Introduction

to Product
Design
MODULE 1
HSSM301
PRODUCT DESIGN

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Syllabus
• Overview of product design process,
• Importance of user-centered design,
• Design thinking methodologies,
• Case studies of successful product designs,
• Introduction to design tools and software (e.g., Sketch, Adobe XD)

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Importance of user-centered design

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Importance of user-centered design
• One of the fundamental principles of product design is user-centeredness.
• By placing the end user at the core of the design process, engineers and
designers gain valuable insights into their needs, desires, and pain points.

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Importance of user-centered design
• This user-centric approach ensures that the final product meets or exceeds
user expectations, increasing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
• User-centered design (UCD) is a fundamental approach in product design that
prioritizes the needs, goals, and experiences of the end-users.
• It emphasizes the importance of understanding users’ behaviors, preferences,
and expectations throughout the design process.
• User-centered design recognizes that user needs and preferences evolve over
time.
• Therefore, it promotes a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation.

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Importance of user-centered design
• Designers actively seek user
feedback, monitor usage
patterns, and leverage analytics
to gain insights into user
behaviors and changing needs.
• This information helps make
iterative improvements, add new
features, or adapt the product to
better serve users as their
requirements change.

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Design thinking methodologies
What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process
• Stage 1: Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs
• Stage 2: Define—State Your Users' Needs and Problems
• Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas
• Stage 4: Prototype—Start to Create Solutions
• Stage 5: Test—Try Your Solutions Out product.

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Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs
The Design Thinking process starts with empathy. To create desirable products
and services, you need to understand who your users are and what they need.
What are their expectations about the product you’re designing? What
challenges and pain points do they face within this context?

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Define—State Your Users' Needs and
Problems
In the second stage of the Design
Thinking process, you’ll define
the user problem you want to
solve. First, you’ll gather all of
your findings from the
empathize phase and start
piecing them together. What
common themes and patterns did
you observe? What user needs
and challenges consistently came
up?

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Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and
Create Ideas
The third stage in the Design Thinking process consists of ideation—or generating
ideas. By this point, you know who your target users are and what they want
from your product. You also have a clear problem statement that you’re hoping
to solve. Now it’s time to come up with possible solutions.
1. Brainstorming 6. SCAMPER
2. Reverse brainstorming 7. Mind Mapping
/ Headstand
3. Brain-writing 8. Crowdsourcing
4. Six Thinking Hats 9. Concept sketching
5. Crazy 8

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 Brain-writing

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 Six
Thinking
Hats

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SCAMPER

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Prototype—Start to Create Solutions
In the fourth stage of the Design Thinking process, you’ll turn your ideas from
stage three into prototypes. A prototype is essentially a scaled-down version of
a product or feature—be it a simple paper model or a more interactive digital
representation.

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Test—Try Your Solutions Out product
In the fifth step in the Design Thinking process is dedicated to testing: putting
your prototypes in front of real users and seeing how they get on. During the
testing phase, you’ll observe your target users—or representative users—as they
interact with your prototype. You’ll also gather feedback on how your users felt
throughout the process.

Dyson Testing YouTube:

https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=Vv8FTvCjD
m4

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Case studies of Product Designs
Three case studies are presented in the following slides.
1. App Controlled light

2. Venue Furniture

3. Wireless headphones

4. FedEx Ground® Navigation App

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Smart lamp | App controlled light
When designing the overall aesthetics of the smart lamp
we at Simple Design Works gave it a modern, yet retro-
futuristic look whilst still retaining the feel of a classic
shaded lamp. The material combination of gloss white
polymer and brushed copper was used to reinforce this
hybrid aesthetic.
The circuitry was designed and rigorously tested before
finalizing the CAD. This was to ensure all functions
worked exactly as specified when interacting with both
IOS and android phones.
To control the lamp, a bespoke app was created for the
device. We designed the user experience as well as the
graphics and interface so that they were intuitive and
easy to understand.

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Smart lamp | App controlled light

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Smart lamp | App controlled light
The final product is a contemporary
smart light that interacts and adjusts
using a smartphone app. The colour and
brightness of the LED lighting is changed
easily and effortlessly from your phone.
This is through using integrated
Bluetooth technology. This allows the
user to easily change the mood of the
room to suit how they’re feeling or what
they’re doing. Perfect for whether
you’re working, relaxing or entertaining.

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Race Furniture | Bespoke furniture for venues
Simple Design Works was invited to collaborate
in the furniture design and layout optimization
of the lecture theatre for Loughborough
University. They required thoughtful seating in
an educational setting to enhance the students’
experiences as well as allow lecturers to
interact better with them.
We coordinated our design work with the
architect to make sure all tables and seats were
fitted correctly to the structural support in the
floor. There were compliance considerations to
this project as we needed to achieve all
minimum clearance gaps. This is required by
the current regulations so as to provide
sufficient emergency exits throughout.

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Race Furniture | Bespoke furniture for venues

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Race Furniture | Bespoke furniture for venues
The result was the award winning Connect
system. Connect creates the perfect learning
environment as it can be completely customized
using the newly designed flexible seating solution.
Whilst it allows different teaching layouts, it also
reduces the overall space requirement. Crucially
for everyone in the room, it gives everyone a clear
line of sight.
Connect has solid wooden seat backs, fixed
writing shelves and integrated power and data
ports. What’s more it’s been thoroughly tried and
successfully tested in universities across the UK
and Europe. This project has gone on to win
numerous awards. This includes the RIBA East
Midlands Building of the Year and FX International
Design Award for Workplace Seating.

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OD /2017 wireless earphone
Creative Director : Joongho Choi
Product Design : Hyunsoo Choi ( Project Leader ) , Jeong Kim
Category : Wireless Bluetooth Earphone
OD is a wireless earphone with Bluetooth functionality. OD is designed to be able to wire each
piece with a string to prevent users from losing the earphones when removed from ears. A
hook-and-ring set structure is applied which can also be usually seen as a fashion accessories,
which breaks from the general image of electronic goods. The design is compatible with the
users’ fashion. In addition, the circular serration patterns and rings are reminiscent of the image
of earrings when worn on the ears.

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OD /2017 wireless earphone

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OD /2017 wireless earphone

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FedEx Ground® Navigation App
James Lacey
◦ FedEx Ground® asked Verizon to create a navigation app for its drivers. In less than a month, I designed
the winning pitch and the app is now in use nationwide.
◦ With limited information on the project objective and sparse context surrounding the current driver
application, I pleaded to speak with drivers that would be using the app. Luckily, my reputation
earned me a little slack, and within hours I was on the phone interviewing drivers and uncovering
needs.
◦ By the end of day three, my initial interviews, user personas, journey maps, and user stories were
complete and my wireframe user flows were presented and approved.
◦ Once the drivers confirmed that my low-fidelity mockup solved the core needs of the minimum viable
product, I polished the UI using FedEx's Brand Guidelines and assembled the final prototype for the
executive review.
◦ Within two months of dev hand-off, design reviews, and internal QA, our engineers successfully
deployed the app for more than 3,000 FedEx Ground drivers in time for the holiday season target
deadline.

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Introduction to design tools and software
User interface (UI) design or user interface engineering is the design of user
interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances,
mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing
usability and the user experience. In computer or software design, user interface
(UI) design primarily focuses on information architecture. It is the process of
building interfaces that clearly communicate to the user what's important. UI
design refers to graphical user interfaces and other forms of interface design. The
goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and
efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals (user-centered design).
• Sketch
• Adobe XD
• Figma

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Sketch
Sketch is a vector graphics editor for macOS developed by the Dutch company
Sketch B.V. It is primarily used for user interface and user experience design of
websites and mobile apps, and does not include print design features. Sketch has
more recently added features for prototyping and collaboration. Being only
available for macOS, third party software and handoff tools may be used to view
Sketch designs on other platforms.

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Sketch YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZeIhiNbSMg&t=1s

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Adobe XD
Adobe XD (also known as Adobe Experience Design) is a vector design tool for
web and mobile applications, developed and published by Adobe Inc. It is
available for macOS and Windows, and there are versions for iOS and Android to
help preview the result of work directly on mobile devices. Adobe XD enables
website wire-framing and creating click-through prototypes

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Adobe XD You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR-AE-yznY4

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Figma
Figma is a collaborative web application for interface design, with additional
offline features enabled by desktop applications for macOS and Windows. The
feature set of Figma focuses on user interface and user experience design, with
an emphasis on real-time collaboration, utilising a variety of vector graphics
editor and prototyping tools. The Figma mobile app for Android and iOS allows
viewing and interacting with Figma prototypes in real-time on mobile and tablet
devices.

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FigmaYou Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx2dkpBxst8&t=95s

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Crazy 8’s Ideation Technique

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