Title Page

STOP! Playing the Dice Devices to Design Amazing Products

Anshuman Sharma

Copyright

Copyright ©2012 Anshuman Sharma All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-105-99132-5

Dedication Dedication

To my beautiful daughters Gunn and Kli To my lovely wife Nilam

Contents CONTENTS Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

RESEARCH SEGMENT

Device 1: Research - Scenario Analysis

Device 2: Research - Salability

Device 3: Experience - Extreme Conditions

Device 4: Research - Legality

Device 5: Research - Assumptions

Device 6: Research - Efficiency Analysis

Device 7: Research - Past trends Analysis

Device 8: Research - Design Publications

Device 9: Research - Trends and Design

Device 10: Research - Visualize Future

Device 11: Research - Product Support

Device 12: Research - One-time Buyers

Device 13: Research - Product Evolution

Device 14: Research - Manufacturing Capabilities

Device 15: Research - Present Trends Analysis

Device 16: Research - Future View

Device 17: Research - Micro Analysis

Device 18: Research - Other Industries Designers

Device 19: Research - Relationships study

Device 20: Research - Physical Attributes Analysis

Device 21: Research - Demographic Study

Device 22: Research - Psychographic Study

Device 23: Research - Repeat Buyers

Device 24: Research - Secondary Research

Device 25: Research - Behavioral Study

Device 26: Research - Competitive Analysis

Device 27: Research - Cultural Differences

Device 28: Research - Other Markets

Device 29: Research - Third Person Analysis

Device 30: Research - Product Disposal

Device 31: Research - Customer Delight

Device 32: Research - Customer Dislikes

Device 33: Research - Need Ring

Device 34: Research - Design Attraction

Device 35: Research - Customer Financials

Device 36: Research - Other Values

Device 37: Research - Perceptions

Device 38: Research - Product Material

Device 39: Research - Other Industries Marketers

Device 40: Research - Profitability Analysis

Device 41: Research - Feasibility Study

Device 42: Research - Macro Analysis

EXPERIENCE SEGMENT

Device 43: Experience - In Other’s Shoes

Device 44: Experience - Extreme Usage

Device 45: Experience - Use as Consumer

Device 46: Experience - Design Touching Senses

Device 47: Experience - Robustness

Device 48: Experience - Extreme Environment and Climates

Device 49: Experience - Training to Use the Product

Device 50: Experience - Create Working Model

Device 51: Experience - New Environment

Device 52: Experience - Interaction Design

Device 53: Experience - Look into the Future

Device 54: Experience - Feel it physically

Device 55: Experience - Basic Model

Device 56: Experience - On Stage

Device 57: Experience - Usage Models

Device 58: Experience - Various Users Testing

Device 59: Experience - Usage Stories

Device 60: Experience - Use it

Device 61: Experience - Product Assembling

Device 62: Experience - Limitations

Device 63: Experience - Live With Them

Device 64: Experience - Product Packaging

Device 65: Experience - Precautions

Device 66: Experience - Existing Users

Device 67: Experience - Product Integration

Device 68: Experience - Designer Perception

ANALYZE SEGMENT

Device 69: Analyze - Invisible Presence

Device 70: Analyze - Other Product’s Usage

Device 71: Analyze - Buying Behavior in Stores

Device 72: Analyze - New Product and Life

Device 73: Analyze - Carrying the Product

Device 74: Analyze - Product failing

Device 75: Analyze - Visual Affects

Device 76: Analyze - Innovative Usage of Product

Device 77: Analyze - Capture Pictures

Device 78: Analyze - Project Visits

Device 79: Analyze - Daily Objects

Device 80: Analyze - Become their Friend

Device 81: Analyze - Product and Life

Device 82: Analyze - Body Double

Device 83: Analyze - Social Connections

Device 84: Analyze - Problems from Product

Device 85: Analyze - Supporting Product or Service

Device 86: Analyze - How They Live?

Device 87: Analyze - All Categories of Customers

Device 88: Analyze - Consumer’s Habits

Device 89: Analyze - Video Capture

Device 90: Analyze - Consumer Day

Device 91: Analyze - Personal Productivity

Device 92: Analyze - Movement Patterns

DISCOVER SEGMENT

Device 93: Discover - Segmented Users Testing

Device 94: Discover - Customer’s Dislikes

Device 95: Discover - Ask for Features

Device 96: Discover - Feature Priorities

Device 97: Discover - Customer Journal

Device 98: Discover - Customer Feedback

Device 99: Discover - Product Value

Device 100: Discover - Cross Question

Device 101: Discover - Conceptualize

Device 102: Discover - Other Markets

Device 103: Discover - Think Aloud

Device 104: Discover - Interviewing

Device 105: Discover - Focus Groups

Device 106: Discover - Word Design

Device 107: Discover - Requirement Analysis

Device 108: Discover - Meet Critics

Device 109: Discover - Other Markets

Device 110: Discover - Buying Thinking Process

Device 111: Discover - Perceptions

Device 112: Discover - Picture Book

Device 113: Discover - Card Organization

Device 114: Discover - Navigation Charts

Device 115: Discover - Cultural Differences

Device 116: Discover - Visualize and Draw

About Author

Introduction

The success of a company depends mainly upon the quality of the products it develops and sells in the market. A successful product needs to be unique and should be according to the requirements of the customers. A good product becomes its own marketer as every time it is used, it delights its users, which makes them the advocates of the product. We can observe this phenomenon in some of the winning products in the market. A winning product has great design, quality and gives satisfactory experiences to its users.

Few companies have mastered the art of product design and they are extremely

successful in the market with high profitability and growth. These companies use the product design skills as their competitive advantage and protect it like trade secret. In fact, the process of creating great products is not complex. It is a set of tools and methods which, if used properly and sincerely, can support any design team to develop amazing products. We have tried to expose these methods and devices in this work.

To contrast the available books on product design methods, we have kept this

book extremely simple. The specified devices can be used by any sincere person looking to design products. The simplicity of the devices is evident from the fact that even a layperson, with no knowledge about product design, can understand and use these devices. A successful product needs to be holistic, equipped with innovative marketing, superior quality and emphatic support. An innovative design of a product with weak support cannot get success in the market.

The products are differentiated by their value proposition, quality and features. An

excellent product has great design, which evolves from the culture of the company where everybody is serious about design and focuses on improving it consistently. A great design evolves mainly from the attitude rather than technical expertise.

It has always been difficult for companies to create great products. Some

companies hire highly qualified technical experts to create the magic, while others outsource the product design process. Sometimes the responsibilities of creating new ideas and products lie on few elite individuals, in other cases R&D department bears the complete responsibility of developing successful products. In most cases these efforts fail. The main reason for this failure is the wrong approach.

The most important aspect for developing new ideas about products and

subsequently designing it requires a proper methodology, which is generally simple but effective. Every successful company has their set of method to design the products but the fundamental ideas remain same. This book tries to reveal the effective but simple methodology of designing the great products.

The methodology discussed in the book has four segments and is called READ

Technique. READ stands for Research, Experience, Analyze and Discover. ‘Research

segment’ focuses on capturing and analyzing the information available in the market, ‘Experience segment’ focuses on checking out the views and ideas generated, ‘Analyze Segment’ focuses on observing the aspects for product and ‘Discover Segment’ focuses on surveys and interviews. Each of the four segments has several devices and methods specified in this work which would help the professionals in designing a great and winning product.

To design a great product the designers need to focus on a specific area of the

design process. The specified segments and devices in the book would serve the designers by focusing their attention to each area of the design process. Each device described in the book briefly describes it, specifies its importance & value, explain the way to use it and supported by an example to describe it.

The design devices list specified in this book is exhaustive and every device would

not be suitable for your projects. Design team needs to identify and list the devices to be used for a specific project. These devices would motivate the design team in various ways by suggesting them relevant methods to solve the design problem.

It is suggested that this resource should be used as a guide and reference to create

better product designs.

RESEARCH SEGMENT

Research segment of the READ Model includes the devices which focus on collecting and researching the available data, information, insights in archives, published or tacit format. This segment equips the designers with substantial grasp of the project to graduate to other segments of the model.

Device 1: Research - Scenario Analysis Check with various scenarios to identify different ways which would create operational difficulties for the product. This device would help the designer to identify the various situations when the product would be affected negatively with user’s actions. Identify various scenarios which can fail the product due to human actions. Find the reason for these failures. These can be through human mistakes, negligence or actions. The purpose is to design the product robust enough to protect itself for possible problems. Example: Identify various ways when a glass container can break during its usage.

Device 2: Research - Salability Check for the salability of the designed product. This analysis is important as the designed product should be marketable and commercially viable. Conduct a market survey asking the target segment about their intention to buy the product based upon product features, value proposition and pricing. Example: Check the salability of the newly designed software based upon its features, value proposition, interactivity, user friendliness and pricing.