Category Archives: Cases

Cases

Context for good design

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Many design awards have their own answers about what makes a product well designed; it must be original, it must be aesthetically appealing, and it must be useful. Similarly, marketing researchers have also studied that newness, beauty, and usefulness contributes to the evaluation of a product. However, whether product usage context or the outer space of a product affects whether a product is well designed has been little discussed.

I found a nice example which shows the impact of usage context on design. Designers from Industrial Facility, a UK design studio, developed a Bath Radio for Muji. It is a radio but looks like a set of shampoo and rinse. This example shows that consumers may consider a product well designed when its design matches its usage context.

Cases

Jump Associates, unique office

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Last summer, I visited two design consulting firms in California: IDEO and Jump Associates. Visiting them raised several interesting research questions.

I was impressed by the space of the “Jump Associates.” It occupies two floors in one building and the two floors are connected by a steel stair inside the building. Employees can freely go up and down without using the external elevator. Besides, Jump Associates has several interesting rooms including “Zen Room.” This room has a low ceiling with several cushions. The Zen Room is often used for consumers who want to express their needs and ideas in a warm, comfortable setting. This is interesting because I have not seen any work telling the value of small sized space with a low ceiling. Instead, much work suggests that high ceiling facilitates creativity.

I wonder if spaces (rooms and their ceiling heights) are carefully selected for different stage gates of a product development process. Designers may want to collect consumer needs in a low-ceiling, close space but they may want a high-ceiling, open space to generate concepts.

Cases

IDEO, three roles of prototypes

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Prototypes have different forms. According to an article written by two apple computer employees, Houde and Hill (1997), prototypes prototype the “role” of a product, its “look and feel,” or its “implementation.” Therefore, designers should choose a right type of a prototype.

One step further, prototypes serve different roles. When I visited IDEO last summer, I found three boards which describe what prototypes do; they “inspire,” “experiment (evolve),” or “validate (specify)” a product. This suggests that different types of prototypes can serve different purposes for a product.

Given that there are different types of prototypes and different objectives of prototypes, designers should create different types of prototypes for different objectives. For instance, the “role” prototype can be more appropriate when designers inspire a product, while the “look and feel” prototype can be better when designers validate a product.

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Reference

Houde, S., & Hill, C. (1997). What do prototypes prototype?. In Handbook of human-computer interaction (pp. 367-381). North-Holland.

Prototypes are widely recognized to be a core means of exploring and expressing designs for interactive computer artifacts. It is common practice to build prototypes in order to represent different states of an evolving design, and to explore options. How- ever, since interactive systems are complex, it may be difficult or impossible to create prototypes of a whole design in the formative stages of a project. Choosing the right kind of more focused prototype to build is an art in itself, and communicating its limited purposes to its various audiences is a critical aspect of its use.

Cases

Do people like an unexpected design of a product?

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burger king

We often meet a product with a unique form and find it difficult to guess how it works. Examples include a donut-looking tape by 3M, a burger/fries/coke-looking USB key by Burger King, or a chocolate-looking mirror by Meiji, a Japanese chocolate manufacturer. One of my Japanese friends even pointed me a website in which a designer keeps posting his/her design prototypes (Prototype 1000).

I wonder whether consumers like a product more when its form and function are inconsistent than when they are consistent.

Prototype1000

Noseworthy, T. J., & Trudel, R. (2011). Looks Interesting, but What Does It Do? Evaluation of Incongruent Product Form Depends on Positioning. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(6), 1008–1019.

Marketers struggle with how best to position innovative products that are incongruent with consumer expectations. Compounding the issue, many incongruent products are the result of innovative changes in product form intended to increase hedonic appeal. Crossing various product categories with various positioning tactics in a single meta-analytic framework, the authors find that positioning plays an important role in how consumers evaluate incongruent form. The results demonstrate that when a product is positioned on functional dimensions, consumers show more preferential evaluations for moderately incongruent form than for congruent form. However, when a product is positioned on experiential dimensions, consumers show more preferential evaluations for congruent form than for moderately incongruent form. Importantly, an increase in perceived hedonic benefits mediates the former, whereas a decrease in perceived utilitarian benefits mediates the latter. The mediation effects are consistent with the view that consumers must first understand a product’s functionality before engaging in hedonic consumption.

Cases

Designer vs. Consumer

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Consumers find it difficult to evaluate an object when it consists of many components. For instance, they cannot evaluate whether the designer’s interior with furniture, clock, wall, and window is good or bad.

In this case, according to decision research, consumers should break down an object into detailed components in order to evaluate it better. Doing so helps consumers identify how much each component contributes to the object. This suggests that, for instance, if consumers find the value of furniture, the value of clock and the value of wall to the whole interior, they can evaluate the interior as a whole. At this moment, LEARNING needs; If consumers are exposed to multiple interiors and each of which has its evaluation score and various interior components, consumers are able to LEARN how much each interior component contributes to each interior. In sum, breaking down a holistic object into components and learning the degree to which each component contribute to the holistic object help consumers evaluate the holistic object.

Interior2

Recently, I believe that there is an alternative way to evaluate a holistic object; instead of breaking it down into pieces but by putting together the pieces. Doing so helps consumers infer the THEME that designers propose. If the designer decides the theme of her interior as jungle, for instance, she may choose a brown desk and green chairs to represent a tree with leaves, paint the walls with red dots to represent bugs, and place a round-shaped yellow clock on the wall to represent the sun. If consumers identify the jungle theme, they will be able to evaluate how much each component contributes to the theme.

Now, my question is whether consumers identify the designers’ themes. Put differently, I wonder whether consumers can reversely engineer the designers’ messages? If not, how can we help consumers find them?

Cases

Interdisciplinary Design Workshop by NSF “Instruction” @ Stanford University

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20090828_NSF workshop 007

I was invited to attend the NSF Design Series Workshop called “Interdisciplinary Graduate Design Workshop: Instruction”, on August 28 – 29 at Stanford University. Participants have different backgrounds across mechanical engineering and engineering education to architecture and psychology. I am one of few participants from the business field. Information below might be of help to those who want to take a glimpse what this workshop looks like.

List of participants

Biographical sketches of participants

Participants submitted their courses in advance and made a list of the graduate-level, interdisciplinary design courses available now. I am personally amazed by the width of this area. Here are some examples (see the full list: The collected design courses).

[*=course taught by others]

Leadership By Design – Design By Collaboration Processes for Illuminating and Expanding the Box (submitted by Bruce Corson, Studio for Pre-Expert Creativity)

Designing Day One Securing a Space for Creative Collaboration (submitted by Bruce Corson, Studio for Pre-Expert Creativity)

Rube Goldbergineering (submitted by Shawn Jordan, Purdue University)

ARCH 497c DigiFAB (submitted by David Celento, Pennsylvania State University)

ARCH 497D X-Disciplinary Creativity: Smart Products for Tomorrow (submitted by David Celento, Pennsylvania State
University)

ARTGR 672 Graphic Design & Human Interaction (submitted by Sun Kang, Iowa State University)

ARTGR 672 (HCI595X) Human Interaction Design: Design for Behavioral Change (submitted by Debra Satterfield, Iowa State University)

BUS Design and Systems Thinking for MBAs (submitted by Sara Beckman, University of California, Berkeley)

BUS Design as a Strategic Business Issue (submitted by Sara Beckman, University of California, Berkeley*)

BUS Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (submitted by Sara Beckman, University of California, Berkeley*)

BUS Design Practicum, New Product and Services Lab (submitted by Jaewoo Joo, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto*)

BUS Innovation, Foresight, and Business Design (submitted by Jaewoo Joo, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto*)

BUS Strategic Product Design for MBA students (submitted by Mark Henderson, Arizona State University)

CEE222A: Computer Integrated Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) Global Teamwork (submitted by Renate Fructer, Stanford University)

20090828_NSF workshop 047DESCI 501 Analytical Product Design (submitted by Panos Papalambros, University of Michigan)

(Design) Exhibition (submitted by Wendy Ju, California College of Arts)

(Design) Interaction Design Studio (submitted by Wendy Ju, California College of Arts)

(Design) Pulse. Topic studio (submitted by Wendy Ju, California College of Arts)

DSC 520 Contemporary Design Issues (submitted by Jacques Giard, Arizona State University)

DSC 580 Practicum: Methods of Teaching Design (submitted by Jacques Giard, Arizona State University)

DSGN 401-1 Human-Centered Design Studio 1 (submitted by Ed Colgate, Northwestern University)

DSGN 401-3: The design of services and products (submitted by Don Norman, Northwestern University)

DSGN 401-3 Human Centered Service Design (submitted by Liz Gerber, Northwestern University)

DSGN 495-20 Design Research (submitted by Ed Colgate, Northwestern University*)

DSGN 495-05 Differentiation by Design (submitted by Ed Colgate, Northwestern University*)

DSGN 495-21 Sustainable Manufacturing (submitted by Ed Colgate, Northwestern University*)

DSGN 495 Innovation Frontiers (submitted by Ed Colgate, Northwestern University*)

DSGN 490: Introduction to Product and Service Design (submitted by Don Norman, Northwestern University)

DSGN 495: Advanced Reading in Design (submitted by Don Norman, Northwestern University)

ENE Design Cognition and Learning (submitted by Robin Adams, Purdue University)

ENE History and Philosophy of Engineering Education (submitted by Robin Adams, Purdue University)

ENE Content, Assessment, and Pedagogy (submitted by Shanna Daly (Michigan), Purdue University)

ENME 600 Engineering Design Methods (submitted by Linda Schmidt, University of Maryland)

ENME608 Engineering Decision Making (submitted by Linda Schmidt, University of Maryland*)

GE598 Optimal Product Design and Development (submitted by Harrison Kim, UIUC)

HER—V 511 People-Centered Design Research (submitted by Youngbok Hong, Indiana University)

HER—V 521 Method for Design Analysis (submitted by Youngbok Hong, Indiana Univer)

INFO I541: Interaction Design Practice (submitted by Marty Siegel, Indiana University)

INFO I694: Capstone I & II (submitted by Marty Siegel, Indiana University)

ME 310A: Project-Based Engineering Design, Innovation, and Development (submitted by Micah Lande, Stanford University*)

ME 341 Computational Methods for Engineering Design (submitted by Wei Chen, Northwestern University)

ME 441 Engineering Optimization for Product Design and Manufacturing (submitted by Wei Chen, Northwestern University)

ME 461 Integrated Product Development: Design (submitted by Duke Perreira, Lehigh University)

ME 462 Integrated Product Development: Manufacturing (submitted by Duke Perreira, Lehigh University)

ME 495– Advanced Computational & Statistical Methods for Engineering Design (submitted by Wei Chen, Northwestern University)

PSED510 Predictive Science and Engineering Design Interdisciplinary Cluster Seminar (submitted by Wei Chen, Northwestern University)

ME 518: Concurrent Design of Product (submitted by Ping Ge, Oregon State University)

ME 290 Managing the New Product Development Process: Design Theory and Methods (submitted by Sara Beckman)

ME 555 / MFG 555 – Design Optimization (submitted by Panos Papalambros, University of Michigan)

ME 5353 Fundamentals of Transdisciplinary Design and Process (submitted by Derrick Tate, Texas Tech University)

ME 5355 Complexity Theory for Transdisciplinary Engineering and Science (submitted by Derrick Tate, Texas Tech University)

ME 53XX Transdisciplinary Discovery and Innovation for Engineers (submitted by Derrick Tate, Texas Tech University)

ME 520 Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) (submitted by April Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology*)

MG 590 Integrated Project (submitted by April Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology*)

MG 461 Multidisciplinary, Entrepreneurial Design I: Capture the Vision (submitted by April Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology*)

MG 462 Multidisciplinary, Entrepreneurial Design II: Expand the Concept (submitted by April Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology*)

MG 463 Multidisciplinary, Entrepreneurial Design III: Deliver the Product (submitted by April Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology*)

MG 537 Organizational Theory and Management (submitted by April Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology*)

MS&E 273 – 273. Technology Venture Formation (submitted by Lauren Acquino Shulzas, Stanford University, Teaching Assistant)

PDES Design Research (submitted by Alison McKay , University of Leeds)

(Music) Physical Interaction Design for Music (submitted by Wendy Ju, Stanford)

PDES Multidisciplinary team design projects (submitted by Alison McKay , University of Leeds)

PDES Design Policy & Integration (submitted by Alison McKay , University of Leeds*)

PDES Product data engineering (submitted by Alison McKay , University of Leeds*)

STS 6961: Design Seminar (submitted by Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic University)

**

This was the fourth workshop of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Design Workshop Series. The first one was about “the Design Discipline“ (@ University of Michigan, November 2008), the second one was about “Spanning Design Boundaries” (@ Northwestern University, April 2009), and the third one was about “Research Challenges” (@ Honolulu, June 2009).

Cases

Jeanne Liedtka, design thinking

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Jeanne Liedtka @ U of Toronto

Jeanne Liedtka, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business, visited University of Toronto and presented her work on growth.

[Summary] She argues that “catalysts” succeed against odds because they have a broad repertoire (e.g., cross-functionally trained) and have a learning mindset with empathy. In particular, she compared between growth mindset people (based on hypothesis-driven thinking) and fixed mindset people.

  1. When people have a growth mindset, they consider life as a journey of learning, embrace uncertainty, seek new experience, broaden repertoire, manage risks through action, place small bets quickly (i.e., rapid prototyping), and thus succeed more often in new situations.
  2. When people have a fixed mindset, they consider life as a test to avoid mistake, fear uncertainty, avoid new experience, narrow repertore, fail to manage risks without action, place large bets slowly, and thus fail more often in new situations.

She emphasized that learning is important when people make failures. “Learning people” learn from their failures because failures are the opportunities to test their hypotheses, whereas “non-learning people” have no such opportunity.

Cases

How to make a minimalist product?

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 Samsung Multi function printer

One of the most distinctive current design trends is minimalism. Examples are ranging from electronics such as Apple’s iPod, LG’s chocolate phone, and B&O’s BeoSound system to interior accessories such as Muji’s fan and the humidifier at Plus Minus Zero (by Naoto Fukasawa). Since some of those minimally designed products made a huge commercial success, we need to understand how consumers respond to minimalist products, the products with the minimum number of design features such as colors, shapes and buttons. 

Bang & Olufson speaker

Simplicity has been discussed in various areas. For instance, John Maeda (2007), a computer scientist and graphic designer argues in his book, The Laws of Simplicity that simplicity needs to be accomplished in graphic design as well as in organizations, business, and technology. Wallace (2006) also attributes the success of Apple and Google to their simplicity, urging marketers to deliver selective distinctive benefits in today’s visually overloaded environment. However, it is also true that many European designers complain that, mostly US, consumers are not ready to embrace the value of simplicity. Don Norman in his blog argues that simplicity is highly overrated. Then, when functionality is not sacrificed, does minimalism truly increase consumer preference?

Shin and Joo (2019), “Less for more, but how & why? – Number of elements as key determinant of visual complexity,” International Association of Societies of Design Research 2019, Manchester:UK. 

Although designers aim at “less for more” when developing a product, they struggle with how to achieve simplicity and why making a product simple improves the commercial value of the product. To answer the two questions, we performed one experimental study. In the study, we searched for which of the six different types of lowering visual complexity is effective and examined whether authenticity mediates the effect of visual complexity on commercial value. Results show that three out of six types of lowering visual complexity (e.g., irregularity of arrangement, amount of material, incongruity) deemed to be more commercial value. Results also show that decreasing the amount of material is the only way to enhance authenticity, which in turn increases the commercial value of the product.

Cases

Dev Patnaik, empathy in business

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Dev Patnaik, the founder and principal of the Jump Associates visited Rotman DesignWorks. He discussed empathy and introduced his book, How Your Business Can Prosper When You Create Widespread Empathy.

20090305_dev patnaik

[Summary]

According to him, empathy is giving up a self-centered world and walking in others’ shoes. It is related to the concept of mirror neurons or reciprocal altruism. He argues  that empathy is an important ingredient for designers. Further, we will be able to find which firms are highly empathic or not.

wiredtocare

[Question]

We do not know (1) when empathy helps business and when it does not and (2) if it does not help, how we overcome the dark side of the empathy and maximize its impact on business. For instance, B&O’s designers do not listen to customers (no empathy) but focus on their own inner voices. Dev said that designers can empathize with multiple groups of people in order to overcome the dark side of the empathy. Interestingly, there is no research that suggests that having multiple targets eventually benefit the impact of empathy on business. Then, the next question is which targets should be considered more important than others?

[Conclusion]

We are still in the early stage of understanding the empathy in the business area.