Preview - Stop! Playing the Dice: Devices to Design Amazing Products
- 2. Title Page STOP! Playing the Dice Devices to Design Amazing Products Anshuman Sharma
- 3. Copyright Copyright ©2012 Anshuman Sharma All Rights Reserved ISBN: 978-1-105-99132-5
- 4. Dedication Dedication To my beautiful daughters Gunn and Kli To my lovely wife Nilam
- 5. Contents CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction RESEARCH SEGMENT Device 1: Research - Scenario Analysis Device 2: Research - Salability Device 3: Experience - Extreme Conditions Device 4: Research - Legality Device 5: Research - Assumptions Device 6: Research - Efficiency Analysis Device 7: Research - Past trends Analysis Device 8: Research - Design Publications Device 9: Research - Trends and Design Device 10: Research - Visualize Future Device 11: Research - Product Support Device 12: Research - One-time Buyers Device 13: Research - Product Evolution Device 14: Research - Manufacturing Capabilities Device 15: Research - Present Trends Analysis Device 16: Research - Future View Device 17: Research - Micro Analysis Device 18: Research - Other Industries Designers Device 19: Research - Relationships study Device 20: Research - Physical Attributes Analysis Device 21: Research - Demographic Study Device 22: Research - Psychographic Study Device 23: Research - Repeat Buyers
- 6. Device 24: Research - Secondary Research Device 25: Research - Behavioral Study Device 26: Research - Competitive Analysis Device 27: Research - Cultural Differences Device 28: Research - Other Markets Device 29: Research - Third Person Analysis Device 30: Research - Product Disposal Device 31: Research - Customer Delight Device 32: Research - Customer Dislikes Device 33: Research - Need Ring Device 34: Research - Design Attraction Device 35: Research - Customer Financials Device 36: Research - Other Values Device 37: Research - Perceptions Device 38: Research - Product Material Device 39: Research - Other Industries Marketers Device 40: Research - Profitability Analysis Device 41: Research - Feasibility Study Device 42: Research - Macro Analysis EXPERIENCE SEGMENT Device 43: Experience - In Other’s Shoes Device 44: Experience - Extreme Usage Device 45: Experience - Use as Consumer Device 46: Experience - Design Touching Senses Device 47: Experience - Robustness Device 48: Experience - Extreme Environment and Climates Device 49: Experience - Training to Use the Product Device 50: Experience - Create Working Model Device 51: Experience - New Environment Device 52: Experience - Interaction Design Device 53: Experience - Look into the Future
- 7. Device 54: Experience - Feel it physically Device 55: Experience - Basic Model Device 56: Experience - On Stage Device 57: Experience - Usage Models Device 58: Experience - Various Users Testing Device 59: Experience - Usage Stories Device 60: Experience - Use it Device 61: Experience - Product Assembling Device 62: Experience - Limitations Device 63: Experience - Live With Them Device 64: Experience - Product Packaging Device 65: Experience - Precautions Device 66: Experience - Existing Users Device 67: Experience - Product Integration Device 68: Experience - Designer Perception ANALYZE SEGMENT Device 69: Analyze - Invisible Presence Device 70: Analyze - Other Product’s Usage Device 71: Analyze - Buying Behavior in Stores Device 72: Analyze - New Product and Life Device 73: Analyze - Carrying the Product Device 74: Analyze - Product failing Device 75: Analyze - Visual Affects Device 76: Analyze - Innovative Usage of Product Device 77: Analyze - Capture Pictures Device 78: Analyze - Project Visits Device 79: Analyze - Daily Objects Device 80: Analyze - Become their Friend Device 81: Analyze - Product and Life Device 82: Analyze - Body Double Device 83: Analyze - Social Connections
- 8. Device 84: Analyze - Problems from Product Device 85: Analyze - Supporting Product or Service Device 86: Analyze - How They Live? Device 87: Analyze - All Categories of Customers Device 88: Analyze - Consumer’s Habits Device 89: Analyze - Video Capture Device 90: Analyze - Consumer Day Device 91: Analyze - Personal Productivity Device 92: Analyze - Movement Patterns DISCOVER SEGMENT Device 93: Discover - Segmented Users Testing Device 94: Discover - Customer’s Dislikes Device 95: Discover - Ask for Features Device 96: Discover - Feature Priorities Device 97: Discover - Customer Journal Device 98: Discover - Customer Feedback Device 99: Discover - Product Value Device 100: Discover - Cross Question Device 101: Discover - Conceptualize Device 102: Discover - Other Markets Device 103: Discover - Think Aloud Device 104: Discover - Interviewing Device 105: Discover - Focus Groups Device 106: Discover - Word Design Device 107: Discover - Requirement Analysis Device 108: Discover - Meet Critics Device 109: Discover - Other Markets Device 110: Discover - Buying Thinking Process Device 111: Discover - Perceptions Device 112: Discover - Picture Book Device 113: Discover - Card Organization
- 9. Device 114: Discover - Navigation Charts Device 115: Discover - Cultural Differences Device 116: Discover - Visualize and Draw About Author
- 10. Introduction The success of a company depends mainly upon the quality of the products it develops and sells in the market. A successful product needs to be unique and should be according to the requirements of the customers. A good product becomes its own marketer as every time it is used, it delights its users, which makes them the advocates of the product. We can observe this phenomenon in some of the winning products in the market. A winning product has great design, quality and gives satisfactory experiences to its users. Few companies have mastered the art of product design and they are extremely successful in the market with high profitability and growth. These companies use the product design skills as their competitive advantage and protect it like trade secret. In fact, the process of creating great products is not complex. It is a set of tools and methods which, if used properly and sincerely, can support any design team to develop amazing products. We have tried to expose these methods and devices in this work. To contrast the available books on product design methods, we have kept this book extremely simple. The specified devices can be used by any sincere person looking to design products. The simplicity of the devices is evident from the fact that even a layperson, with no knowledge about product design, can understand and use these devices. A successful product needs to be holistic, equipped with innovative marketing, superior quality and emphatic support. An innovative design of a product with weak support cannot get success in the market. The products are differentiated by their value proposition, quality and features. An excellent product has great design, which evolves from the culture of the company where everybody is serious about design and focuses on improving it consistently. A great design evolves mainly from the attitude rather than technical expertise. It has always been difficult for companies to create great products. Some companies hire highly qualified technical experts to create the magic, while others outsource the product design process. Sometimes the responsibilities of creating new ideas and products lie on few elite individuals, in other cases R&D department bears the complete responsibility of developing successful products. In most cases these efforts fail. The main reason for this failure is the wrong approach. The most important aspect for developing new ideas about products and subsequently designing it requires a proper methodology, which is generally simple but effective. Every successful company has their set of method to design the products but the fundamental ideas remain same. This book tries to reveal the effective but simple methodology of designing the great products. The methodology discussed in the book has four segments and is called READ Technique. READ stands for Research, Experience, Analyze and Discover. ‘Research
- 11. segment’ focuses on capturing and analyzing the information available in the market, ‘Experience segment’ focuses on checking out the views and ideas generated, ‘Analyze Segment’ focuses on observing the aspects for product and ‘Discover Segment’ focuses on surveys and interviews. Each of the four segments has several devices and methods specified in this work which would help the professionals in designing a great and winning product. To design a great product the designers need to focus on a specific area of the design process. The specified segments and devices in the book would serve the designers by focusing their attention to each area of the design process. Each device described in the book briefly describes it, specifies its importance & value, explain the way to use it and supported by an example to describe it. The design devices list specified in this book is exhaustive and every device would not be suitable for your projects. Design team needs to identify and list the devices to be used for a specific project. These devices would motivate the design team in various ways by suggesting them relevant methods to solve the design problem. It is suggested that this resource should be used as a guide and reference to create better product designs.
- 12. RESEARCH SEGMENT Research segment of the READ Model includes the devices which focus on collecting and researching the available data, information, insights in archives, published or tacit format. This segment equips the designers with substantial grasp of the project to graduate to other segments of the model.
- 13. Device 1: Research - Scenario Analysis Check with various scenarios to identify different ways which would create operational difficulties for the product. This device would help the designer to identify the various situations when the product would be affected negatively with user’s actions. Identify various scenarios which can fail the product due to human actions. Find the reason for these failures. These can be through human mistakes, negligence or actions. The purpose is to design the product robust enough to protect itself for possible problems. Example: Identify various ways when a glass container can break during its usage.
- 14. Device 2: Research - Salability Check for the salability of the designed product. This analysis is important as the designed product should be marketable and commercially viable. Conduct a market survey asking the target segment about their intention to buy the product based upon product features, value proposition and pricing. Example: Check the salability of the newly designed software based upon its features, value proposition, interactivity, user friendliness and pricing.