Investigation Blog 4/28/20

Concept Designer

What I think think about being a Concept Designer before learning about it =>

I think that a Concept Designer is someone who obviously thinks up ideas that may be useful to be put into fruition. 

It was hard to find any answers from google about the sole purpose and role concept design has. After some searching I found an article, What  is Concept Design in Product Development?, and it showed a little more to what concept design is. It says that in 2007, a Danish agency FORA said there is "no collective perception" of concept design. Then summarizes that concept design, "is the solution to a problem that has not yet been solved or which so far has been solved unsatisfactorily."

I think as you break the larger concept of product designer, it can be easier to see the steps that are involved into making a product. Concept design is a subclass of product design, which I think is the very first step that we have to take when looking to create a new product or make one better. Concept may start out to be a random thought and turn into a real product. If you do not have a concept, you are just going to be lost and have to end goal in sight. Therefore you must first think of a concept that you want to see come alive, then act upon it. Now, I don't think that concept design should just stop when you randomly think of something that you think is cool. Grab the opinions of others and see if it really is a common necessity and that people would use if they were able to get their hands on it. Once you have verified that your idea or concept is something that would be in demand by other people, that is when you start making a blueprint of what you have in mind. Start creating a more detailed picture and continue to brainstorm until you feel that it meets the needs of the people you interacted with.

The article defines concept design as "the initial big picture or macro design. It shows us what problems the product will solve, how it will solve them, and what it will feel like as it is solving them. Arguably the most creative stage of product development, concept design is stickies slapped on whiteboards, ink and wash, napkins and crayons even. It calls on us to consider sweeping ideas and all the various possibilities. The more the better. In concept design lies the very soul of innovation.

Everything needs some sort of foundation in order for it too survive. Without that strong foundation, it will break down in a matter of time. When you don't have a strong concept to rely on, your product most likely won't do as well as you may think it will. You must have a concept that is strong and demanded by many in order for it to become something greater.

April 20-26 Investigation blog

Product Designer

What is Product design?

It is commonly known as the holistic approach of building a new product from start to finish. This covers everything from doing market research, identifying problems, product development, designing informed solutions - and everything in between. Still, this definition of Product Design could read pretty vague.

From the perspective of a product designer, Martha Bergmann, she says that "product design is about creating products that meet the needs of its users through business strategy, data analysis, user experience design, user research, user interface design, motion design, mock-ups, and prototypes. It's all about problem solving and design thinking, which is part of that product design process." She brought a lot of different types of things that go into the process of product design. I feel that I can summarize this into something really simple, creating something that is optimize for a user. Anything that involves designing, should always have the user experience at the forefront of their mind, because it matters most what the users think.

Another product designer, Elona Jaquez, says "product design is the intersection of the various UX design disciplines that go into creating modern digital products. These generally include UI design, interaction design, user research, information architecture, problem definition and design thinking, prototyping, visual design, motion design, and management of design systems. Jaquez brings a lot more vocabulary to the table when it comes to what is need for the product design process. Once again, there is a common focus on the experience of the user. Even though I boil it down to the simple definition, it doesn't mean that there isn't more that goes into the making of a product.

Finally, Andrew McKay, who is a Sydney based Product Designer focused in the mobile app space, has been working along side leading Aussie apps. Andrew McKay states, "one of the biggest differentiators between a traditional user experience role and a Product Designer role is the life cycle of the designer's role. As a product designer, my role is to not only deliver to a client's brief but to also maintain and constantly iterate and improve on that product, based on the user base and the original assumptions evolving into new pathways." This is a complete different approach that McKay came about describing what product design is. He goes into the life cycle of a product designer and that there is more to it than you may believe. He says something that I completely agree with and think that every designer should do, and that is to continuously improve on your own product. No large, successful, and growing company would be able to be where they are without constantly improving on their product. If they were to ignore their problems, they would crash in no time.

April 13-19 Investigation blog

What is Industrial Design?

Design => A plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product or process.

Designer => The person who produces a design, which is a term generally used for people who work professionally in one of the various design areas

Examples

1. Textile designer

2. Fashion designer

3. Product designer

4. Concept designer

5. Web designer

6. Interior designer

The rational model

The rational model was made by Herbert A. Simon, an American scientist, and Gerhard Pahl and Wolfgang Beitz, two German engineering design theorists.

It consists of:

1. Designers attempt to optimize a design candidate for known constraints and objectives

2. The design process is plan-driven.

3. The design process is understood in terms of a discrete sequence of stages

My Thoughts on the Rational Model

I think that it is something that I would typically follow throughout making some sort of design for either the project that I was working on, the keyboard. Or anything else that I would go about thinking to improve a design on. I like the first step, because I think that is something that should come naturally to someone who wants to design something. I take something that I already know exists and try to think of ways to improve it. The rest of the model seems a little to robust though for my liking, I like to grab an idea and continue to improve as I move throughout the project. When I think of something that is plan-driven, I think that you get so focused on the plan that you lose the purpose that you started out for. And that is to improve the thing that you are working on.