Product Identity Footprint: A Set Of Tools To Clarify The Front End Of Industrial Design Projects In Order To Start And Develop Products The Right Way.

Rodriguez Cuevas, JM; Islas Munoz, JA

Having observed that many industrial design projects are started with the wrong approach, producing loss of resources, time, and professional relationships, this article presents a set of three tools that enables a clearer view of the Fuzzy Front-end (Vogel, Cagan). The first tool helps to understand the design order (Buchanan) of the product to be developed, and to place it in the utilitarian product universe (practical and economically biased), the transitional-wholistic product universe (practical, economic, and emotionally balanced), or the emotional product universe (viscerally and symbolically biased). The second identifies a product’s global purpose composed by its practical, economic, and emotional purposes, as well as the value factors they include (practical and indicative function, usability, practical or emotional cost-benefit, visceral appeal, and symbolic meaning). The third tool involves the type of project to be undertaken (vision, new development, major enhancement, or minor enhancement). Applicable to all disciplines of design, the three tools comprise the product identity footprint, which helps inform the selection of appropriate strategies to start a project the right way. It can increase the efficiency of the product development process by providing an agreed view that can be shared with all the development team, from the project sponsor to the engineering, marketing, planning, and creative departments.

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