Making stuff is fun. I feel good knowing that every day I have the opportunity to improve someone's life or to make them feel better. How cool is that! I've helped start-ups with their first products. I've designed healthcare and medical products to help people heal their bodies or optimize their lives. I've designed products that keep people safe from accidents and death. I've designed products that help people protect what's valuable to them. I've designed interior spaces that make people feel good. I've designed products that help entertain people. It's amazing that I can have an impact on so many people's lives.
This is the best job in the world. I get to meet new people and learn about their lives. They share what is important to them and what they care about. I learn why they do what they do and create new and better ways to assist them.
I get to help companies express who they are and connect with their consumers in a meaningful way. A product is the physical embodiment of that brand and its values. I get to create the DNA of a product line and let it out into the world. I am the trusted guide that takes a company through the fog of the creative process and emerges out of it with a plan for a successful product. A product that is uniquely them. This line of bike locks was created to share a recognizable set of aesthetic and material attributes.
I believe that aesthetics are equal to function and usability. Research has proven that aesthetics change how people perceive things. It makes them more patient and forgiving of the product experience. This tiny bit of grace that they give a product is worth its weight in gold. That grace encourages users to persist through the learning curve to understand something new. They won't give up and decide that the product isn't good. What would that mean to you and your products?
I have products that I love. I want to make products that people love too. I love my coffee mugs, reading, my giant water bottle, my guitars, Zebra stainless steel pens, notebooks, my record player & records, my pancake spatula, my cordless vacuum even though it isn't perfect, and my Ikea chair that fits the curves of my back perfectly. (Maybe I'll make a separate article about each of these in the future)
There are also products I own that drive me crazy. I get upset at inanimate objects. Well, I verbally take it out on the objects. I'm really upset at the people who designed and manufactured them. I know the potential that the product could have had but doesn't. The worst offenders are the products that have small problems that could have been remedied if someone just used it, once. Once! Think about how low of a bar that is. The product that you're making, you didn't even use it, and you put it out on the market for people to buy, telling them how great it is. When they get home they find out all they bought was disappointment.
Don't be that company, Don't be that designer. Prototype and test your products. There is no excuse for not doing it. Your assumptions are not reality. (Getting down from soapbox...)
I believe that designs should be meaningful. All of the decisions that lead to the final design should be intentional. Attributes that guide the creation and decision-making process need to be defined upfront. They need to align with the brand, the consumer's expectations, and the desired experience. A single guiding theme or core idea also helps to give the product personally and narrow the focus of the team. The iPhone was created to be an entertainment device not a productivity device like the ubiquitous Blackberry at the time. The screen needed to be as large as possible for media, the ideal of a great feeling, tactile keypad was not appropriate. It was below entertainment in the hierarchy of attributes making the decision of a digital keyboard easier. A core idea or attribute gives the team an easy reference point for decisions. Yellowtail wine, the Nintendo Wii, and many other products that created blue oceans knew developed with a defined core idea or attribute. Are you identifying these crucial attributes early in the product development process?
People don't know what they want in the future but they know it when they see it. The ability to imagine solutions and apply them to their life is not an easy task. Flipping wishes into problem statements to solve is the best strategy. The problems people are trying to solve with their suggestions and wishes are concrete and actionable. I can design with that information.
Last but not least I want to create something unique and valuable. I don't want to design the same thing that everyone else is doing. I like to be the contrarian and find ways to make things work that on the surface shouldn't. This isn't always appropriate for every project but it's fun when it is.
I'm fascinated by the psychology of design and with the transition of AI and robots from niche to ubiquitous. How should humans and robots interact? How should robots approach humans? What should their body language be? How can they share the same environment? How do we learn from each other? This new world is being created right now. How cool is that?
On my days off I feel like I'm missing something. Creating is part of me, it's who I am. I would still be making things if I had another profession. The best thing in the world is giving someone one of my products and watching them smile when they use it.
Make products that do the same thing!
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