Overlooked Fasteners for Product Design - May 10th, 2009

As product designers, we often try our best to avoid the use of fasteners so as to avoid the added cost, assembly time, and often poor aesthetics. But, there are many cases where the use of a fastener is required or it creates a better design. Here are some overlooked fasteners that can be very useful in product design:

Read on...

Product Design takes Practice - April 26th, 2009

Often times, I look at a new product that is released, and my jaw drops. It's well-formed, intuitive, and does exactly what I need it to do. It's easy to think that some designers just possess some cryptic innate talent that allows them to deliver fantastic products. But, when you break it down, that inspiring product was constructed in a huge number of small, doable, bite-sized chunks. Nobody wants their work reduced down to that level, but when it comes down to it, there is no magic to creating beautiful product. It's the well-practiced weaving of all these tiny pieces together that creates the illusion of design magic. So, how do you get there? Practice. Study products and learn what elements must have been used in the design process. Identify the most important elements and practice them tirelessly. Those designers that master the tedious elements of their trade will create the most inspired, and unique designs. Because of their years of effort and practicing skills, their minds are free to create.

Practice gives you a toolbox of increasingly more complex tools to work with. In the realm of sketching and illustration, the average person starts off with just a few simple tools - they can draw lines with constant pressure and line thickness, circles, and polygons. As you practice, you can add more tools; lines that vary in intensity, lines that vary in thickness. As you practice further, you can create curves. You can begin to use curves to represent objects. You can combine your tools of varying intensity lines and curves, and increase the depth of your images. With more practice, you can shade and represent a larger array of more complex objects. Practice opens doors and allows creativity. Practice can be either blind or insightful. Make sure that when you practice that you have a goal and strategy, so that the skills you learn and master are applied efficiently and build upon each other. It's your job to create your own curriculum. By self-aware and goal-directed practicing you'll speed along and the limits of what you can create will push outward. Any product was formed in steps, all steps that you will eventually be capable of. Research, understand, plan, then practice. Practice more. Practice again. Then practice a few more times.

Deformation in Design - April 19th, 2009

3D solid modeling has significantly changed how product design is done today. For the most part it has been a very powerful tool for increasing speed, improving design, and allowing early visualization of concepts. However, it can also be argued that it has caused many designers to overlook certain areas of design more frequently. Solid modeling is exactly that - modeling of solid objects... rigid solid objects. However the world our products live in is full of dynamic, flexible, deforming, chemically active, phase changing matter. Until full real-world physics simulation is available (don't hold your breath, there is plenty in the realm of physics left to be discovered), we as designers need to constantly remember to look at product design with a broad view of the environment the product will be inhabiting and to supplement powerful tools such as solid modelers with an even more powerful personal product design skillset.

All materials deflect and deform to some extent, and this deformation can be used to a product's advantage. Deforming materials give us soft, cushy grips, paper clips, pogo stilts, shocks, springs, mousetraps, trampolines, fishing poles, golf clubs, tennis rackets, anything with wire, shoes, the list is endless. The bend and flex of products can be used strategically to eliminate parts, improve feel, and make the product seem more alive. By doing diligence and taking the time to analyze and understand the forces a product will be subject to and how the materials will react, we can improve the overall quality of the product. Many possibilities will open up when we realize that any material will deform to some extent, and instead of being a detriment, we can make it into a feature. So flex your mechanics theory, experimentation, and simulation skills, and your new product may even form or deform a new market.

Axion Deals Recycling Card for Product Design - April 10th, 2009

A Manchester-based polymer recycling company, Axion Recycling has rolled out an innovative way to help designers use and specify recycled polymers. They have implemented a data card system that "improves awareness among product designers of the creative, technological and environmental merits of using 100% recycled polymer in new goods and encourages them to consider its use over virgin materials."

Many companies talk the talk about going green, but few walk the walk. It's great to see the experts at Axion put out a solution that aids product designers in creating products with minimal adverse environmental effects. Read the entire press release on their solution here.

Design Value - April 1st, 2009

As product designers, we often get wrapped up in technical details and personal creative crusades to solve that nagging design problem. It's always a good idea to refocus, and recognize (especially in the current economic climate) that design must create value. Here are a few articles and resources along those lines:

Design Value
Translating Design Value into Business ROI
Value In Design - Website dedicated to the VALiD approach
Adding Value Through Design - article with data showing the value of design

Good Design in a Toaster - March 29th, 2009

Most toasters are pretty boring. This one combines a sleek package with an extra wide bread slot. Two slices, extra-wide loafs, no problem. Kudos to the designers at Delonghi for this one. Check it out here.

Top 50 entries from the Greener Gadgets Conference 2009 Announced! - March 2nd, 2009

The voting has now been closed for the top 50 entries at the Greener Gadgets Conference 2009 presented by Core77. There were a lot of neat entries, some practical, others more conceptual. The concepts with the highest votes seemed to center more around awareness of consumption, as opposed to practical solutions for reducing consumption, however, there were a large number of ideas on that theme as well.

My favorite was the SmartSwitch which provides force feedback to a light switch based on neighborhood or individual home power consumption. The idea being the switch is more difficult to turn on if a lot of power is already being used. I also really liked the sunLight, which is a portable solar powered recharging station. A great on-the-go solution for supplying power to gadgets. Bonus points also for the Zeer, which uses a self-powered natural evaporation cycle to keep fruits and veggies mildly cool ~10C.

Check out all of the finalists here.

ProductDesignResources.com Provides Resources To Actually Improve Your Skills

We provide the best reviewed resources for product designers, engineers, project managers, and product marketers. Here you'll find original articles and guides, links to articles and resources outside of Product Design Resources, and eventually more interactive content, interviews, and in-depth how-to guides for all areas of product design. Our goal is to give you the best resources at the lowest possible cost and in most cases - free! We want your product design, marketing, and design management skills to actually improve by using our site. If there's something you want to see, contact us, and we'll do our best to see if we can provide it.

ProductDesignResources.com connects you to the best information to help you bring your product design from concept to design to production.

Product Design Improvement If you have an idea of something in the product design world you think we should be covering, contact us and let us know. We'd love to hear your thoughts and collect your feedback. Product Design Resources is here to serve you, so participate and let us know how we can help you.