Great Industrial Design

On Friday, I was able to sit in on a University of Michigan Ross School of Business seminar with Co-Leader of IDEO's Consumer Design Practice, Iaian Roberts. Iaian is originally from London, where he went on to pursue a career in industrial design. After developing the Dyson vacuum with James Dyson, Iaian caught a job with the revered IDEO design agency in Palo Alto, Callifornia. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the agency, IDEO is the innovative, product development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Poloraid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm handheld, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services. IDEO also helped create the newly established Stanford Design School. IDEO's practices and cultures have been detailed in best-selling business books.

Anyways, Iaian's presentation was very focused on the impact IDEO's design strategy has had on its clients. Iaian provided a great illustrative model as to how it conducts business. Below is a composed sense of IDEO's guiding principles:

Aesthetics ---> Empathy
Ergonomics ---> Experiences
Manufacturing ---> Connections

This diagram (if you wanna call it a diagram), illustrates in simplistic terms, how IDEO intrinsically views each of its projects. First, it's necessary for IDEO to gain full understanding of its client, not only on an operational level, but more so on a deeper, almost spiritual level. Once, IDEO seems to resonate with its client's sensibilities on an emotional level, then it is time for IDEO to proceeds with creating exhilarating experiences.

In the case of Amway, IDEO mapped out how a passenger runs through multiple progressions before actually boarding a train. Thereby, IDEO was able to design the new train cab to accommodate each of these stages so to speak. Also, when it comes to experiences, IDEO seriously believes that the customer must come first; that any new design concept must be centered on the customers need and wants.

After working with Dyson, Iaian recognized that James Dyson never really had the customer in mind while creating his vacuum. Rather, Dyson was more concerned on creating the best damn vacuum imaginable. Another instance of great experiences is IDEO's new project with the NHL to help totally revamp its image. While the project is still in progress, IDEO remains focused on the experiences to which the NHL should serve. The third and final step is the actual, physical creating of the product or service.

But in order to successfully put a product on market, it must have achieved the prior two stages. Apple Co. excelled at following this approach, given that it started from the bottom-up, instead of the tradition top-bottom approach. Once, Apple had visioned the ultimate mobile devices, it made sure that the design of the phone was uncompromisingly sleek. However, in the case of the Motorola Razr, designers spent too much time on the appearance of the phone, instead of the actual internal characteristics of the phone. Fascinating yet understandable, it's the IDEO way.
-AK