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Industrial Design

Industrial design, or ID is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production. The role of an industrial designer is to create and execute design solutions for problems of form, usability, physical ergonomics, marketing, brand development, and sales.

[wikipedia]

An industrial designer takes a look at a need and seeks solutions to that need. If there are already solutions, an industrial designer tries to pinpoint fault in those products and design new solutions. Examples of designers are Philippe Starck, Jonathan Ive.

http://ww3.tvo.org/video/162778/genius-design-ghosts-machine

Questions to ponder along the road to a design:

1. Who will buy your product?

You must make sure that there is a market for your new product, and that it is not ‘a solution looking for a problem’. To do this, protect your idea (see 5) and then discuss it with your personal contacts and people involved in the industry that your product is relevant to.

2. How many potential customers are there?

First, you need to find out the total size of the market that might buy your product (cyclists, plumbers, whatever). Then, you need to estimate the percentage of that market that might be interested in your product. Finding out the number of sales for similar products can help make the figures more realistic.

3. Who will you be competing with?

All products have competitors. Thoroughly examine yours, both the obvious ones and those that provide a similar solution to the problem that you are trying to address. When you have done that, work out the strengths and weaknesses of your new product compared to the competition and look for the areas of competitive advantage. This will lead on to asking…

4. What will make your product the best choice?

You will need to identify clear benefits or qualities that differentiate your product from the competition. Examples of positive differentiators are better appearance, higher quality, ease of use, durability and environmental benefits. Avoid using low cost as the only means of differentiation – it just makes your business look cheap. Go on Wikipedia and search for ‘product differentiation’ for more information on this topic.

5. Can your product idea be protected?

Making sure your idea is protected is essential. During your initial discussions, you can prepare a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that binds the signatories to keep your ideas secret. You can then explore patents and design registration. Be aware that good patent advice and searches can cost several thousand pounds.

6. Which standards will your product need to meet?

All products sold in the EU need to be CE marked, and some must comply with stringent safety, environmental and performance criteria. Some of these involve detailed testing routines that have to be carried out on prototype parts by specialists. The British Standards website is a good starting point to see which standards will apply to your product.

7. How will your product be manufactured and sold?

Will you make the product yourself or will you sub-contract production to someone in the UK or Asia? How much are you prepared to investing tooling and production set-up? Will you sell the product direct to the public, sell through retail outlets, or sell the idea to another company? These issues need to be considered at the outset, as they will have a significant impact on commercial success.

8. How much will all this cost?

In addition to patent advice (see 5), the design and development of a product, including the data needed for manufacture, can cost anywhere from several thousand to many tens of thousands of pounds. Prototyping and testing to meet standards, etc., can also cost several thousand pounds. Production tooling for a simple one piece moulding may be a couple of thousand pounds, whilst a large complex product may cost hundreds of thousands to tool up for. Promotion and marketing also requires significant investment if it is to be effective. The important thing to recognize is that very few products can be developed, produced and launched for less than a six figure sum.

9. How will you pay for it?

If your funds are limited, it is essential to phase the work so that your risks are minimized. The first phase will be protecting your intellectual property. The second phase will be developing a ‘proof of concept’ model that you can use to demonstrate your basic idea. You should be prepared to spend several thousand pounds to achieve this. With this model and a good plan (see below) you will then be able to approach investors to gain funding for full commercial development.

10. Do you have a plan?

All the issues above – and other essentials like how you will survive financially while you are working on your idea – need to be written up in to a detailed business plan. This will make your business idea more credible to investors, but will also enable you to minimize your risks.

Assignment #7 - Cardboard Bicycle

Yes, it IS possible. You are to challenge yourselves in design teams to first design, then build a cardboard bicycle that can successfully hold a person propelled down the hall for 30 feet, and successfully navigate an obstacle course.

Description

Bicycles are a perfect representation of the strength of the triangular reinforcement. Cardboard, when used properly, has incredible compressional strength. We will remove the complication of a gear system and brakes, and simply make a steerable cardboard bike that can glide down the hall 30 feet.

Materials

You are to be given;

one 4' x 8' sheet of grade 1 cardboard
one 6"x12" piece of 3/4" thick pine (or equivalent volume)

You may use ANY type of wheel you want, be it bicycle wheels, wheels for large toys, wheels for yard machines etc... You are to supply the wheel. Note: you can easily put the wheel you use BACK on the object you take it from as they should remain undamaged if you design your bike properly. You may also use any type of adhesive you want in this competition, remembering of course safety rules for inhalation of noxious substances.

Testing

Distance test:

Your teammate will push/propel you from the 'propulsion box' (a taped-off 4' radius around the cyclist). You are to see how far down the tech hall you can be propelled from an initial stop. Once past 20 feet, the clock (or tape measure) starts ticking and the winning design team in this portion of the competition is the one that has the furthest distance past 40'.

Obstacle course:

Your teammate will push/propel you from the 'propulsion box' (a taped-off 4' radius around the cyclist). Rather than speed, your goal is to navigate a simple obstacle course that will involve one vertical challenge (you'll need to go up and down a structure) and several turn-based challenges. Navigation of the whole length of the course will easily be achieved by one simple push for propulsion. The team that completes the course in the fastest time will win the challenge. It will go 6', turn 45 deg. up a 6" vertical ramp, then go down and continue straight once more.

Steps:

Before construction begins - paper sketches must be submitted for assessment. After completion, sketches, a final CAD file and a 3D model will be submitted with the design report. The Sketchup model will include all relevant details as pullouts.
Complete your cutout shapes on a flat 4x8 sheet of cardboard in sketchup. You can 'assemble' your bike from those cutouts.
From the 3D model, you are to create front and side views as well as top view of your bicycle in AutoCAD. You will use these in guiding your construction.
Bicycle construction - overall design of the finished product will be evaluated including: dimensions, style and adherence to the working drawings.

Evaluation

Distance results
obstacle course timed results
construction
Technical Report (exemplar)

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