Jessie Mumgaard, Public Relations Manager, Beyond Design
It is 6am and your alarm goes off. You reach over, hoping to hit the snooze button before the irritating noise coming from the object next to your bed drives you insane.
From the time you get up to the time you go to bed at night, you use a number of products that were designed to get you through the day—the stove you use to make your breakfast, the cell phone that never leaves your side, the iPod you listen to at the gym, and the flat screen television that you watch your favorite shows on.
But, who designs these products you use everyday? Industrial designers devote their careers to designing products to improve your life. Good industrial design identifies unmet needs and develops solutions to meet those needs.
To create an innovative, user-friendly, and profitable product, industrial designers must study several important factors, among which include: market trends, social trends, and you, the user.
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When you walk into a Crate and Barrel, you see a number of trends in today’s home market—from eco-friendly bamboo furniture and kitchen essentials to organic cotton and spring greens. Market trends have a huge impact on a product’s design.
These trends may include color, material, style, texture, and finish; but they are more than mere fashion and also encompass trends such as the shift from physical to digital media. They tend to vary among the types of products designed. For example, the “it” color or style in the furniture market may be completely different than what is “it” in the electronics market.
Furthermore, market trends also encompass competitive pressure. Product design, when done well, helps a company differentiate its products from those of its competitors, and win important distribution opportunities.
It only takes one company to create a new product paradigm to force the rest of the industry to catch up—which further ignites innovation. Product design teams are at the forefront of this, constantly seeking competitive advantage through originality.
While innovation is essential in design, it isn’t always about creating something totally new. The Nintendo Wii, for instance, adds a whole new twist to the gaming world. Adapting, combining and applying existing ideas in new ways can be just as innovative.
Designers realize the importance of identifying new trends, where appropriate incorporating them into the designs, but also trying to ensure the integrity of the product will outlive a passing trend.
The constant wave of new social trends also greatly affects why a product is designed. Green design is arguably the most dominant social trend in the design world today. Designers have the ability to make new products that are innovative, sustainable, profitable and able to compete in the global marketplace.
Smart green design creates products that use less energy, products that can be recycled easily or reused, and products that promote energy and material efficiency in consumers’ lives. As mentioned earlier, Crate and Barrel supports this trend and focuses several of their products on eco-friendly bamboo—one of the fastest growing and most replenishable plants on earth.
In addition, manufacturers are increasingly using sustainable materials, focusing on cleaning up the production process and considering the environmental impact of shipping and production.
Society’s desire to lead a healthy lifestyle is prevalent in the design world. More companies are designing products that encourage a healthy lifestyle. From the design of heart monitors and air purifiers to large exercise equipment, such as treadmills and weight lifting machines.
Another social trend is seen with more and more consumers constantly on the move, which makes a product’s portability significant in design. DVD players are now designed to travel in cars, GPS systems can transfer from one car to another, and MP3 players are seen almost everywhere. As these—and other—social trends change, consumers’ tastes change as well. Industrial designers are there to identify these changing social trends and design products that satisfy the current needs of the consumer market.
Above all, you, the user, have the greatest influence over a product design. When you go shopping, what influences you to purchase one product over another? Is it the color, price, product features, brand, or something entirely different? Industrial designers constantly seek to understand the end-user’s needs, goals and the environmental conditions in which they live.
Their goal is to create something that solves a problem and simplifies the user’s life. Designers identify and solve user needs through ethnographic research, field studies, focus groups, and more.
Industrial designers can develop a great product, but if they have misjudged what the consumer wants, it will not do well in the market. Successful products and innovations are often the result of companies staying in touch with consumer needs.
The next time you use your favorite can opener, re-heat leftovers in the microwave, or do a load of laundry in your new washer and dryer remember that these products were designed for you to better your life. As long as society needs new products, there will continue to be a demand for design.
The specific trends and consumer needs that affect the product design may change from year to year, but the goal of industrial designers will always stay the same—to provide a design solution that not only benefits the consumer, but also sets a new tone for design innovation.
For more information visit beyonddesignchicago.com