital copier platform, is an example of this
type of project.
Derivatives of existing product platforms: These projects extend an existing product
platform to better address familiar markets with one or more new products. To develop
a new copier based on an existing light-lens (not digital) product platform would be an
example of this type of project.
• Incremental improvements to existing products: These projects may only involve
adding or modifying some features of existing products to keep the product line current
and competitive. A slight change to remedy minor flaws in an existing copier
product would be an example of this type of project.
• Fundamentally new products: These projects involve radically different product or
production technologies and may help to address new and unfamiliar markets. Such
projects inherently involve more risk; however, the long-term success of the enterprise
may depend on what is learned through these important projects. The first digital
copier Xerox developed is an example of this type of project.

Fig: The generic product development process.

 Product Strategy Development Idea Generation and Screening
Introduction

New product ideas are seldom revolutionary, they are mostly evolutionary. Many develop
from the products of the past, making improvements in quality; convenience, cost or
variety. The truly innovative product starts a new sequence of these evolutionary products.
For example, quick frozen peas were an innovative product which started a sequence of
quick frozen vegetable products. Most often in the past, a new method of preservation -
freezing, canning, drying - was the revolutionary innovation in the food industry which led
to many new evolutionary products.

Idea generation is knowledgeable, creative and systematic. It develops from knowledge of

the consumer, the market, the technology and the general environment, and it creates
newness in product, production and marketing. It systematically develops product ideas to
satisfy the aim of the project and therefore the business strategy. Idea generation in industry
is strategic and not left to chance. Ideas can come from 'blue skies' research or from
inventions, but in product development these are systematically developed into innovations
in the company and the marketplace. Idea generation occurs not only at the initial stages in
developing product concepts but throughout the project - in the design of the product,
package and process, and in developing the marketing strategy. In idea generation, the
field is kept wide so that no possible innovations are ignored, but it is focused within the
aim of the project. This is a dichotomy that can cause problems.

In screening, the many ideas are reduced to smaller numbers and eventually to the one
product concept, prototype product, processing method and advertising plan. The screening
begins qualitatively and gradually develops, as more information is obtained, to a
quantitative evaluation of the predicted outcomes for the product, production, market and
finance.

There is a constant cycling of idea generation and screening throughout the project until the
final market launch. A wide range of ideas gradually becomes focused into the final launch
plans. Control of these activities of idea generation and screening ensures that no good
ideas are lost and that poor ideas are dropped quickly. This is the ideal outcome but it is
very hard to achieve. The extent of idea generation and screening varies with the type of
innovation and the product; it is minor for the product line extension, slightly greater for the
me-too product and product improvements, and is very extensive throughout the company
for the innovation.

After the project's aim has been established, ideas can come from free brainstorming, from
systematically studying how the consumer may use the product, and from developments in
technology, the industry and the market. These ideas are qualitatively screened so that they
agree with the project aims and constraints, using a simple but disciplined system of
judging. The selected ideas are developed into descriptions of the product and the target
markets, and are further reduced in number by a more complex screening method such as
checklist screening and economic evaluation. Then there is the development of the product
idea concepts by the consumers, where the idea generation focuses on the product benefits;
the consumers and company staff gradually reduce the number of product ideas and build
more detailed product concepts. Evaluation at this stage becomes quantitative and more
detailed, and is based on market research, product costing and technical evaluations which
predict if the product is to be a success or a failure in meeting the company's aims.

Steps involved in Engineering Design process-

Conceptual Design

It is a process in which we initiate the design and come up with a number of design concepts and
then narrow down to the single best concept. This involved the following steps
Identification of customer needs : The goal of this activity is to completely understand the
customers’ needs and to communicate them to the design team

● Problem definition : The goal of this activity is to create a statement that describes what has to
be accomplished to satisfy the needs of the customer. This involves analysis of competitive
products, the establishment of target specifications, and the listing of constraints and trade-offs.
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a valuable tool for linking customer needs with design
requirements. A detailed listing of the product requirements is called a product design
specification (PDS).

● Gathering information: Engineering design presents special requirements over engineering

research in the need to acquire a broad spectrum of information.

● Conceptualization : Concept generation involves creating a broad set of concepts that

potentially satisfy the problem statement. Team-based creativity methods, combined with
efficient information gathering, are the key activities.
● Concept selection : Evaluation of the design concepts, modifying and evolving into a single
preferred concept, are the activities in this step. The process usually requires several iterations.
● Refinement of the PDS : The product design specification is revisited after the concept has
been selected. The design team must commit to achieving certain critical values of design
parameters, usually called critical-to-quality (CTQ) parameters, and to living with trade-offs
between cost and performance.

● Design review : Before committing funds to move to the next design phase, a design review
will be held. The design review will assure that the design is physically realizable and that it is
economically worthwhile. It will also look at a detailed product development schedule. This is
needed to devise a strategy to minimize product cycle time and to identify the resources in
people, equipment, and money needed to complete the project.

Embodiment Design

It is a process where the structured development of the design concepts takes place. It is in this
phase that decisions are made on strength, material selection, size shape and spatial
compatibility.

 Product architecture : Product architecture is concerned with dividing the overall design
system into subsystems or modules. In this step we decide how the physical components of the
design are to be arranged and combined to carry out the functional duties of the design.

● Configuration design of parts and components : Parts are made up of features like holes, ribs,
splines, and curves. Configuring a part means to determine what features will be present and how
those features are to be arranged in space relative to each other. While modeling and simulation
may be performed in this stage to check out function and spatial constraints, only approximate
sizes are determined to assure that the part satisfies the PDS. Also, more specificity about
materials and manufacturing is given here. The generation of a physical model of the part with
rapid prototyping processes may be appropriate.

● Parametric design of parts: Parametric design starts with information on the configuration of
the part and aims to establish its exact dimensions and tolerances. Final decisions on the material
and manufacturing processes are also established if this has not been done previously. An
important aspect of parametric design is to examine the part, assembly, and system for design
robustness. Robustness refers to how consistently a component performs under variable
conditions in its service environment. The methods developed by Dr. Genichi Taguchi for
achieving robustness and establishing the optimum

Detail Design

It is in this phase the design is brought to a state where it has the complete engineering
description of a tested and a producible product. Any missing information about the
arrangement, form, material, manufacturing process, dimensions, tolerances etc of each part is
added and detailed engineering drawing suitable for manufacturing are prepared.
Prototype

Prototypes are physical models of the product that are tested in some way to validate the design
decisions that have been made up to that point in the design process. A prototype is a physical
model of the product, as opposed to a computer model (CAD model) of the product or other
simulation of the design. We are nearing the end of the embodiment design phase. The product
architecture has been decided, we have configured the components, determined the dimensions
and tolerances on the features, and carried out parametric design on several critical to-quality
parts and assemblies.

Much attention has been given to computer modeling because it often provides insights faster
and with less cost than building and testing a physical model or prototype. Also, using finite
element analysis or some other CAE tool can provide technical answers that may not be
available any other way. Both prototypes and computer models are valuable tools in carrying out
the design process

Understanding Prototypes

Although dictionaries define prototype as a noun only, in product development practice the word
is used as a noun, a verb, and an adjective.
For example:
• Industrial designers produce prototypes of their concepts.
• Engineers prototype a design.
• Software developers write prototype programs.

Fig: Types of prototypes. Prototypes can be classified according to the degree to which they are physical
and the degree to which they implement all of the attributes of the product
A Prototype May Reduce the Risk of Costly Iterations

A prototype may reduce the risk of costly iteration. Taking time to build and test a prototype may allow
the development team to detect a problem that would otherwise not have been detected until after a
costly development activity, such as building an injection mold.