Strategies, techniques and approaches to explore, create and evaluate design ideas
The following page of notes will cover:
- User centred design
- Circular economy
- Systems thinking
User centred design:
User centred design demands that designers employ a mixture of investigative (e.g. surveys and interviews) and generative (e.g. brainstorming) methods and tools to develop an understanding of user needs
Framework process
- Clear framework
- Needs of the user to control all decisions
- The requirements of the business
Problem solving:
- Ideas developed then evaluated by user
- User needs constantly monitored
- Iterative design development
- Collaboration of designers and engineers
Limitations of end user considerations:
- Feedback needs to be appropriate for development
- Views can only affect a small proportion of the market
- Feedback helps refine, not change whole project
- Involve users more in design
- Result of iterative design process (feedback from users)
- Consider whole user experience
- Developed by multi-skilled, multi-disciplinary team (product designers, engineers, industrial designers, ergonomists, sale and marketing specialist)
Methods used to achieve user centred design standards:
- Apply ergonomic principles for ease of use and comfort
- Use anthropometric data to ensure good 'fit'
- Observe people using products
- Organise focus groups to indentify problems with existing products
- Improve user experience
Circular economy:
A circular economy is an alternative to traditional linear economy
- Keep resources as long as possible
- Extract the maximum value from them whilst in ise
- Recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life
- Reduce (materials, waste, pollution), Refurbish, Repair, Recycle
Design for maintenance:
- Safer - less likely to fail
- Reliability - less likely to break
- Efficiency - less pollution (e.g. cars)
- Cost - cheaper to maintain vs replace
Right to repair:
- Law to protect you from unfair policies that make it difficult/expensive for you to repair products on your own
Systems thinking:
It's the way that keeps reducing inconsistencies between the actual flows of the system, and one's understanding of the system and its actual flows.
- Each part of the product or system is part of something bigger
- Breaking down a system or product to understand how it works
- Relies on a number of departments working together (concurrent manufacturing)
- Understanding how all parts relate to eachother