A theory of new product design
A case study of how the process lead me from trends to user needs research to new product design
1. Challenge — A theory of new product design development
The goal of this project is to develop a successful new product design. Although some successful designs are spontaneous, the most successful design is the product of a well-thought process. There are several design approaches in the new product design process such as the stage-Gate Process, Apple’s process, and Liedka’s Process.
In this project, we conducted a design case study using the Nam’s Process of Needs-Platform Synchronization, developed by Professor Ki-Yong Nam.
2. My role
This project was part of the undergraduate design course “Theory of new product design” taught by Prof. Ki-young Nam in Spring 2015 at KAIST. The project was executed by myself while being supervised by Professor Nam and his teaching assistants weekly.
3. Design tools
Trend Research, Product survey & Analysis, Opportunity mining, Probe study, Design workshop, Interview, Fly-on-the-wall, Concept generation, and idea sketches
4. Design Process
This study was conducted in 5 main phases: trend research, opportunity mining, concept theme setting, concept generation, and concept development.
Trend Research
Trend research consists of social trends, customer & market trend research, and product survey & analysis.
Social trends
Out of five social trends, the one that interests me the most is the desire to stay away from their devices.
Customer and market trend (C&M)
Then, I conducted customer and market trends research related to smartphones where I identified the desire to go back to traditional and analog medium.
Product Survey & Analysis
I conducted a product survey on related products, then rated each of them from 0 to 5 according to product value (including price, target user, differentiation and features) and design value (aesthetics, usability, nostalgia, and uniqueness). New opportunity for new product was found from positioning graphs.
By analyzing the existing products, the opportunity for new products can be found where these values are not yet fulfilled.
Opportunity mining
I realized that these two trends could lead to something. I’d like to call it a push-pull effect where smartphone overuse pushes people away from smartphone and the desire for analog sentiment pull people towards it.
So, there could be an opportunity to design for this. Thus, we defined the need-platform pairing as ‘the desire for analog sentiment’, and ‘smartphone’.
The next steps are probe study and workshop.
Probe study
The probe study is designed to sensitize users about their smartphone use and prepared them for the workshop.
Five participants participated in a 4-day probe study. Each day, they were asked to log in about what they are doing with their smartphones, complete a mission and answer follow-up questions.
Logging data and answers from follow-up questions were analyzed and insights were generated.
Workshop
The workshop was designed to identify user needs and generate solutions. Four out of five participants from probe study participated in the workshop. Cards were used to help with ideation. Participants wrote down their ideas in the scenario template provided, shared with other participants, and voted on the one they relate to.
Concept theme setting
Probe study and workshop helped to generate potential ideas. Ideas from the workshop were organized into several categories and filled inside the opportunity canvas. The colors, red, black and blue, indicate if they satisfy the requirement of the need, platform or both respectively.
From opportunity canvas, we select three strong concept themes (out of six) to develop further.
- Managing personal lives (A): People use smartphones to manage their schedules, sleeping habits, study, work, eat, rest or to kill time.
- Increasing connectivity (B): People use smartphones to stay connected with people, regardless of the distance barrier, and meeting becomes easier.
- Physical touchpoints ©: Physical elements such as printable, human voice, old-times-bell, or bubble wraps, have emotional values that are preferred than digitalized elements.
Concept Generation
For each theme, three to four core values (CV) and main functionalities (MF) were generated and idea sketches were made. The most interesting design was selected as the final design.
The new product design is a smartphone case with a built-in light switch, with four features- screen lock, speed dial, game, and notification display.
With the design mock-up, I conducted stakeholder surveys by interviewing 3 potential users on the usefulness, ease of use, fun and overall opinion. Based on their feedback, I revised the design — making bigger, fewer buttons and simpler notification. At this point, I have designed a product concept that satisfies the needs for analog sentiment and smartphone addiction’s cure. Further validation is needed to prove the concept.
5. Deliverables
- The case study was published and presented at the International Design Congress 2015, Gwangju, Korea. (see publication)
- The result of this case study was also used to improve the Nam’s Process of Need-Platform Sync.
6. Reflection
- What went well — The Nam’s process provided a well-structured design approach to new product design development, through divergent and convergent thinking based on user research. This process can be very useful for beginners to learn the design process.
- What could be improved — In my opinion, the process outcome is very interesting and it has potentials to develop into great products. However, the quality of the final selected design is not as good as expected. If I could work with another product designer during the ideation process, we could produce more interesting results.
Article written by: Punyotai (Louise) Thamjamrassri, Design Consultant at Undernamu
