module 5: designing a product

for sustainable living & more

In this module, we will learn the importance of designing products for sustainable living, learn about product quality attribute tradeoffs, how to identify product features from PQAs, how to classify product features, how to create a product roadmap, steps involved in engineering a product, and how to patent your product or product design.

25. designing products for sustainable living

Increased human activity is leading to global warming and climate change over the last several years. Human activities is leading to large-scale emission of carbon dioxide and other green-house gases into the atmosphere. We are also cutting down more and more trees and forests to cater to increased human consumption of natural resources. All these is leading to rise in global temperatures; high levels of pollution in urban areas, rivers and water bodies; rise in sea levels and frequent flooding of rivers. These effects are not only affecting the life of humans, but also that of plants & trees, birds and animals on land and in water bodies. If we continue down this path, it will become highly unsustainable to live our lives the way we are used to living. Drastic changes are needed in the way we consume things and lead our lives if we have to reverse the effects of climate change.

Fortunately, there is growing awareness of the environmental impact of human activities among more and more people today. Individuals, businesses, industries and governments are increasingly feeling the need to behave responsibly towards the environment. They wish to reduce their footprint on the environment, move towards renewable energy sources, reduce their dependence and use of bio non-degradable products, re-use products rather than increase trash, re-cycle products into new products, etc.

The term Sustainability refers to our ability to meet our needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs - all the while protecting the environment from degradation and misuse. Today, there is concerted effort towards sustainable living, sustainable farming, building and using sustainable products, etc. - with the objective of striking a balance between meeting our current needs and sustaining planet Earth to meet the needs of future generations.

Sustainable products are those products that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting the environment, public health, human communities and animal welfare over their entire life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal of the product.

As a product designer, merely addressing users' needs and meeting quality expectations of users is no more sufficient. You have to take your product a notch higher by designing your product with sustainability in mind.

Sustainable products help reduce usage of materials consumed in building or using the product; enable re-use of existing products for new purposes; or make it possible to re-cycle old products into new products. Let us explore the three in more detail below.

25.1 Designing Products that reduce Resource Consumption

Sustainable products reduce usage of resources consumed (or avoids those that cause environmental harm) in building or using a product, thereby avoiding unnecessary consumption and contributing to environmental protection.

1. Home appliances can consume a lot of energy

2. Petrol & diesel vehicles pollute the atmosphere

3. Flushing toilets can consume a lot of precious water

4. Paper made from trees contribute to deforestation

Click to understand the examples...

Example 1: Consumer appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, television sets, etc. consume significant electrical power. We can reduce the impact of energy-hogging appliances by moving to new energy-efficient appliances that come with an energy star rating.

Example 2: Petrol and diesel vehicles emit harmful gases into the atmosphere, polluting the same. We can reduce the effects of pollution by moving to electrical vehicles that do not cause environmental pollution.

Example 3: In homes with older type toilets, an average flush uses about 13.6 liters. That's significant consumption of precious water. We can reduce wastage of water by using ultra-low-flow (ULF) toilets which consume only 6 liters per flush.

Example 4: Paper is made from trees. Cutting trees to make paper contributes to deforestation. We can use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins, thereby reducing usage of paper and minimizing the environmental impact of deforestation.

Tip: Strive to design products that consume less resources or materials - both during production as well as during usage of the product.

25.2 Designing Products that are Re-usable

Sustainable products are designed to allow re-use of existing products for new purposes. By re-using existing products and avoiding wastage of precious raw materials consumed in the production and usage of new products, sustainable products contribute positively to environmental protection.

1. Old news papers can be re-used to pack items for transportation

2. Glass bottles can be re-used for storing groceries in the kitchen

3. Old cardboard boxes can be re-used to store un-used books at home

4. Empty Liquid soap dispenser can be re-used for cleaning window grills

Click to understand the examples...

Example 1: Old newspapers can be re-used to pack items when being transported.

Example 2: Old glass bottles can be re-purposed to store daily-use grocery items needed in the kitchen.

Example 3: Old card-board boxes can be re-used to store un-used books at home.

Example 4: Old and empty liquid soap dispenser can be used for cleaning window grills with water.

Tip: You don't always have to create a new product to address user's need. It may be possible to readily re-use an existing product and re-purpose it to serve the needs of your users.

25.3 Designing Products that can be Re-cycled

Sustainable products are designed such that old products can be recycled into new products easily. By re-cycling old products and avoiding wastage of precious raw materials consumed in the production and usage of new products, sustainable products contribute positively to environmental protection.

1. Old glass bottles can be re-cycled to create new glass artifacts

2. Paper can be re-cycled to create invitation cards or handicrafts

3. Old clothes can be re-cycled to create cloth bags to carry things

4. Components from old electronic products can be re-cycled to create new electronic products

Click to understand the examples...

Example 1: Old glass bottles can be re-cycled to create new glass artifacts.

Example 2: Paper can be re-cycled for printing business cards, wedding invitation cards, or for making paper handicrafts.

Example 3: Old clothes can be re-cycled to create cloth bags to carry things.

Example 4: Components from old electronic products can be re-cycled to create new electronic products.

Tip: See how you can re-cycle an existing product to build a new product.

what's next?

Over the last few days, we have explored 10 good product design principles and 25 product quality attributes. We have also incorporated many of them in our product design. So far so good. But, what next? Where do we go from here? Good question !

The journey of a product doesn't stop with incorporating quality attributes into it's design. Here are a few additional steps we need to undertake:

Tradeoff and prioritize the incorporated product quality attributes
Identify product features from product quality attributes
Classify the product features
Create product feature roadmap
Engineer the product
File for patents / register your product design

1. trade off and priortize the product quality attributes

While designing a product, we may have to "trade-off" one product quality attribute against another in order to achieve the right balance of features & capabilities in our product. For e.g., if we try to increase the performance or sturdiness of the product, it may increase the cost of the product. So, we will have to strike a balance between cost & performance or cost & sturdiness in order to offer the product to the target market at the right price point. Similarly, if we try to increase the security of the product, it may impact the performance of the product negatively. So, we will have to strike a balance between expected security and desired performance by incorporating one of the two product quality attributes to a lower or greater extent.

The extent to which a product incorporates a product quality attribute also varies from one type of user / customer / market to another. A premium product may focus more on "user experience" attribute while a mid-tier product targeted at mass market consumers may focus more on "usability" at the expense of user experience. For e.g., Apple's iMac computers is an example of a product designed for the premium market segment (with its sleek finish and rich user experience) compared to other brands that are targeted at mid-tier market segment (with greater focus on usability and less on user experience).

In addition, it is not feasible to incorporate all the product quality attributes in a product due to the cost, complexity, time and effort involved in building them. Instead, we should ideally pick 8 or 12 attributes that are most relevant to our customers and work on incorporating them in the product design and implementation.

This means, we will have to strip away some of the product quality attributes that are non-essential for our product. In addition, we will have to slim down some product quality attributes that are expensive or complex to implement, while amplifying a few other product quality attributes that are simpler to implement and are aligned better with our target market.

Work Chair Case Study:

In the case of the work chair, we find that incorporating extensibility attribute reduces the reliability of the product. This is because, the leg-rest attachment may break over repeated use and also damage the chair. So, we can do away with extensibility to maintain the reliability of the product, which customers implicitly expect.

Similarly, we find that heating pad is not a feature that all customers need, and it will unnecessarily increase the cost of the work chair. So, we can remove the heating pad (smartness attribute) from the mass market chair and have it only for the premium segment.

We also find that a majority of our customers can make do without personalizability, performance, security, compatible, sustainability, scalability, high availability, interoperability, standards compliance and regulatory compliance. So, we can drop them from the initial version of the work chair, and consider including them at a later date.

This leaves us with the following 13 attributes - as listed below:

1. Utility

2. Usability

3. User Experience

4. Aesthetics

5. Safety

6. Customizability

7. Reliability

8. Modularity

9. Portability

10. Configurability

11. Manageability

12. Maintainability

13. Durability & Sturdiness

In summary, for the initial version of the mass-market work chair, we can consider the 13 most important product quality attributes (PQA) instead of the original 25 attributes.

2. identify product features from the PQA

Incorporating product quality attributes into the product design gives rise to one or more product features. We need to call out these features clearly so that they can then be considered for implementation.

Work Chair Case Study:

The below table shows the list of prioritized product quality attributes and the corresponding product features that they have given rise to:

3. classify the product features

All identified product features are not equal in value. From the perspective of customers, some features are more valuable than others. As a next step, we need to classify the product features into three buckets:

MUST HAVE features

DESIRABLE features

DELIGHTER features

MUST HAVE features are those basic features that the customer definitely expects to have in the product. If these basic features are NOT implemented in the product, it leads to customer dissatisfaction. At the same time, if these features are implemented, it may not appreciably increase customer satisfaction. That is, customer definitely wants these basic features, but doesn't value them high.

DESIRABLE features are those features that the customer would like to have. They are attractive to the customer because they provide greater value than the basic features. If these attractive features are implemented in the product, it increases customer satisfaction. If these attractive features are not implemented, it may lead to lower customer satisfaction.

DELIGHTER features are those features that, if implemented in the product, surprises and delights the customer. As a result, customer satisfaction skyrockets. If they are not implemented, it doesn't really bother the customer as he or she didn't expect them in the first place.

The three categories and the corresponding features can be depicted on a chart using the Kano Model as shown in the diagram below:

To know more about Kano Model, watch this video:

Work Chair Case Study:

In the case of the Work Chair, we can talk to a few potential customers and classify the product features into three categories: MUST HAVE, DESIRABLE, AND DELIGHTERS. Instead of using a Kano Model Chart (which is a bit involved), we will illustrate the features and their categories on a simple pyramid diagram as shown below:

Based on the above classification, we have 6 MUST HAVE features, 5 DESIRABLE features and 2 DELIGHTER features in the Work Chair.

4. create product feature roadmap

Once the product features have been classified into MUST HAVE, DESIRABLE AND DELIGHTER, it is time to come up with a roadmap or plan of action to implement the product features. Typically, product implementation is done in one or more phases, and each phase may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Before we can start the implementation, we need to consider the following factors for each implementation phase:

Budget available: How much money / budget is available to implement the product features?
Time available: How much time is available to implement the product features?
Scope of Implementation: Which product functions & features will be implemented and by when?

After considering the above questions, we need to come up with a Product Feature Roadmap. The roadmap is a diagram that shows the various product implementation phases, and the features that will be implemented in each phase. These phases are then scheduled on a calendar and implemented in sequence.

Work Chair Case Study:

After taking into account the budget and time available, we can determine the scope of the Work Chair implementation as follows:

During Phase 1, we can take up the MUST HAVE features for implementation as it will allow us to start selling the basic version of the Work Chair first.
During Phase 2, we can take up a few DESIRABLE features for implementation so that we can offer a few attractive features to our customers, and one DELIGHTER feature to surprise our customers.
During Phase 3, we can take up the remaining DESIRABLE and DELIGHTER features so that we can offer greater number of attractive features in the Work Chair as well as delight our customers even more.

We can then come up with a Product Feature Roadmap for the Work Chair product as shown below:

The scope, time and budget are called the triple constraints. They have an impact on each other. If you change one, it will affect the other two. For e.g., if time for implementation is reduced, the scope of features may have to be reduced too so that you can implement the product within the same budget. If budget is reduced, we may have to reduce the scope of features as well to complete the product implementation within the same time. If scope is increased, we may have to increase the time to implement the product within the same budget, or increase the budget to hire more resources to complete the product implementation within the same time.

To know more about balancing the triple-constraints, please click here.

5. engineer the product

Once we have the product feature roadmap ready, we know what product features will go into our product and when to implement them. That is, we have clarity on what to build and when to build. However, we still have to figure out how to build the product. This involves product engineering. Product engineering is the process of building, testing, deploying and maintaining a product. As part of the product engineering process, we have to find answers to the following questions:

What raw materials, components or resources will be used to build the product, and from where do we procure them?
What technology or machinery will be required to build the product? Do we have access to the technology or machinery needed?
What product engineering methods, techniques and processes will be used to build the product?
Will the product be built in-house or outsourced to another agency or company?
Will the product be 3D printed or mass-manufactured (for physical products)?
Will the product be built once & replicated multiple times (for digital products)?
How will the product be tested?
How will the product be deployed for use by customers?
How will product support and maintenance be carried out after it is sold to the customers?

To engineer the product, the most feasible option for ATL students is to follow one or more of the below steps:

Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), or an early version of the product using prototyping resource materials available in the ATL or elsewhere.
Create a 3D model of the product design and have it 3D printed to realize the product.
Visit a public Maker Space and seek their assistance to build your product. Most Maker Spaces have machinery such as lathes, laser cutters, 3D printers, 3D scanners, soldering and other equipment, using which one can build a product MVP easily. Project Workbench in Bangalore is one such public maker space you can tap into. Check out similar workspaces in your city. Ask if your school can fund the expenses involved.
Find a vendor who can build the product or product components as per the design or 3D model provided by you. Ask if your school can fund the expenses involved.
Win a grant or prize at a competition to fund your product development expenses.

6. file for patent / register your design

If you have come up with a unique method, process or design for your product, consider registering a patent for the same. This will enable you to protect your innovation from being copied or used without authorization by others. You can also earn royalty income by licensing your patent to authorized users or companies.

To file a Patent, Copyright or Trademark in India, visit: https://ipindia.gov.in/index.htm

To register your Product Design as an IP, visit: https://online.ipindia.gov.in/eDesign/goForLogin/doLogin

To search for a registered Design, visit: https://search.ipindia.gov.in/designsearch

To know more about Intellectual Property Rights, check out the slide deck below:

What_is_Intellectual_Property.pdf

inspirational

conclusion

Whether you implement the product design or not, knowledge of product design will broaden your ability to think how a product should be designed and what factors need to be considered. You can use this knowledge to come up with a better idea or innovation - one that stands out and has a greater chance of making it to the top entry in an idea competition, innovation competition or business competition !

Words of Lee Iacocca, well-known American automobile executive best known for the development of Ford Mustang and Pinto cars, while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and then later for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s.

When your product has reached a high degree of perfection, beauty and excellence, it radiates with value and meaning. Customers are automatically attracted to it. The product sells by itself with minimal marketing push. There is no need for hard-selling on your part. You know you have achieved something significant when your users take pride in buying, using and recommending your product to others.

The purpose of this program has been to sensitize you about the thoughtfulness, thoroughness, diligence and craftsmanship involved in designing great products that not only address user needs, but also achieve a high degree of excellence through quality, sustainability and perfection ! Hope you enjoyed it?

On the whole, this world is still beautiful in spite of the occasional ugliness we may see around us. We can make things better through our creations, innovations and products.

Remember this: We are born creators. Don't ever let your creative spirit die. Strive for the highest standards of perfection, beauty and excellence - not just in building a product, but in everything you do in your life ! Success will surely be yours sooner than later !!

Good luck and all the very best !

Benjamin Franklin was the founding father of the United States of America. He was an inventor, scientist, printer, politician and diplomat.

Steve Jobs was an American inventor, designer and entrepreneur. He was instrumental in designing and introducing revolutionary products such as iPod, iPhone and iPad.

take home activity

Click here to download the Template for today's activity.

Using the template, complete the following tasks for the Water Wheel product you have been designing during the last 4 days:

Tradeoff and prioritize the product quality attributes (PQAs) from the ones you have considered in your design
Identify product features from the PQAs
Classify the product features into MUST HAVE, DESIRABLE and DELIGHTER categories
Create a product feature roadmap to implement the water wheel

Challenge

Complete the same steps as in the "Activity" above for a product of your choice.

Take a Quiz

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