A cool friend of mine is doing a research to find a more accurate meaning of “cool” when talking about products. As Dr. Eden Yin, University Lecturer in Marketing at The Judge Business School, Cambridge University, UK, says:

“Cool” is a word often used to describe anything attractive or impressive. In the context of products, the word is used to describe a class of products that stand out by possessing features that captivate consumers.

Realizing the bottom-line importance of creating such products, firms are increasingly trying to inject a “coolness” element into their offerings. But what is “cool”? “Cool” is highly subjective, and without a deeper understanding of “cool”, any attempt to create “coolness” is destined to fail. This survey sets out to investigate this poorly understood yet important concept. In particular, this study examines what defines and drives product coolness.

Now you too have the chance to be cool and participate on the survey. Please take a few minutes to give your cool point of view. Thanks!

I found the full audio and slide presentation of Peter Merholz from Adaptative Path. I think he describes in a clear way the shift Industrial Design is going trough; taking the focus out of the product and concentrating on the user experience first.

This poses somehow an opposite approach compared to the past of Industrial Design. Let’s make a really really short review:

During the 50’s production was mainly focused on productivity. The best example of rationalization and standardization was Ford.

After WWII, with the economies in expansion, there was a high demand of products that could only be fulfilled at a reasonable price trough high volume productions. Industrial Design didn’t exist yet in the business world, but was always a cosmetic job after the engineering of the product. This type of design intervention was to become a milestone. The general misconception about the designer as a stylist doing a superfluous decoration comes from those days.

All the resulting products ended up being very similar, since they were focused on technical issues rather than on the user. Products used to compete (and we can still see this today) on technical features and companies started feeling a further need for differentiation. The path was long before design started playing a role in the business world. Companies centered on quality management, value chain management, and all sort of marketing strategies to create more value for the customer. They didn’t find any better way to differentiate the product by itself so they centered on the service.

Technology evolved, production cycles became shorter and prices dropped. Technology innovation became a standard for survival. Companies felt more and more the need to decompress the economic pressure when design started having a true impact and it became the new differentiation factor.

Industrial Design doesn’t really focus on the product nor on the user. ID focuses on the interface, this means the interaction between the user and the product. So, if we get this right, we will be able to understand the role ID is playing today. The introduction of design in the business environment has also been possible because these two are finding a common language. More and more designers are getting business and marketing skills. On the other hand, business managers are getting training on design thinking, mainly because they need to acquire the skill to think in a creative way and learn how to handle uncertainty in a fast paced always changing environment.

So, it seems very natural now to understand why designers are thinking today beyond the product. User experience is the new differentiation driver, it requires a more holistic and strategic approach to achieve the goal. The limits between the product and service are now fuzzy, since they are part of the same and seamless user experience.

As we can see, this evolution has taken Industrial Design to a whole new level, becoming a very powerful business tool.

To finish, I would like to point out that further changes are needed to consolidate this relation. On one hand, designers will have to deal with more responsibilities and extend their typical knowledge field (i.e.creating new research tools, Return Over Design Investment (RODI) measurement techniques, etc). On the other hand, organizations will have overcome a cultural change to place design in its new role and take the most out of it.

I suggest you take a time to watch and enjoy Peter’s presentation after the jump.

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I would like to mention 2 recent articles posted on metropolismag.com related to the green trend.

The first one, “What it means to be green” explains all the different labels actually used to certify “green products”. The second article, “7 Steps in the lifecycle of a green product” is based on the Okala guide to Eco-Design elaborated by IDSA. What is interesting about the article is that it organizes the story of a greener product around … 7 steps (yes you guessed right). The image seen below, (by Criswell Lappin) is a very effective visual guide that we could have at hand to ask the right questions when designing our next product.

I discovered this cool slideshow generator that can be easily integrated to the blog. It is a great tool for sharing a slideshow with other people. I’m using as an example the “What’s in your bag?” image pool that a friend told me about. (Thanks Gustavo!). I guess this could be used as an interesting tool for designers.

It is possible to apply Deming’s 14 points to Industrial Design?

First a really quick introduction for those that are not familiar with Deming’s work. Dr. Willam Edward Deming was a North American satistician, college professor, author and consultant who was a great contributor to improve industrial production during WWII. But Deming is best known as the father as Japan’s post war industry revival. Deming’s philosophy was summarized in 14 points that have been an inspiration for important changes in many organizations throughout the world. He is also called the father of TQM (Total Quality Management), since most of the TQM theory came from his book “Out of the crisis” published in 1982.

Lets review the 14 points from a design perspective…

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This is Hans Rosling’s presentation at the TED conference 2007. He shows that working with statistics can be fun, and does a great job in helping us understand the world. More information at the Gapminder website.

I imagine a really good synergy between the OLPC (or similar device for kids) and the Epos Digital Pen. This pen can work on ANY paper, unlike other devices that require the use of micro dots paper. Kids would keep on learning and practicing their hand writing, and they could easily handle homework and school work to the teacher or other classmates.

This could also be of great use for an email client device. You could eliminate the keyboard and the screen (that is the most expensive component), and have interaction with the TV for reading the incoming emails. Cheap, practical and easy to use for all ages

It would be nice if this digital pen incorporates a pressure sensor and the possibility to change ink colors in a future release.

Product Page Via: OCRegister

Here is my second entry for the water saving design contest.

It is another simple product that could make the people think and change their attitude.

The “Sponge World” could also be great for kids, and I think it shows in a very graphical way that you have the world in your hands (and you are filling it with soap).

Time: 15 minutes.