Students organizing
MP3 players in ProductWorld
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EVALUATION
To determine the value of ProductWorld as a design support tool
it was evaluated within the setting of a design course. In this
course a group of Industrial Design Engineering students, who were
working on the design of a portable MP3 player, used the ProductWorld
prototype to index and explore a collection of existing MP3 players.
Their experiences clearly indicated the potential value of the tool.
Organizing products through its interface, which was done with enthusiasm
and dedication, was considered to be insightful and valuable to
their own design process, while the exploration of these organizations
was perceived as engaging and stimulating. Although the results
of querying the organized collection were found to be difficult
to interpret, they did provide the students with a better understanding
of the relationships between the products, as well as between the
used similarity criteria. The specific design character of the program,
with its emphasis on interactivity, aesthetics and usability, was
highly appreciated, contributing to its acceptance as a design tool.
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Examples of organizations made in ProductWorld
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"Designing
with
precedents" wallpaper
(1024X768, 52 Kb)
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GENERAL
DISCUSSION
pdf (420 Kb)
Possible applications and implications of the research
in this thesis are discussed for four areas of interest: design
education, design practice, design methodology and design support
systems. It is suggested that the typological approach and its implementation
in a tool like ProductWorld might help students to overcome their
reluctance towards studying existing products and integrating elements
from them into their own designs. It is further advocated that research
in design has to concentrate more of its attention to the development
of the physical product, and that the ideas brought forward in this
thesis could provide directions for this. Finally, building high
quality prototypes that are based on a thorough understanding of
the context of design is promoted as a valuable design-driven research
approach.
REFERENCES + APPENDICES
pdf (1.5 Mb)
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"Designing
with
presidents"
at Amazon.com ;-)
(Thanks to
Daniel Saakes) |